Reflections on Citizenship Part 3 — Revolution and Blasphemy

A picture of me in December 2011, aged 13

A memoir by Gabe Coronado

I really started to notice differences as I got into middle school and high school. Around that time is when most teenagers start to worry about social status, and so I started to realize the consequences of being different. I would never be invited to any parties or outings. I had no friends. And as I became conscious that women could be more than friends I started to realize that no girl really wanted to go out with a disabled guy. The social consequences would have been too great.

High school was even worse than middle school. I lost my faith in God, got sucked into a deep depression, and it was the worst time of my life. My social anxiety also reached its peak at this point, which only deepened my loneliness and isolation. I even stopped being a good student and got lazy. I honestly didn't think I was going to make it through high school alive. Luckily, by the end I started to realize that I needed to get my shit together if I wanted to have any chance of having a normal life.

Throughout all this, I was having to deal with being undocumented. The DACA program introduced in 2012, at least meant that my brother and I weren't going to get deported, but I still received no kind of help from the government and had to completely depend on my mother at this point because my brother was away at college. It wasn't until mid-2018 where things really started looking up for me. I received my green card in September 2017, and from them on I and all of my various coordinators and case managers were in a mad dash to fill out paperwork. 

I finally started receiving medical insurance through Medicaid in May of 2018. My mother could finally take a rest and leave my care to someone else. In addition, I no longer had to depend on charity to meet my medical needs. I still couldn't get any disability pay though, or qualify for expanded federal funding and programs. The situation had definitely gotten better, but the long road to citizenship still lay far ahead in the distance…

Check back another time for the final part!