visas and passports

Two students showed up out of the blue to my English class on Friday.

They were looking for help, but what I heard in their words was that they were looking for a magic worker.

"Can you help us improve our English in two weeks?"

They had failed their American visa interviews and were going to try again in 14 days.

Deep sigh.

Try as I might, I am not the English-teaching fairy with a pocket full of sparkly fluency dust.

although surely my students wish that sometimes.

Try as I might, I am still leaving in a week and don't have time to coach them through their painfully memorized interview questions and answers.

although surely I wish I could help them.

Try as I might, I can't change the fact that I'm dreading leaving a country where many would jump at the chance to travel to America.

although surely I am grateful for the things to come.

Carrying the "right" passport leaves me questioning a lot of things about nationalities, borders and freedom of movement.

The reality is what it is- I was born in America and hence have undeservingly been given opportunities and options that others never receive. And I've been given them simply because of where I happen to have been born.

But grappling with this reality in the midst of conversations about leaving and going?

It gives a whole new understanding to what it is to be able to leave and go when I want to and to recognize that as a privilege, not a universal right.

There are some things that are inescapable. Farewells and the privileges of citizenship are just two of them.