[music playing] You’re listening to WVUM, Coral Gables, right here in Miami. Go on down. You are — [speaking Spanish on radio] [birds chirping] I grew up in a small town in Western Massachusetts. It’s a pretty safe place. My parents let us ride our bikes to school. And we met up with our friends. And we went trick-or-treating. And it seems almost picture book — you know, fairy tale. And I didn’t know anything else. So that was the way the world worked. [music playing] And I wanted to get away from the world that I knew to try and understand what other kind of lives I could live. So I became a competitive snowboarder. And I got to travel around the country and compete. And then I started tearing my knees. Later, I started learning Spanish in Miami. And at the end of the day, I kind of ended up hanging out with a bunch of Colombians. That’s how my Colombian story began. A friend of mine invited me to Medellin. And I had always wanted to go there. So next thing I know, I’m on this plane. I’m flying into Medellin. And all I can remember thinking is, “What am I doing here?” And then that night, I met Andres. I came back to Miami. And I had my life here. And he had his life there. But we started Skyping. I taught him how. And then we talked every day. He really didn’t speak English. It was like communicating with your eyes, you know? And with Skype, you have the video. And you could just stare at each other. And it was nice. It was just love. Sometimes you can’t explain why you love someone. You just do. And we just did. And so I went back to Colombia. And then one day, we were lying in bed, and we were talking about how it could work living so far apart. And he looked down at me. And he asked me to marry him. Like, in two weeks, we planned it. All of his friends pretty much got together. And we had a wedding at our friend’s farm. I didn’t invite my family. I didn’t invite my friends. But in the moment, it was like, “Let’s do it!” The idea was that we were going to get married. And then. in, what, a year’s time, when the visa went through, we would do another wedding in Miami. But it didn’t work out like that. And then after the visa was denied, the waiver was denied. I never imagined that government policy would define my love life or my marriage. I found out how hard it was to migrate. I couldn’t get work. And I was embarrassed that I couldn’t come up with the rent because it was nothing compared to what I was used to but couldn’t do it. I realized that I had been in a bubble. [horn honks] In my world, most people don’t even know I’m married. And so I have these split lives. And at first, it was kind of fun. But over time, it just wears me out. And my fear is that after all of this effort and all this fight, I just don’t know if we’re going to make it. [music playing] [film rolling] You know, sometimes I wonder if it was really worth it or if I would do it different a second time around. It wasn’t a perfect marriage. But I wouldn’t change that it happened. I don’t have any of the answers here. I can’t tell you if we wasted our time or if this made us into who we’re going to be. I don’t even know if it would have worked out between us if Andres had been able to come to the U.S. But I can tell you I wish we’d gotten the chance to try. [film rolling] [film stops]