What childhood rules did you break?

Not many. I was always a rule follower I think. Although now that I remember I was always a
very spacey kid, I would daydream a lot and my teachers would get mad at me for it. I
remember once my mom was called in by my principal in the 6th grade because my teacher did
not like me staring at the windows instead of being engaged in class. Although my academic
performance never wavered, it seemed to bother my teachers how easily distracted I was, which
is honestly understandable but at least I was never in any trouble.

What makes you happy?

My friends and family. I've always said that I am not a people person but a type of person which
might not mean anything to anyone else beside myself but it makes sense to me so I keep
saying it. What I mean is that I love being surrounded by the people I love and a big part of my
identity are my friends and family. I've never been the most outspoken or extroverted person but
I am friendly and the people who I end up developing close relationships with stay in my life for
a long time and I make sure of it because I value friendship. I've been told my love language is
quality time because I always make sure to spend time with those who are important to me. And
this is true I didn't realize it until this summer when it became hard to see all of my friends from
school as I was back home, but somehow I managed.

What was your favorite subject in school (elementary/middle school/high school)?

My favorite subject is school, which has changed a lot over the years. When I was in elementary
school I really loved english, I loved making up stories. I remember spending the whole year in
first grade making a book with my friends where we drew and made the whole story by scratch.
It took us the whole but we felt very accomplished when we finished it. Throughout middle
school this changed and art became the class I wanted to attend the most. I loved the feeling of
paint, chalk, charcoal on my fingers and it was relaxing when all of my classes demanded my
full attention, with art I could get lost in my own thoughts. Then when I started high school I
began to love photography, mainly because I had a great teacher who taught us we could
capture stories in our photos. Storytelling has always been exciting to me and to be able to do
so much with one picture, signified the beginning of something I would love forever. I still take
pictures everywhere I go, I still draw when I have time and I still write and tell my stories to
whoever wants to hear and see them.

Free write

Again I do not know what to write about… I have my first intake psychiatric evaluation just
before I came to class. It ended exactly 3 minutes ago and I am not sure how I feel about it. It is
not my first evaluation and I doubt it will be my last and something about that scares me. I know
that I do it to be better, do better not only emotionally but physically, sometimes its just hard to
grasp the extent of help I need to function like a “normal” person. I am tired today and I barely
slept anything because I stayed at the library until 5am trying to figure out my statistics
homework and catching up on homework that never seems to end. I am trying my best and I
think that is what matters but sometimes I wonder how much longer I can go like this. And I do
not mean this in a harmful way, I just don't know how so many people can manage school, work,
social life and on top of that do everything they love to do. I can barely manage school and work
sometimes and it’s what plagues my mind most days. I don't have time to think of anything else
and I honestly don't really want to. It seems like more work which I do not want. I just want to
find happiness and I am not sure how to.

Why do you share photos on social media? If you don’t share photos, why not?

What songs or music have mattered to you?

If I could listen to one song for the rest of my life it would be black star by radiohead. Anything
by radiohead if I am being honest or the cover of the man who sold the world by nirvana. I
discovered this song when I was in highschool. “Discovered” I sound pretentious but it is the first
time I listened to it and I fell into a trance. I have never been a big lyric memorizer and I can
hardly remember the lyrics to the songs I claim to love the most. Auditory processing is not my
strongest forte. But black Star has such a sentimental and rich sound I can’t help being lost in
the sound everytime I hear it. When I feel sad it brings me some sort of comfort, when I am
happy it can make me even happier. It doesn't matter that the composition is melancholic but
the memories I have with it and the nights of studying that it has gotten me through just means
so much to me. I feel the same way about a man who sold the world. Although i love the original
david bowie, kurt cobain adds his own sound to it and something about the mix makes it so
memorable. Music in general has had a tremendous impact in my life, I am an avid music
enjoyer.

What purpose does writing serve in your life?

If I am being honest I am not sure. There was a time in my life where all I wanted was to
become a writer. Then I realized maybe it was not for me but writing has always been a great
part of my life. It has helped me understand myself more than anything. Sometimes I will talk to
myself through writing, trying to navigate my thoughts, opinions, ideas. It is a tool I have learned
to use when I feel stressed, emotional, when I need to be heard. Writing allows me to feel heard
even if I am writing to an empty audience. I keep diaries, or journal entries and although I don't
write everyday, I use them consistently, even my notes app when I don't have access to my
journals, helps me develop a greater sense of self. I am not one to speak much outloud, it is
very hard actually but I can talk with writing, I have a voice, a loud and bold one. Writing has
changed the perceptions I have not only of myself but of others, it makes me more
compassionate towards myself and has allowed me to gain this compassion for others along the
way. Because at the end of the day you never know what someone is going through.
Where would you like to travel?
I have thought of many different places since my grandma has spent the last few years traveling
a lot and Italy is always one I come back to, specifically Venice. I love water and canals and I
have a vivid memory of when I was younger where I saw a picture of my grandmother on a
canoe in Venice wearing whit pants and a light green sleeveless shirt. Ever since I have always
wanted to travel there but aside from that there are many places I would like to see. I have only
ever traveled throughout the American continent and even then it has only been places that I
call home such as The US, Mexico and Honduras which is where all my family lives. In the
future I would like to leave and explore more. Maybe Asia, Europe, anywhere really as long as I
get to leave. Recently I have liked the idea of visiting Thailand or Cambodia. I have a few
friends and they have only gone a couple of times but oh man the pictures they have shown me
are just beautiful. I love nature and water and both of these are beautiful examples.

What is your favorite costume you've gotten to wear?

I don't typically celebrate or dress up for Halloween. But this year my costume was Ron Slater
from dazed and confused. I just wore a gray shirt with some dark green jeans and converse with
a newsboy cap backwards and went around saying “you good, man?”. I had the idea after
thinking of easy costumes I could do and going through a list of all of my favorite movies(75
movies to be precise). I ran into this movie not because it was in my favorites although now it is
but because I started to look into other lists I had made and this movie was in my favorite
soundtracks list. They play Pink Floyd and I even have the cd for the movie. Almost no one
knew who I was but there was the occasional “OMG I KNOW WHO” and it was a great
conversation starter. People who recognize the costume are a very specific brand of people and
they were pretty funny so I’d say it was a great costume for the right audience.

What’s something that you love? How did you get started doing this?

I am not sure what to write about. There are many things I love doing such as writing, reading
and listening to music for hours on end. Sometimes I will go through whole discographies of
artists who I love just for fun, or spend hours going through books of authors that I like. I am the
type of person to go all in or not. Maybe it started when I was younger and all I could do was go
through my dad’s collection of cd’s. My family was never very technological, my mom had a flip
phone even when everyone started using more modern phones. I didn’t have a T.V for a couple
of years so all I could do was be inside a book for hours. I remember going to the library and
renting a million books with my mom and then reading them all before we said we would go
again. I am very bad with lyrics but I can recognize a tone a mile away. Something about how
my brian processes words is not the same with melodies. Melodies just call to me while lyrics
just don’t. I am very obsessive about the things I love and I will do these over and over again
until I get tired of it and move forward until I want to do it again.

What are your earliest memories of music?

My earliest memory of music is heavy metal or rock. I don’t exactly remember specifics but my
brother was into a lot of metal and rock music growing up and I would always hear him play it
around the house or very loudly through his headphones. I used to hate it but now a lot of the
music he used to listen to is music I like. Still not a fan of heavy metal but I will listen to some
metallica in the right circumstances. When I think of the music I grew up with, I find it just a little
bit hilarious. My mom would play sad ballads in Spanish and my dad would play Spanish rock
and very 50s, 60s music while my uncles played corridos in Spanish and my aunts listened to
old school rap and r&b. It makes sense why I love every genre of music so much, why I have so
much admiration for all the music I grew up hearing and why my own discographies are so
varied.

What has been your most memorable thanksgiving? Or another holiday?

One of the first christmas I remember was when I was about 4-5 years old. A few days before
Christmas we went to Toys R Us and we were looking around with my mom and dad. I
remember really liking bratz dolls and finding this beautiful Jazmin doll with a sparkly blue dress.
I really wanted it but my mom said no at that moment. I didn't think much of this and we just
went home. A few days ago I was playing hide and seek at home with one of my neighborhood
friends. It was my turn to hide and so I went inside my brother's room. I opened his closet and
there it was… the bratz with sparkly blue dress.

What leads you to participate in class discussion or not?

I find it hard to participate because overall I’m a pretty shy person and I suffer from a lot of
anxiety. There have been times where I have just broken down in the middle of class due to
panic attacks and I am always scared that it will happen again. I have managed to do better
over the years but some days it’s harder than others. I always want to participate in class, I feel
like there is always something that I can contribute to a discussion but my anxiety always gets
the worse out of me. I find it easier to participate and engage in writing or smaller groups, it
takes away the pressure of being the only person talking as opposed to standing in the middle
of a room presenting or giving a response. I want to be able to participate freely and am working
towards that goal everyday but this last quarter has been anxiety inducing for a variety of
reasons and it has prevented me from showing any progress in my participation skills.

What famous person / celebrity would you like to meet?

I have two celebrities I would really like to meet at least once in my life. The first is Solange
Knowles, she is a singer and one of my favorites for the matter. Her work is very surrealist and I
overall just really admire her as a musician, anthropologist and artist. The second one would be
Thom Yorke, who I might be able to see in December!!! He is performing in LA with his current
band called the smile and my friends and I have tickets to go on the 21st. I am very excited, I
have been a radiohead fan for a very long time and although I will not get to see him perform
with radiohead I am a fan regardless of his artistic works. A few years ago he created this very
interesting film with netflix which was really good in my opinion. I thought the message of
environmental justice was really inspiring and I think how celebrities use their platforms is very
important. The ways in which both Solange and Thom Yorke have used their platforms to talk
about important issues is inspiring and a big reason why I admire them not only as artists but as
people.

What famous person /

celebrity would you like to
meet?