Biographic Information: English Female 18yrs
Themes: Biographical information, family and childhood, education/schooling (middle school – college), extracurriculars (swimming, etc.)
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Transcript:
0:00
Interviewer: Okay, we’ll start with where are you from? Where did you grow up?
00:04
Participant: So, I was born here in Las Cruces NM, grew- grew up, was raised, all of that, yeah here. Southwest. New Mexico. Southern New Mexico. Cruces, in that area. Yeah.
00:16
Do, you like it here?
00:17
I do like it. I, I love it. I, I mean this will always be home. I, I love New Mexico with all my heart. Um, the weather I could do without so I think I might end up, up north um, but yeah, I love Southern New Mexico. It’s been and we have just such a cool growing community especially here in Cruces, um and I’m really lucky to have parents that, and friends, that enjoy being involved in the community. My dad was an educator, so he was connected with those resources. My mom worked in like medical business so, there were people that she knew and that we went to school with, or you know we formed those little communities. Um, and of course as we got older and more interested in like civic issues my sister and I just we started locally we started wondering what that looks like locally. Um, so yeah, I don’t know I think Las Cruces it’s it’s I don’t know. Like I said New Mexico’s I love it with all my heart. Um, the people are so friendly I love it so much we have ju- I don’t know we’re just such a cool melting culture, melting pot of cultures like Chicano or Indigenous cultures, and anyone e-, anyone else who comes in so I don’t know I think that’s really special. I think we have, in New Mexico something special um, and so does and subsequently so does Las Cruces yeah, I don’t know, I love it. It was a good place to grow up and for sure and go to school.
01:27
I agree. I think it’s very quaint. It’s not too big, not too small [mhm], it’s lovley here. But I, I do love the weather. I’m not good in cold places. [really?] Oh I love the sun.
01:38
I don’t blame you. It’s just uhh, it’s a little much especially in the summers. Yeah, I prefer Santa Fe, or I don’t know I’m not built for Albuquerque but I do like Albuquerque weather but (1.6) Albuquerque’s scary so I think I might end up in like Santa Fe or Taos even. Somewhere up north where it’s cold yeah, I don’t know.
01:55
Nice. Alright so tell me about your family. You talked briefly about your parents. What is, what is your relationship in your family?
02:01
So, oh god, it it’s a little, it’s definitely complicated um, but I do have like my full nuclear family. It’s, uh my dad who, uh he prior to becoming a teacher an elementary school teacher um he was an archaeologist, so he came here for southwest archaeology. Um, I think he wanted to I think he was on on track to complete his masters with that and then he, I don’t know he like withdrew through like program shifting and he was just like this is not making me happy so he became an educator. Um, I think he started out with middle school SPED work, moved on to elementary, uh went to middle school for a couple of years, retired, got bored of it, went back as it like a EA or a permanent sub so, he’s just he’s been around he I, he uh he I don’t know, he seems like he can’t get away from teaching and can’t get away from interacting with kids and that’s always something I’ve admired about him and other than that he’s just, or outside of his profession he’s um, he’s just a funny guy. I like he umm he’s just odd. He’s he’s he’s quiet he, (1.0) he has, yeah, he’s just so particular about certain things that are distinctly him. Um, but growing up he would always, I don’t know, I was always interested in the outdoors so he wa- he was the one that I’d go camping with or I’d be in 4H with. Um so, he was definitely very involved um and I really appreciated that. I love my dad. He’s great and he, having that background in archaeology and anthropology and then going into going into- hello- going into teaching um I don’t know I think it, it just gave him such a cool perspective on life that I think still, I mean obviously as an anthropologist student it’s stuck, it, some part of it, stuck with me. Um and then my mom it’s, (2) uhh yeah, she, she’s my mom for sure. Sure. That’s, that’s kind of about it. Like I said she works in the medical business, and she’s been doing that I think since like straight out of high school. Um, or, yeah I think s-, more or less, straight out of high school. Right now she’s working at Three Crosses with Dr. Latori prior to that she was with a private orthopedic company um here in town and that was okay. She was working a lot growing up so I didn’t feel particularly close to her um and that is something that’s carried on until today. Um, I will say about, in my household the gender roles were flipped. So typically it’s, you know, the dad is the provider and the breadwinner and not too connected to the kids, whereas the mom is the inverse. It completely flipped. My dad was the one who was more involved, and she was one who was working and, or I mean they’re both working, but, um, her profession was a bit more lucrative than, at that time, than teaching so that was interesting to see and I think that that wasn’t something I realized was interesting until I got a bit older and realized that wasn’t the status quo. Um but I think my sister and I greatly benefited from seeing that model and seeing how different families can look, um, or and what that looks like and I do have just one older sister. Her, um, we’re about five and a half, six years apart, depending on the time of year.
[5:00]
Um, she, her name’s Tatiana, she- maybe shouldn’t say names.
05:04
I’ll, I’ll blur them out. Don’t worry. [Yeah. No worries.]
05:06
Um, she, her and I are polar opposites. Umm seemingly according to my parents are, she’s very extroverted she’s very confrontational (1.4) I’m not really. I wouldn’t identify with those terms. Um, but as we’ve got-oh my goodness- um
05:24
Is it a mosquito or a fly?
05:26
Yea it’s a mosquito. He’s alright, he’s not bothering me. He’s just getting very close. She did not- I went to Honorary Club, she did not. She was involved in, like a normal high school experience. She was a partier. She went to UNM actually for political science and chicano and chicano studies and then she graduated- ohh my goodness- she graduated in 2021. Um, I think she had plans to go to grad school and I think she still might go to grad school but (1.2) that just got stunted and I think she was just going through some stuff as well. Uh and with the pandemic so right now she’s working part time for my mom while, I think, studying for the LSATS I’m not really sure. I don’t talk to her or mom too too much especially now that I’m living on campus and don’t need to um but yeah that was my nuclear family. We have begged and begged for a dog so if you want to include her, her name’s Stacy. Um, oh, let’s see. Stacy she’s been with us for thirteen years, I think. Yeah, thirteen or fourteen years so she’s an old miniature poodle she’s basically a rat she’s basically a hamster. Um, but we love her to death. And outside of my nuclear family both the sides are very big um so my dad ha- is one, he’s number four out of eight siblings so everyone has kids everyone’s big and unfortunately as I’ve gotten older it’s become a bit more stratified and uh divided um but growing up you know on his side I would always look forward to the Christmases um over on his side just because it was super fun and I was the baby of the family on that side as well. Uh, so beyond just my nuclear family. On my mom’s side it was also very big but she’s just one of three and she was the only one for- actually no, my uncle, one of her brothers has two ch- kids but they live in Virginia. Um,
07:24
You got it!
Yay!
I, I feel bad but, you can’t do that. Um.
No, he’s being, he’s being annoying.
I’ll throw him away in a second.
07:34
Um, so they weren’t, they like I said, they lived in Virginia, or they still do. Um so we didn’t really have much, too much contact. So, me, my sister and I were the only grandkids um, so we got very very close with my mom’s parents. I’m particularly closer to my grandpa and my sister’s pretty closer to my grandma. It’s kind of a running joke that- it, it’s not really a joke um but they’re the joke is that like I’m my grandpa’s favorite she’s my grandma’s favorite they they deny it but it it’s so clear and we’re both, we’re both fine with that because like whatever but yeah we have this I’m I’m so lucky, I, I my grandfather on my dad’s side passed away last year but prior to that I had grown up my entire life with both my grandparents which again I didn’t realize that was so special and um not as common until I got a bit older so that’s something I definitely appreciated. Um, let’s see what else. (1.3) About my family. On my dad’s side education was always very important his parents um they are both from Chihuahua in Mexico they’re they’re right outside of the city but it’s a small village called Villaldama or Villa Aldama a sportin- farming town from what I understand so they’re both from there and they, my, I think my grandmother had to drop out of school I think around like the fourth grade and my grandpa I think around sixth maybe seventh. Um, so they very early on had to- gained an understanding of how they were disadvantaged through not receiving an education. So, when the immigrated to the states and as their kids got older, they really emphasize the importance of education um for everyone so five out of the eight kids ended up, you know, as college graduates. My dad and I think two of his sisters have been masters. Um and that was something that was passed down onto us and, uh, my grandfather even into his ninety’s he would always like pull us aside and try to slip us cash for some textbooks or he would always pull us aside and like try to, um, just offer whatever resources ‘cause he understood how hard it was um, so that was also uh-, and of course my dad’s a teacher so we, we had to we, it wasn’t an option to not like school it was not an option to not value it um because we had to understand how important it was and we understood that from an educators side as well while being students so on that side education was very very much um emphasized which I’m, I think forever grateful for. I think that’s something that I’ve carried with me until this day. [10:00] Um, and then my mom said let’s see. I, I wouldn’t say that there’s any particular like particularly strong themes um, but that family I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from that side of the family is just how I think addiction and family cycles like really affect you and I think um again as the baby on that side as well you you see all of it once it’s done rather than living through most of it. So most of it I learned through stories most of it learned through just getting older and asking questions and then being like ohh I was told this and what do you mean you guys didn’t tell me and it was because I was too young to know or things like that um. So yeah I think that’s the best thing I learned is like how all that impacts you. Um, yeah can have an impact on you and your family um, but also like what the healing process looks like I I’m very, I’m so proud of my relatives especially the ones that I’m a bit closer to that have overcome those things because all of them have um- or actually there’s a couple who haven’t or who didn’t ultimately but just seeing that entire process of like healing and addiction and mental health and what that looks like for different people like seeing that was extremely valuable because it, there was still some stigma from older people in the family but, you know, those conversations we, they were, they had to happen because people were not doing good so it had to be at the forefront and it had to be a focus it had to be something that we acknowledged and talked about as a family and so yeah that’s what they’re like. I don’t know. I’m not, I’m closer with my dad um but I’m not particularly close with my mom or my sister just due to like, religious differences and personality differences. Um, I’ve never really been close to my mom and I think- and growing up there, there were definitely- or early on and growing up there were riffs with my parents so as much as they like were my parents, I’ve, I, I do have to give an insane amount of credit to like swim coaches and teachers who I think in hindsight they saw what was going on before I did so they um, you know, very well, they made sure I was eating, they made sure I was sleeping they would always ask about things. Um, and again I think it’s because they, they saw what I was experiencing or what signs that I was showing about just things going on. Um, that I per-, didn’t recognize at age six, age eight things like that. So, I have to give a huge, huge kudos to them because they they were the ones who stepped in really and made sure that I was okay. Like I said swim coaches and teachers particularly um but yeah that was that. Yeah, I think that’s kind of about it with my family. I don’t know if you have any questions about that. I mean I know there’s a lot of like, “how do they interact with friends?” and all that but I think that’s a, the jist of it, I guess.
12:47
Nice well, thank you for sharing all that.
Mhm.
Um. I, I do have a few, few questions sort of based on what we’ve talked about now. We’ll start with, with hopefully what leads to kind of an anecdote here, um your dog. Tell me about how you adopted your dog or when, when she came into the family.
13:07
So, it was like, I was in kindergarten my sister- if I was in kindergarten she must’ve- ohh my goodness she must have been like fifth grade, sixth grade. We have been begging my parents for animals. We loved them. I knew my dad liked them but the argument was, we’re both working you two are little who’s, going to take care of this and yeah and it, it just details like that but finally they said you know we, I think my godmother who’s my dad’s younger sister close to time and age um she saw like an ad in the newspaper I think for her and she was just barely a puppy she-, I think Stacy was born that March and then that December we got her so she was still a baby um not in dog years but still to us she was a baby, and she was so small. Uh, again miniature poodle so we went over and just looked at her I think I was little, so I don’t remember too much of like the details or the transactional details at least. Um, but I remember going over to her house and we- or to their owner’s house, and we just played with her for maybe like 20 minutes and then just shi-, oo, we were on the way home we just, she was just in the car with us so I’m assuming they- and my mom now jokes that like, she was maybe like seventy bucks. Maybe. Maybe fifty bucks. Um, somewhere in that range which is like she was cheap and you, and it tells, you can, you can see it. And like, she-, um, yeah, so we’ve grown up with her since. She’s, um we think that she was abused by her previous family or the like family prior to the foster family that we got her from um because she, she’s just odd. She, and not, and not odd but she um, she’s very, she’s always been very skittish of people. Uh, particularly women. Like older women. Um, she is not the cuddly type. Like she will not go up to you and ask for pets. [15:00] She won’t sit with you. She will stay as far away from you as possible. Um, and she, but she’s very smart for a dog like she’s always just picked up on like visual cues and tricks and anything we train her um to do it, it happened very fast so, yeah. She was just, you can tell that she’s just alert which was funny to see in another organism like it’s just so funny. So, I remember growing up, I was like how do you-, okay like I, I, I don’t think growing up I understood that like she doesn’t think in the way that we do but still it, she was so convincing that and how aware she was and alert and how quickly she learned. So that was really interesting. Um, but as she and as she’s gotten older, she’s just gotten a bit more timid. She sleeps a lot I mean she’s-, and especially now, she’s an old lady um. Yeah. She she’s gotten a bit like feistier like she, she’ll bark at anything. She will bite people like, who like spook her because it-, so she can’t really see too well. Um we, I think we’ve had, yeah we’ve had like surgery for her and she’s just old, like she, she just can’t see too well. Um, so people who come in like from her side view like she’ll like turn in like nip she won’t like- I said she bites people but I, I think that’s a little inaccurate. Um, yeah. She’ll like nap and she’ll just she’ll get spooked easily now that she’s older and her senses aren’t what they used to be. Um. Yeah, I, I don’t know I love her death I, I don’t particularly love little dogs or medium sized dogs I guess but she’s, she’s funny and she’s been arou-, she’s been around like basically the majority of my life um, so I know she’s funny she stayed, her name’s Stacy. I call her the rat because she she’s just skinny and she’s gray and she’s old and she her face is long like she just looks like a rat and (2.0) yeah is she, I don’t know, she has like warts too now that she’s older. Apparently, that’s happens with poodles, I don’t know that. It freaked me out. Um, yeah so, we’re uh, we’re just trying to make these last couple years as comfortable for her as possible. Um, I don’t know we’ve always lived there she, (1.0) so I in particular in the past couple of- the past year I have a rift with her. I have beef with the dog. But it’s because she has beef with my turtle who- so that turtle I love to death. Um, I found uh, oddly enough, I found him the day of my grandfather’s funeral so, like, already tumultuous start. [aww] Um, it was crazy but she-, he, he, lived in our backyard um she would pee on him every single day. So we had to give him little turtle baths because she hated him like he- she would hit his shell she’d pee on him and we didn’t realize all this was going on until we like saw it so we have to like go out with her put her-, like her on a leash like, you’re not going to abuse my turtle like you can’t do that. Um, but yeah she she does not like him and even now- so in the winter yeah in the winter, yeah, in the winter we had him in like a little turtle terrarium in-, or not terr-, yeah it was a terrarium um in my room and she would, whenever she would come in, rarely come into my room or pass by she would bark at it, or like “yip” at it or just stare at him. I-, it’s above her she’s maybe a foot tall she can’t see you but so-, I guess she like she hates him so much that she smells him. Like she, she, I don’t know why she hates that turtle so much. I love him but that’s yeah that’s my beef with her is that she pees on my turtle but yeah that’s that’s more or less about her she’s she’s just funny. Yeah.
18:36
How sweet. I, uh, I have a Beagle.
Really?
And for a little while I had a little turtle too that I just found in the desert, and she barked at him day and night for like maybe three days until we all just collectively decided it’s not gonna work.
Yeah.
She’s been barking for days on end. She’s gonna wear herself out. We’re all annoyed. [yeah] so we had to get rid of my turtle [ohh]. Reina. Her name was Reina. [Awww] It’s so sad.
Yeah. I don’t blame you.
Turtles are, turtles are sweet. I love turtles. [They’re funny].
They’re funny dudes.
All right. So you’ve mentioned how important education is in your family and and you’re here at the university and I can tell you’re passionate about studying so um, do you have any stories about favorite class?
19:19
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah. Um, I don’t know. Growing up my favorite class- it was my second-grade homeroom. Um, my teacher was Mrs. Parasa and her son and I were actually like best friends growing up. So we would always hang around after school and play computer games on, in the computer lab that we like stole our parents teacher ID’s and got into and it, it was just fun so I already had that relationship with her and then when I got to her class she was one of the teachers who in hindsight I think what she was just so kind I always remember her being so kind and just so particularly caring towards me um and at the time I appreciated it I didn’t really understand what was going on, [20:00] but in hindsight I’m like “Oh my God” she just was making sure that I was like eating she was making sure that I was okay like um she was just caring for me in a way that like a mom would. Um, and whenever I was like after school or after hours she would always, she, uh, sh-, I remember her like brushing my hair or like things like that like just, just being the kindest person ever so I think that made being in her class um, very easy and second grade I think that’s when I- not that I was unconscious or anything like that beforehand but I think I have some pretty distinct memories and I think that’s maybe when I became a bit more aware of just the world around me [mhm] um, so I think I, I think back to second grade I’m like oh right I was like forming my social groups I was, except, I found out what subjects that I re- I like um so that was my fa- one of my favorites and then let’s see in middle school I, so I went to Sierra um and here they have two magnet programs I think one is FAB Film and Broadcast and the other one is a science magnet so I was in the science magnet. Um, so any of those classes I think would be my fa- runner ups- or yeah, not runner ups but those would be my front runners. Um sixth grade that was I think it was combined geology and (1.7) astronomy I think and then I, I forget what they named it but we covered essentially those topics which was super cool and I think that was my first time like, you know, learning what science was and learning the processes behind that and at such a young age I think that was just super cool we talked about dinosaurs and stars and just everything that I liked. As a twelfth gra- or twelve grade, as a twelve year old um and then also in that sixth grade class I met my two very best friends to this day so, that, it’ll always hold a special place. Um, and then see let’s see seventh grade that was uh, I think it was called life science but it was a bunch of different biologies. That was very fun we had pets in the classroom. I have an intense fear or hatred I don’t know of mice and rats. Well, they had, we had, mice and rats in that room so I particularly asked to be sat next to like the Guinea pigs like the snakes because I hated them nice and rest but other than that the class was fun. Um we talked about plants, and I think that’s where my love of biology started. Um, so, I, yeah and that’s a whole other thing but I, I figured out that I like studying life and I like studying the world around me. Um, eighth grade that was astronomy and physics I want to say. (3.11) Yeah it was largely astronomy and physics and chemistry um I thought I didn’t like chemistry I thought I didn’t like physics due to that class so it wasn’t, I don’t, I liked the subjects but the teacher was a little intense for eigth grade like relax we’re we’re not grad students in a lab like relax but um I appreciated being um exposed to those subjects and ultimately that’s what developed my love of science so that in high school um like I said I went to an early college Arrowhead so I chose to do an associate of science so I I geared all my classes towards biology. Um, I was dead set on biology and medicine for like, I wann- sixteen years i’m wanna say. Um, and that was the stint of it so I I did a lot of biology. In highschool I don’t know what my favorite classes were. Oh, that’s a lie. I told you. Um, so, let’s see I took um chem one chem two and O chem with Dr. Latori and she’s a DACC instructor and I- prior to that I thought I hated chemistry I thought I wasn’t good at it. I was like this is- people other people couldn’t look at these tiny little particles. I don’t really feel like. Um, they’re not living I’m good but I walk into the first day, I think of chem one and Dr. Latori she is this like drop dead gorgeous incredibly loud the thickest Italian acc- the, th- th-, the thickest like New York and Italian accent you’ve ever heard and she’s everywhere all at once like she’s bouncing off the walls, she’s, she’s on this white board she’s erasing this other one like she was just (1.15) like uh, such an enigma you that you can’t and her teaching style was right up um with my style of learning it was it was notes and it was i-, it was a certain way that she presented that I just understood. In a way that I was like “what do you mean I understand chemistry?” Alright. Cool. Um, so she really made me fall in love with that class and then it subsequently I fell in love with chemistry. Um, we’re just, I don’t know. I, I still to this day I’m like, “I should have majored in chemistry”. I should, I, I’d love to be a chemistry teacher. Um, but yeah in high school it would be those chemistry classes specifically with Dr. Latori. Um, I think a couple of my biology ones I liked I don’t know I like all of them I thought I loved it, I didn’t. [25:00] So, I would like all of them. I like the plants, I like the forestry stuff. Um, which is what eventually I’m going into as well but yeah. And then I, I took a couple anthropology classes. I um there came a point I think junior year where (2.4) I, I just had a sudden click that like I didn’t love medicine anymore, you know for sixteen years and, I was- so at Arrowhead i was enrolled in the medical academy like I was just so dead set on being a doctor. Um, and I think it was because that was the only way that I, the only way that I could see myself being in a stable position, stable financial position in a- that would also combine science and humanities. I was wrong you can do that anywhere you go. And I think that took learning more about what science is- actually is and learning that people are so diverse and complicated that you can do so much more than just psychology and medicine. Which I think I knew in the back of my mind like you just know that off of common sense, but I didn’t realize that as a career path. So that shift really impacted a lot so there I was with a million biology classes under my belt a million biology credits about to- a year away from graduating with an associate of science in specifically in Biological Sciences and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it. Um, I, I loved chemistry a lot so alright I’ll stick with the associate of science, but I found myself at a point where I was like, this is- I don’t I don’t love this anymore. I felt really burnt out with it and then I just- I realized that all the media in terms of books and all the conversations and all the topics that I was keeping up with, all of them have to do with anthropology. All of them had to do with current events. All they had to do with people so (2.2) and I think when I was- when I had that realization I also thought back to my dad. Um, who I spent again, so much time with growing up, had such an influence on me and I thought back to wait I’ve always been like this. I’ve always-, my bookshelves have always been lined with Native American folklore, they’ve always been- I’ve always been interested in cultures, I’ve always had these uh artifacts replicas. This is, this, this has always been something I’m interested in so I, I just decided to take a couple online- or act- yeah, online anthropology classes and I felt- I ver-, I immediately knew that I, I loved it. So ever since then I’ve been trying to figure out a way to like, combine my love of the sciences and anthropology. So far that’s gotten me to environmental anthropology, which is I, I, I, love it it’s super cool. Um, so I think that’s probably what I’ll stick with. I tend to stick with, I tend to choose something and stick with it for sixteen years so, hopefully that will be the same if not longer. Um, but yeah those were my favorite classes like throughout the different stages. Yeah. Pretty much it. I don’t know. Now, it- right now I like uh, I don’t know, that cul-, the cultural anthropology class, that one’s really fun. I, I like it I think it has a lot to do with Holly as well. Like she’s just an amazing instructor. Um, (2.3) so (1.4) I don’t know and I, I, from doing the interviews from, describing like all the field no- all the Anthro-in-Action assignments that really- she made us do. I realized that I, I really like it. I like people a lot, uh, which really is something you know when you go into anthropology but in the way that she cultivated us interacting with people in particular I found out that I really liked- and luckily environmental anthropology it’s sort of an intersection between cultural and archaeological. So, it taking that class is confirmation like “Okay I can do this. I, I can do it well. I can reform my skill at it, and I can and I, I like it. I love it.”. Um, if anything- so right now I think Cultural anthropology is my favorite. Um, I don’t know. I’m also taking an online range science class it’s called Forestry and Society. That’s been very fun I’ve been able to apply a lot of and that’s also where I’ve been able to apply a lot of like my scientific knowledge and biological and ecological knowledge into that class and also again applying it to society it’s been very fun to look at that from an anthropological lens. So, I think right now it’s just like those two classes that I like a lot but yeah those are those have been my favorite classes throughout, throughout education. My education at least.
29:17
Wonderful! You make going to school sound so fun.
Thanks.
Which really it is. I, I, I think I study so many different fields for the same reason. I find everything so interesting [right] and I enjoy my time here.
Yeah. People pe- people are great.
Yes. So, straying away a little bit from the academic. You mentioned swim coaches. Is swimming something you still do [um] or just growing up?
29:38
Competitively no. I don’t, I don’t still swim in that regard. Um, but I did from the ages of (3.3) let’s see, I must’ve been like eight or nine when I started swimming competitively and then I think I got out of it when I was fourteen, fifteen. So it was a good- it was a pretty long stint um throughout middle school and most of high school. Or sorry early high school. Um. [30:00] I know him. Let’s see, um, but actually I’ve been swimming in the literal sense I’ve been doing that since I was ab- six months old. My parents like threw us in swim lessons. No literally they like threw us in swim lessons um. And apparently that was terrifying for them, so I guess that was, I don’t know, I, I was six months old. I don’t remember but I do remember as I got little bit older, maybe around four years old, five years old, I remember what it was like going to the swimming lessons. Um, because at the time we lived in the North Valley so closer to like Picacho Peak area um and our swim instructor lived in Sonoma, I think. So we had to go every every Saturday morning at like eight o’clock we had to be like on the highway and I remember it being such a long drive for, for, for a four year old or five year old. Um, but I mean I learned to swim. That’s an awesome life skill. I apparently again, apparently, I’ve been doing it since I was six months old. Um, and I’ve always, I’ve always liked it, or I, I always liked it, I knew that um. And then when it came to getting into comp- getting into competitive swimming, I think at one point I think my parents just, yeah in elementary school, my parents just said like you need to do something other than academics and then when I tried arguing, when I tried and failed arguing that school clubs counted they’ve said no. So they they said you know you have to choose like a sport at least umm. And prior to that I tried soccer, and I tried T-ball and soft pitch or machine pitch. What else did I try? I, I think it was just soccer and Baseball that I tried and did for a few years, but I didn’t really love them. I immediately fell in love with swimming. Um I was part of a local team called L CAT. I think it’s Las Cruces Aquatics Team. Creative. Um, but I and I was there for the rest of elementary, the majority- or all of middle school and then a bit into high school and I’m still in contact even now with people that I met there um. It was just such a cool community we all bonded over like wanting to swim and I think it taught me a lot about just group dynamics and it taught me a lot about what it meant to have a community. Um, like I mentioned before my swim coaches um were incredibly, incredibly, they were just incredible they’re they’re incredibly impactful but they were incredible in their own regard. Um, my first coach, coach Mark he was very kind from what I remember, I don’t know I was, I was young. He was very kind but I was, remember him he, he, I remember he told my mom that I was like such a hard worker and that he was so proud and my mom had like no reaction but I still remember his face when he was talking about it and that was the moment I was like “oh that’s what it looks like to be proud of a child” and that’s what it looks like to be, just loved and, and appreciated. There’s a hair in the face. Yeah, and appreciated in that space and that was really cool to see just from an adult figure, um. Yeah, that was coach Mark. And then after him it was coach Rachel and uh she was cool. She was always very direct and intense so I had to learn very quickly how to converse with her and then I couldn’t just be timid and do my own thing like I had to be a team player. Um, yeah and she was I think she was the coach that made me realize that I did have something to offer in the field of- in, in swimming um, which ultimately I didn’t do but she I think she helped foster that confidence um in me that I can apply now to academics where I have an understanding of “I can hold my own. I can compete and I- this is my own skill, and I can do it”. Um, she instilled that in me pretty early on and like I said you had learned to talk to her i- it was just scary but, I appreciated that she was a female. Um, yeah, she was just really kind, in general. She was cool and then after her it was coach James and he was the one that I was, I, closest with um. he was with us for about, I wanna say four years, four, five years. He left to right around eighth grade I want to say. Oh, so it must’ve been around four years yeah right around eighth grade. He was just, he was the most interesting guy I think I, I had known at the time. He was from California. He was ex-army. He was just so different than I was but we actually bonded over a similar-ish music taste and then I think the same thing happened with him where he was like “ohh” I, I think, I don’t know I was I was a very quiet kid I was very or at the time I was very shy I was very quiet and I- so in hindsight and even talking to these people now it was so clear like the signs of like just depression and like loneliness like it- those signs were so clear. [35:00] So, I think he was also one of those people along or- he was one of those coaches who recognize those signs and realized something was wrong, so he deliberately made an effort to converse with me and make sure, again make sure that I was doing okay. Which I appreciated them, but I appreciate a different way now so, he will always have a special place in my heart for that. You know he was like a father figure by any means, but he was an adult male who cared about me and showed that um in a time where like I jus- that nee- I needed to see that at some point. Um, and then after him was coach Dan and coach Rick um, they similarly also showed I, I, in hindsight, i think they recognized all signs and they confronted me about those signs as well yeah, do- you know “why are you quiet?” “why are you in- very tired?” “Why are you, um hesitant to go home?”. Just things like that. They they they spotted and they talked to me about it which I wasn’t used to and it was pretty uncomfortable at the time frankly but I think from that and very quickly I think I realized that like oh this is just how you protect kids and this is what you should do in a in a position that you are in charge of people. So that was really cool to see and it taught me I think how to talk about those issues as well and whether it was how I interacted with other people who may be dealing with similar things or how to talk with them from the pe- from the point of view of getting asked so it made me- it, I had to communicate so I had to- so, I might as well do it well. Um, and they were, they were really cool. I remember a particular time where, I, I didn’t know. I was doing homework or, or something like that. And I was like apo-, I don’t know, I think I, I felt that I had messed up on something, so I was like apologizing- ohh I remember! I was doing homework and I would always sit on the bleachers and just do homework for like hours before practice um and I think I, I was caught up doing homework and I think they, they, coach Rick just kind of like left, I don’t know both Coach Rick and Coach Dan they kind of just like left me alone so eventually like I was doing my little algebra, I was like taking notes I think I, I had an exam the next day. I really shouldn’t have been at swim practice but I, I wanted to be um for the community and just for the camaraderie umm. So I look up from all my notes and I’m realizing that people are halfway through warm up like I was I was late and I was sitting like maybe five meters away so I quickly got up and I think they noticed that I was like “Oh my God I missed it.” but they were entirely calm so I remember like apologizing profusely like “I’m so sorry. Like I should have been paying attention. Like I was just doing this. I’m really sorry. I have this exam” and- excuse me- I think, I think it was Dan that said like you have enough pressure on you as it is you do not need to come here and feel and feel bad um with us. So just hop in whenever you want. Compete in next week’s meet if you want or don’t. It’s not, it’s up to you. That- you’re you’re here to, a- he, he knew and understood that I was not there to get better at swimming at that point. I, I had, I had known that I wasn’t going to do it in college like I think he, he understood that I was there as an escape and as like for the community so that’s where my love of it really was, it was in the community and then I just, I love swimming. It’s just awesome you, it’s a, it was a team but it’s individual so I think as someone who like I, I can be a little bit more timid especially when I was younger um it was good balance. It was like “okay” I can come up and I can get encouragement, or I can ask some questions and then you know underwater you can’t talk to anyone, so it was good balance of like letting me be quiet and then letting- and then forcing me to talk a little bit. Um, so that, that was all good. But yeah, the communities the community was really what made it so special. Um, and of course I had my friends in their overtime and that was interesting. I had to learn very quickly how to be friends with someone who like you don’t go to school with cause I mean, I was young, prior to that you’re only friends are at school but now I have to figure out what friendship was and how to cultivate that at an early age which was fun if you again, again, if you don’t go to the same schools or if you have maybe five minutes total the entire practice to talk to each other because you’re underwater. So, yeah, that taught me a lot about like how to socialize um and just how to treat people and how I wanted to be treated I think that’s how that’s ultimately what swimming taught me. Um, so I think during the pandemic that’s when I quit. It was just, I was just getting super stressed out with like school and i- it just it was not really worth it anymore. Um, and yeah, it, it became just more pressure than than it was relieving so I, and I knew I didn’t need to do it at that point so I just I just stopped. Um, yeah but I, I still swim for exercise. [40:00] Yeah, to this day I still swim for exercise it’s so awesome. It’s, it’s funny, like a lot of it is still muscle memory even if- yeah so, freshman year that was over four years ago some of it still muscle memory or like some of the feelings that I have and like “Oh wait, I forgot what this felt like” or you know you recognize and you just you and that’s also something I didn’t mentioned like with swimming you you are so aware of your body. When it’s, you know we’re used to being vertical. We’re used to maybe sitting but we’re still upright maybe laying down we’re not but fo- you know for two hours a day you’re an entirely different plane gravity works differently on your body like you’re you just become so aware of how your body interacts with water so you have to be in such control and aware of your body and that was, that’s so cool that, that’s like one of the coolest things I you can like feel and describe I think. But yeah, that’s, that was swimming. Yeah. Ohh! Cool.
40:56
Perfect. Yeah, I think that’s a great note to end on. I think that’s wonderful.
Thanks.
Thank you.
41:03
New Mexico Border Spanish Corpus 