Personal Narrative: My Interview With Monica Vallejo

Lani: I was helping for someone’s project for COMM 245; I was in the video lab, in the studio. I was on campus and decided to contact everyone I knew who comes to the school. I remember I sent out a snap saying guys I think there is a shooting, be careful and then I started sending out individual texts to people making sure they were okay, like hey are you good? Stay out of an area. I didn’t know how many people were getting shot. I just knew it’s not good and that we have to be careful. At first, the campus was like we are unsure, just be careful, and then it took some time till I finally got an email that said stay on campus and were held there for about two hours, I just kept recording.

At the beginning of my sophomore year, August 2015, I fractured my left ankle. My second season of cross country had just begun. The whole team had a Saturday practice at Atlanta Memorial Park. We came to this park for a time trial. Not being able to run was going to be a challenge for me. I loved running, and seeing myself not run was going to be hard for me.

I don’t recall having a hard time learning how to read. It was one of those things that just came easily to me for some reason. For the most part I enjoyed reading as well. The only time I didn’t enjoy reading was when I didn’t understand a certain word or a certain phrase. One of the strongest memories I have from learning to read was when I was unable to pronounce the word “the”.

The PUENTE Community College Program is an academic, counseling and mentoring program that provides support for students in building the skills necessary for success in both academics and career goals while attending community college. Students enrolled in the PUENTE program work closely with their Counselor, Instructors and Mentor to prepare them to transfer to four-year colleges and universities.

Actually, this was a very successful year with my students. As I mentioned before, I was a mentor to Amy Fitzanko. This was not the first time I mentored a new teacher, but this year was different. Amy was to co-teach with the special education teacher for most of the day and it was not going well. It was difficult advising her on how to handle the situation. The previous year, I only worked with this teacher four periods a week, as she had both 6th and 7th grade students. Her schedule did not allow her to be with the special education students in my room, since I had the aide to work with them in my classes. Mr. Allison, I know you are aware of the situation and without going into detail, this made my job as mentor to Amy very difficult.

It was the last inning in our all-star game, and we were losing 10 to 8. Our team had 2 outs and we couldn’t get the third. Our pitcher was doing bad, throwing all balls, while all of us in the field were tired, ready to fall asleep at any moment. There goes another walk. They score again. Great! I was thinking. At this point in the game I thought for sure that I would die right there in center field. However, baseball is baseball and things can change rather rapidly.

Counting down the list from number 20 to eventual number 1, my heart raced as they called out the names. It was 8th grade and the rankings were out. This may seem like a rather pretentious achievement but when they called out the name “Andrea Campos” as the valedictorian of Copiague middle school. My heart skipped a beat and tears streamed down my face. Hearing my parents brag about me to their friends made me feel like my accomplishment was their achievement as well. The immense joy I received from them was priceless and therefore it is my proudest

another 12 hours on the nose to have this long awaited baby. The family started

“After she graduated high school, she went to a college at Middlebury College in Vermont. Maria loved Middlebury. She had wonderful teachers and they taught her that to be a good writer she had to be a good reader. In between her junior and senior year she attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Vermont.”( Padian) This conference was a

Out of seven billion people in the world. 333.1 million in the USA, 5.52 million in Minnesota, and 938 people in Watkins, Minnesota only one person could have changed my life like my grandma did. Monica Stanger was born on May 5th, 1943 third child of 15 kids. At this time in her life she had no clue what she would have grown up to be. She became a caring loving woman who influences everything I have and will every do. On December 5th, 2011 a woman who loved me so much passed away, leaving me with a mountain to climb of depression and a event that would change everything that I knew and loved.

I wish I could see Victoria Hernandez again. She was a very sweet, smart, loyal friend and funny. We went to school together in 7 and 8 grades in Curtis Middle School. She was very short when I first met her I thought to myself, I am finally taller than someone. Victoria and I were always together, especially in P.E. we used to always laugh and make jokes. Victoria and I use to call each other “BUBBLES” I don't know how we came up with that but that was our nickname. After we left Curtis Middle School we both went to different high schools she went to San Gorgonio High School and I went to Indian Spring High School. I hope I get to see her again.

While i have so many things i’m passionate about the thing that comes to me the most is my city. Los Angeles has been so good to me in the concept of sports. As a young kid growing up in South Central, all i would think about was what LA team was being broadcasted live. This was around 2005 so you could imagine what was around at the time. Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans, The very poor performing Dodgers, La Galaxy shining with Landon Donovan and Coby Jones. Finally, Phil Jackson and the Lakers without Shaq. Sports have always caught my attention. I guess you can say i got my competitive spirit from my dad. My Father grew up in a small town in known as Acaponeta , Nayarit. He was

I, Monica Baltazar was born, on February 16th, 1978 in Irapuato, Guanajuato Mexico. I came to the United States to have better opportunities and to improve my living conditions. I worked in a restaurant and that’s where, I meet Cesar Gonzalez. We were young and naive which resulted in my pregnancy. I moved in with him because, I wanted my children to have a paternal figure in his life. I felt verbally assaulted after six months of living with Cesar. He would insult me by calling me, “ bitch”, “stupid”, and “your stupid”. Cesar would verbally insult me whenever he wanted. He would get agitated for anything. I could not question him back. For example, there were many instances in where he would insult me in public. His sister had come to visit

Sarah Johnson's life is a fulfilled, roller coaster of success. The things she accomplishes every day are hard to imagine for most people. Question is, what does she do? Is she an athlete? A caterer of some sort? Guess again.

I was raised with Christian values in mind, and attended a Methodist school. I was raised in the Christian faith yet I find myself, as with some of my friends who were raised in the same conditions, we seem to be growing farther away from our upbringing as we age. I find myself simply not understanding as time goes by, a complete polar opposite from the song ‘Farther Along’. One of my hopes in attending PBA is to try and find answers and a reason to try and reconnect myself. I believe PBA, from what I’ve read, has a very friendly understanding environment. One where you sit down and go into depths about faith, instead of blindly following it because it was your parent’s