For senior Indhira Sanchez Vasquez, her unique name is the only unusual name in her family. Her parents gave her the name the moment her mother gave birth. “My dad tells me that he had not planned any name for me and when the time came for my mother to give birth to me, the doctors had given him names for him to choose for me but he did not like any name from that list. Then, while he was in the room where my mother was, he watched a novella in which there was a beautiful woman named Indhira,” Sanchez said. “Her character was a nurse… my father loved the name and, without thinking twice, he decided to name me Indhira.

“I’ve traveled up and down and I’ve never found someone named like me,” she said. “When I meet new people and they ask me for my name, they always say that my name is beautiful and unique.”

While her name is unique, Sanchez prefers that people use a shortened version – Indy – or simply call her by her last name.

Sanchez is the third member of her family to attend Armijo. “My older sister Elena graduated in 2019 and my brother Rigoberto graduated in 2020 during the pandemic,” she said.

COVID-19 impacted her brother, especially during his senior year, but it also totally changed Sanchez, who started doing things she’d never done before. “COVID made me realize that studying is very important and has taught me to be independent… and to focus on myself and my future,” she said. Her horizons have grown as has her interests and she is currently an active member of Lettuce Grow, the garden club that is led by Ms. Sylvia Herrera.

And as she is looking at her last semester on campus, she felt a little nostalgic. “I just want to say thank you, Armijo, for being the best high school in all these four years. I am very grateful to be able to attend this school because I got to meet great teachers and kind people who became my best friends, brothers and cousins that I consider my family.

“I really enjoyed the four years at this school. I had a lot of fun and experienced a lot of things. Thank You Armijo Royals!”