Sharing a home now, a campus later?

Angel Lopez is a 17-year old senior on his way out of high school, but his sister Lilian, at 14, is barely half-way through her first year.

Over the years, Angel has been Lilian’s big brother. Every time she has walked on to a new campus, he has been there ahead of her, from elementary school through high school.

“We got each other’s back with classes,” said Angel.

While he has been paving the way for his sister for years, the two are planning to go their separate ways when it comes to college. She intends to make her way through school and become a therapist while her brother is looking at a career as a soldier.

COVID-19 has had an impact on both of their high school experience and, if the pandemic keeps distance learning mandatory throughout the school year, the siblings might not actually have a chance to share the physical campus, and that impacts both of them. Angel said that he actually misses being on campus. He wanted to experience it with his sister, but he will be graduating in June and she will have to find her own way around.

While there is a lot of good to sharing the campus and showing his sister around, there are also some potential negatives. “We are probably going to intentionally bother each other,” said Angel.

They don’t necessarily bother each other at home because they share a lot of interests. One of the things they do for fun is play videogames with or against each other and they are both interested in soccer, although neither of them play.

Sharing their learning space at home is their 10-year old brother, Isaiah, or “Zay Zay.” All three of them annoy each other, but that’s okay because they know it is all part of growing up in the Lopez family.