New experiences lead to new opportunities

“I have lived in different cities, but the last one was Navojoa, Sonora,” said Kessia Lopez Molina. “It was not very big nor very small, the climate is hot and it is in the south of the state. Curiously, the opposite of the city in which I was born.”

Lopez originally flew to the United States for vacation in early June, “but the opportunity to go to school presented itself to me and I took advantage of it,” she said. She travelled here with her cousin, who already lived in the United States and ended up at Armijo in August.

This campus is a good fit for Lopez. “The classes are much simpler and they do not leave homework,” she said. She likes how big the school is and the activities that are available. “Everything is a new experience, so there are several things that I like.” Those experiences include playing on the Junior Varsity (JV) basketball team.

Lopez hopes to return to Mexico to go to college, and hopefully COVID will not have the same impact as it does currently. Going to school in the United States at this time “is a very different experience compared to Mexico, where all classes are not fully face-to- face,” she said. Students in Mexico were not going to classes when she left, “but here they do. At the beginning it was strange to have the mask on all day and other things.”

While she enjoys being in California, there are still challenges. She misses her friends, family and dogs. “It’s weird being away from them for so long,” she said. But she recognizes the positives. “I like it better here. It is very different from Mexico.”