Amayrani Botello

Being a teenager who comes home after school to do homework and have dinner with the family and whose only stress is what to wear the next day sounds nice, and it’s what I imagined my life would be like when I was little. I struggled from a very young age with heart complications, facing countless medical appointments, daily medications, and a scar from three major operations. I was born and went to elementary school in Boulder. But when my dad was deported, we had to go to Mexico, and I finished elementary and middle school there. As I grew, I realized my family’s difficult conditions and the truth that we suffered from money problems. In spite of that, my family has taught me to value education, and I am interested in continuing to study because I would like to help children who could be in the same situation as me.

My brother and I had to separate from my family by coming to the U.S. alone at the age of 16 to seek better opportunities in the country where we were born. Returning to Boulder, I was excited but at the same time worried. I was happy to enter a new school and to meet new people, but we had nowhere to live until a relative rented us a room. I work after school to pay the rent and buy food. I don’t have a car, so I use the bus every day or I have to walk. Walking home from work in the snow at night is cold and miserable and leaves little time for homework I have had to mature in such a short time. I’m still in the process of being a good student, daughter and sister at the same time. It’s not the teenage life I imagined, but I’m proud of myself and how far I have come not only by moving to another country but also by what I have done, like getting a job, learning English, and meeting new people despite being a shy person. I am motivated to continue studying so that I can make all my hard work and time away from my family worthwhile. I now understand that you have to sacrifice somethings for others, especially trust in yourself.