Despite struggles, Vargas holds high hopes for future

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Photo Reprinted With Permission From Alondra Vargas

Freshman Alondra Vargas spends time in Puerto Rico. Vargas is proud of her heritage and loves that she is able to speak two languages.

Esperanza Lopez, Staff Reporter

“Do we ever truly know who we are?” freshman Alondra Vargas said.
Vargas always felt out of place, but she always thought that with the right people in her life she could improve herself. Something she wants to accomplish is to become a forensic scientist. At times she feels as though time just never lets her take a breath.
“I’m always asking myself if I can actually succeed, ” Vargas said.
When she wakes up in the morning, Vargas tends to always have school on her mind, often wondering if she can actually accomplish her goals and make her father proud, as his death pushed Vargas to be better for herself and for her future.
“He told me that ‘No matter what you do, where you go, or what you will accomplish I will be right there,’” Vargas said.
Something that keeps Vargas up at night is her inner thoughts. Something they always tell her,
“I never got to say the words I truly wanted to say when my father passed, knowing that with a ‘Thank you’ or ‘I love you,’ those words may never be spoken about,” Vargas said.
Vargas always has her walls up, never really knowing who to let in or let out. She sometimes feels mistaken for problematic and too energetic.
“[I don’t like when people ask if I’m doing alright,] I don’t want their pity. If I could scream to the world what really goes on behind closed doors, they would know,” Vargas said.
Vargas is the oldest of three siblings, two brothers and one sister. Her brothers and sister always tell her that she is their role model.
“I just want them to be happy and be able to be whatever they want to be and let no one change them,” Vargas said.
She would try to push for them and that she would always be there for them, no matter what life or her path takes her.
“I see myself 10 years from now studying… to become a forensic scientist,” Vargas said.
Vargas also plans on moving to New York because she feels as if people would know her as the person she really wishes people knew, not the person who she is mistaken for.
“There are times where I wish people would see me for me and not for my mistakes,” Vargas said.
Vargas said that she feels as though everyone’s eyes are on her, but that it’s something she would never want to be taken away.
“I love being Puerto Rican. I love how life takes me on this ride because I can speak two languages,” Vargas said.
Vargas has been faced with many obstacles, and believes that your inner self can sometimes be scary but she always knows how to deal with it, although depression can sometimes bring out the worst in you.
“I cope by hearing music and writing lyrics to help me think and escape that dark scary space,” Vargas said.
Vargas wishes that people would be able to know her, and not the ones others mold her to be.
“Honestly, I don’t know, but maybe if they would not always believe in what others say [about me] just then that right there is how I want to be seen, not mistaken by,” Vargas said.