“The past had to happen for me to finally be happy”

In this story Marilyn Garcia is talking about how she dealt with work, relationships, and overcoming fake friends.She later on learned to love herself and get a better lifestyle.

She overcame these problems by focusing on herself more and having to distance herself from certain things and certain people.

She also talked about how she solved these problems and how it helped her.

She also wants to become a nurse since she got inspired by them and wants to help others in return.

TRANSCRIPT:

Isabella Paez Garcia: Hi, my name is Isabella Paez Garcia. I am in Mr. Finer’s investigations classroom and today I am going to be interviewing my aunt. What is your name?

Marilyn Garcia: My name is Marilyn Garcia.

IP: And how old are you?

MG: I’m 22 years old.

IP: When is your birthday?

MG: My birthday is June 17, 2000.

IP: Do you work or go to school?

MG: So I…I..I do both, so uh I am in school I got to Cal state LA and I’ve been going to Cal state LA for four years now and I am expected to graduate next year or next year in May, umm, with my bachelors of science degree in nursing.

IP: Congratulations.

MG: Thank you, and in terms of work I recently quit my old job as a medical assistant. I was working there for about eight months umm but I quit because I was starting to become unhappy, umm, and like stressed because we were really short staffed and…it…it just got really overwhelming and I was working way more than I should’ve and yea I was just… I was just  becoming unhappy and so now am actually on the…am doing the on boarding process. So like…like paperwork and stuff for a new job as a student nurse worker for LAC USC Medical Center. It’s a hospital in the East LA area near Cal State LA actually.

IP: Why did you want to become a student…nurse?

MG: Well I wanna be a nurse because umm so since high school, I was always interested in like a health care job umm but then at first I thought I wanted to be a doctor but then like it just it really wasn’t I don’t know it just didn’t interest me anymore umm and I knew that there was more jobs out there. So umm, a year before I graduated high school I, umm, was volunteering at or a month actually a month before I started college, I was volunteering at uhh Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. Umm, I volunteered to see like you know what else is out there and umm after volunteering there for a few months I realized nursing is what I wanted to do because I spent a lot of time with them and umm I got to see a lot of like the cool the pressures umm, and you know they would tell me about their jobs and many of them are happy with their jobs  and I don’t know, even as a volunteer, like I saw myself as a nurse and I became more curious and interested in the job so ever since then I was pursuing nursing.

IP: What inspires you for the things you do?

MG: Umm, my parents. I feel like I want to repay their sacrifices, you know. I have immigrant parents. They came from Mexico and they always worked hard to provide for me and my siblings and umm I just want, yea, like I said I want to repay their sacrifices and buy…buy them a house and support them financially and retire them. And then also I think that my community umm inspires me because I want to be a positive role model and show others that anything is possible.

IP: What makes you happy?

MG: I love to spend time with my family and my friends. Umm, Korean BBQ makes me happy. Uhh animals like pets, umm, exercising and making others laugh makes me really happy.

[-Time skip] 

IP: Have you ever gotten heartbroken before?

MG: [Scoffs] Oh yes I’ve got heartbroken I think like three times in high school and [sighs] I’m grateful for the experience because I know I learned something and one of the things I learned was that looks aren’t everything. Umm what matters is what’s on the inside. And then another lesson I learned was that just because someone is older than you doesn’t mean that they’re mature, and then another lesson that I learned was that umm like I…like I deserve respect and like I learned how to stand up for myself and say no.

IP: If they were here right now, what would you say to them?

MG: Well, I mean first off I don’t…I don’t hate them umm I just I wish them the very best I hope they are…they are changed people and that umm I mean I felt like they were in my life for a reason when like you know their like staying in my past you know.The only mm yea I wouldn’t like be friends with them but umm I mean they can always reach out to me if they need something umm but right now I…I feel like all that bad stuff in the past had to happen for me to finally be happy with someone that likes respects me and like makes me happy and makes me laugh most importantly so…so yeah I guess that was just how am like hope you’re doing well and you’re happy.

IP: What was it like when you grew up? What was your childhood like?

MG: Oh my childhood, I am so grateful for it because nowadays I see all these little kids on tablets and the phones and TikTok and I feel like if that’s what their entertainment is, you know, just like staring at a screen, umm you know. When I was a child I didn’t have a phone. I didn’t have a tablet and so my entertainment was, umm, you know, playing outside and, umm sorry, playing outside and, umm, I guess being really creative when I was bored I had to find something to entertain me. Like I had my dolls and sometimes I had family come over. I would always try to spend time with like my nieces and stuff, umm and I mean sometimes it was kinda boring because like my parents were…were so strict, then they were already older too so they didn’t like going out that much, but whenever, there was a chance to go out with like my sister I would go out with her. Yea it was a good childhood.

IP: If you ever told your younger self something what would’ve you said?

MG: If I told my…my what?

IP: Your younger self something.

MG: My younger self, umm well, I feel like I’ll talk about my lessons, I feel like if I were to go back in time or I would tell my younger self not to, to just focus on me and like not focus on other people’s lives. Umm I would, let’s see umm let’s see. To not care about what other people think about you and to always be…be kind, be respectful, umm and I would tell myself not to focus much on boys and umm, what else about myself, umm that I am beautiful and that I should just be grateful for all the things that I had.

IP: What was it like when you grew up? Have you-omg…What was your personal profound spiritual moment of your life?

MG: A profound spiritual moment? So growing up-so I am Catholic and when I was little my parents they would always take my to church and I sometimes wouldn’t wanna go and then like I was a teenager we kinda stopped going because my parents got busy with work or my dad got busy with work and my mom was just she spent a lot of time at home doing her thing and so we kinda stopped going. Umm but then like recently like I had a like a life crisis and I felt like I turned to religion and it really kinda helped me “heal” mentally and like now, going to church every Sunday is like the moment where I can be at peace and I’m happy and umm yea I feel like, just you know, God gives me strength everyday and I feel like he is watching me. Yea I feel like…I feel like I…I live happier now knowing that I have, uhh, like religion there to guide me.

IP: What are your BEST memories and WORST memories?

MG: My best memories, mmmm lemme see, oh when I was a kid I used to enjoy the holidays with the family because we would all get together and we would like, uhh, it was always like a Christmas party like during Christmas and New Years, we would always get together and everyone would bring food, umm, we would like play music and stay up all night …everybody was just so happy …so that was a good memory, spending time with the family during holidays and what else. And uhh other memories umm [Inaudible] I can’t think of anymore. I don’t know why. Umm bad memories, um mm, I don’t like to think about bad memories but I think maybe, umm, I was really unhappy in one relationship. Umm there was this guy who-I don’t know if I should talk about that but he was just mean to me and he wouldn’t make me feel happy and I felt like I was like, like I was kinda sad. Like uhh you know maybe that’s a bad memory. But lemme think of another one, umm, bad memories I can’t think uhh, bad memories bad memories, umm uhh, Oh umm I guess losing my, my “best friends” in high school. I think that was a bad memory because we were…with one of them I was best friends for four years and the other one I was friends with her for seven years and little things just kinda got in the way and I guess because of those experiences like I told you before like I don’t really have best friends because I have like that…like that I don’t know it’s traumatic for me I guess that was a bad memory I guess “friendship breakup” umm so yeah.

IP: So like you can’t trust anyone and consider them your friend, or best friend?

MG: W…Well now I am more careful on who I call my “friends” because I feel like…I have trust issues and sometimes people can do things behind your back or they can talk about you, they can talk negative about you. And or they can be bad influences too and then sometimes they don’t listen like when you give them advice you know when you care about them, you’re there for them and then they just don’t listen to you and stuff and it gets really annoying so.

IP: Does it ever get annoying when they don’t listen to you, and you just have to sit there and listen to them?

MG: Oh yea I had this one…my best friend, ex-best friend in high school. She had a lot of BOY problems and I would always tell her, “you know this guy is not good for you, you know maybe you should s..stop focusing so much on boys and kinda just focus on you right now” because she was like very insecure and she was always like “Oh I don’t like this about me” this and this and this and like you can’t love someone else when you don’t love yourself so she never really understood that and that was always frustrating because she was ALWAYS talking about the same problem so that got annoying.

IP: What are your dreams for me?

MG: My dreams for you is for you to, first of all be happy. Second of all umm I hope that you go to college because I feel like college really gives you a lot of opportunities and you know I hope you find something that you want to do, umm, and school helps you get there. Umm my dream is that, uhh, you know you surround yourself with good people as well, umm, and that you make it in life and you don’t struggle financially and you know you become a positive roll model to your siblings, umm and yea.

IP: My last question is what would you like to be remembered by?

MG: I think I would like to be remembered as a very determined and motivated person and just someone who worked really hard and never gave up. Umm and uh yea, those things that I was just very determined and I never gave up on the things that I want to do no matter how hard they get and yea.

IP: Thank you for your time.

MG: You’re welcome.