“So I would say school is important to some extent, but don’t make it your whole life…be a little bit above average because…high school is just an awkward time.”

Brisa Martinez is a senior at Animo Ralph Bunche. She always does a lot of extra work and sports to make sure she is above average. This sometimes takes a toll on her and someone who is always there to help and support her is Coach Wright. He always makes sure she knows that he is there for her. Brisa also mentions her favorite memory, which was her fifteenth birthday when she and her family went to Disneyland for a week. Some of Brisa’s goals are to get into her dream college and to work on her book club to get more people to join. Brisa also shares wisdom to her future family who might hear this or any other person who reads this interview.

TRANSCRIPT:

Roselyn Martinez: My name is Roselyn Martinez. I am…I am 13 years old. Today is September 27th. I’m speaking with Brisa Martinez, who is my sister. I’m recording this interview in Los Angeles, California. Can you tell me about someone who had a big influence on your life? 

Brisa Martínez: Someone with a big influence in my life was Coach Wright. He is someone who has always believed and supported me and my capabilities, and I can confide in him about all my aspirations and dreams. 

RM: Okay. Would you like to tell me about some of the most important lessons that this person taught you? 

BM: He has taught me to believe in my capabilities and believe in myself. I’m someone who always doubts, like myself and what I’m capable of. So, like, when I tell him about, like, all I want to accomplish, he says, I need to believe in myself and like, I should be able to do it all if I just believe, you know. 

RM: Yes. Can you describe one of your happiest memories? 

BM: One of my happiest memories is when my mom took me to Disneyland when I was 15. She took me to Disneyland because it was like during quarantine and I couldn’t have a quinceanera. So she was like, Oh, where do you want to go? And we couldn’t even go out of state. So I was just like, Oh, let me just go to Disneyland. And we went to Disneyland for like an entire week and we stayed in like a little hotel and it was really, really fun. 

RM: Oh, that seemed like fun. It was. Did you have any favorite ride?

BM: My favorite ride was the Incredicoaster because ever since I was a little kid. I remember when I went when I was like eight years old, my dad really wanted me to get on it with him and I didn’t want to. So then he got really mad at me. So then this year, when I was 15, I went on it with my little sister and I was like, Oh my God, I finally got on it, you know? I was really proud of myself. 

RM: Oh, that’s nice. What are you proudest of? Why does it make you feel proud? 

BM: Something, I’m really proud of myself about is when I won third place for Animo Voices. I remember, like, I was going to go on a week long trip to see, like a bunch of colleges the week, then the next week. So the week before I just rushed the whole essay and I submitted it because my teacher said if we submitted an essay for Animo Voices, we would get extra credit. And I had a really bad grade in that class, so I just quickly wrote it, I submitted it, and then the next week I just went off to my trip. And then when I was at my trip, I got a message saying that I was one of the finalists that were picked to go to like the semifinals. And I was like, Oh my God, that’s like so cool because I didn’t even really like, try that hard. And then next thing I know, I won third place, like throughout the whole school, and I was like, Oh my God. And I guess I felt really proud in that moment because I felt like I didn’t put much effort into it. But still I was able to accomplish so much. So I guess I was able to, like, prove to myself that, like, I am a pretty good writer. 

RM: Are you going to try again this year? 

BM: I am, and I’m going to try more effort this year, so hopefully I might be able to get like first place. 

RM: Ooh, get that, get that. More money. How would you like to be remembered? 

BM: I remember I saw a TikTok this one time and it was like the teacher was going around asking the students, like, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And everyone was like, “I want to be an astronaut. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a doctor.” And there was this little girl who was like, “I want to be a good person.” I was like, “Damn, that’s deep.” So I’m going to copy that. Okay. I want to be remembered as like a good person, like someone who, when you look back on, you remember, “Oh my God, she was like, so nice to me.” Like, I remember I saw this, like, Twitter thread. There was like this guy who he ran into, like this guy that he met in high school and he was with his girlfriend and he was like, “Oh my God, I went to to high school with this guy. He was the only guy who didn’t bully me and was actually my friend.” And I was like, “Oh,” and and the Twitter thread, the guy was like, “Never forget that.” People always remember how you make them feel. So I was like, I want people to, like, remember me making them feel good about themselves and like, confident. I know in school I always had to, like, be really nice to everyone. Everyone says I’m really nice, but I’m probably not, so I want to be like extra nice, you know, because I feel like it’s just the bare minimum. So, you know, I want to go above and beyond, make people feel special and stuff like that. And like, I don’t know, I just want people to remember me as a good person. 

RM: That’s nice. 

BM: Thank you. 

RM: Do you have any goals in life? 

BM: Well, obviously, my goal in life right now is to get into college. Um, I’m a senior, so I’m already applying. I’m doing early action for my dream school, and I’m applying to some Cal States, and I’m also applying to some private schools and some UCs. And that’s my current goal and ask for like some semi goals I have right now at the moment is to focus on my book club that I started with my friend and also the journalism club that’s hopefully going to start next month. And I just hope that more people join, you know, because currently we’re the book club. We have about 12 students. Not a lot, I know, but for the journalism club, I hope I can like advertise it more so more students can come and we can get like at least about like 20 students, hopefully. 

RM: Good, good, good. For your great great grandchildren listening to this years now from now…now, is there any wisdom you would like to pass on to them? What would you want them to know?

BM: [Burps like a man] Sorry, I really needed to burp. [laughs] Ok Um. Any wisdom I would like to pass on to my great grandchildren? Um, I would like to say, you know, school is a lot, you know, like people always tell you you need school to succeed in life. And that’s true to some extent, because I know, like, with rich people, like after high school, they have like a lot of options. Like they can decide like to travel the world, you know, find themselves and stuff like that. And decide to go to college if they want, you know, they can take a gap year or just inherit a family business and stuff like that. And I always thought that was so unfair because I’m like, now that I’m a senior and like after high school, I have I don’t have a lot of options. I can decide to go to college and make my parents proud, take a gap year and like, my parents will hate me for the rest of my life or just like take a little job that pays like minimum wage and just end up like not making much of myself. So I would say school is important to some extent, but don’t make it your whole life. You know, like just survive enough to like, be a little bit above average because like, I feel like high school is just an awkward time. And like, you’re going through so many like, puberty, you know, you’re going to so many like, feelings and stuff. So, you know, you need time to like, sort out for yourself, like, mentally. So like, just survive a little bit above the average, like, you know, C’s and B’s. You can go to like a decent college if you want. You don’t have to. I feel like you don’t have to make it your entire life. To like pass with like A’s or with your extracurriculars. You know, do a bunch of clubs, do a bunch of service hours, do a bunch of sports. Like, I feel like that’s a lot. That’s like, really draining and I can’t really mess with you mentally. So yeah, that’s what I would say to that. 

RM: Thank you. 

BM: De nada. I’m..I’m multilingual. 

RM: No. Bilingual. [Laughs]. 

BM: I said multilingual. [Laughs]