“Something that is very important to me is probably family just because my mom always said that family will always stick around.”

For Andrea being an only child was difficult because her parents had high expectations and wanted her to become a better person.

Even though it was hard she kept on trying and never gave up which at the end all of her hard work paid off.

Since there wasn’t any electronics before she would have fun outdoors with her cousin.

Her sister being born impacted her life because she was an only child for a very long time.

Her goal was to travel around the world and she traveled to Paris and London in the past year.

Family is very important to her because they will always stick together no matter what.

One of her favorite memories was when her and her mom would always go to the store and rent out movies.

Transcript:

Estrella Rosas: What was it like to grow up for you?

Andrea Velez: It was umm an overall happy childhood growing up umm being a single child for a very long time was very fun umm but it was also very hard because being a first daughter to immigrant parents was challenging because they umm had a lot of expectations for me umm because coming to America for them was to have so many opportunities to grow and for them I had to do always do better in school and to be better so I could be better. 

E.R: Did you like your childhood?

A.V: Umm I did like my childhood umm back in the day there was umm no electronics cool electronics like iPads or umm iPhones so we mostly had to think at or like use our imagination umm most of my time was spent doing outdoor activities going to summer school and also umm going to lots of parks so that’s all I remember just playing at the park with my friends umm also going on summer trip to umm to Washington with my cousin and I mostly remember it as like mostly nature [laughs] and having fun outdoors. 

E.R: What was something that impacted you?

A.V: Umm something that impacted me would probably be when my sister was born I was a single child for a very long time and I never really had anyone close aside from my cousin to play with so umm knowing she was going to be born was very exciting umm I had something to look forward to have someone to play with or someone to ahh look after umm and yeah she was a very [pause} cool sibling to grow up with. [Laughs} 

E.R: What is something you’ve always wanted to do?

A.V: Uhh something I’ve always wanted to do ever since I was young was to travel around the world it is something I’ve always wanted to do and like immerse myself into different cultures and taking in the cities and the people and the food and the culture umm so yeah. 

E.R: Have you achieved it?

A.V: Uhh I think I have a not so much umm I did travel last year to Paris by myself which was very scary but very exciting at the same time ahh I was able to go to Paris in December and I was in the city most of my time I was able to see all the museums and also was able to taste a little bit of their pastries and take lots of pictures umm [laughing] I also went on umm my getting to know people it is something I’ve always wanted to own the world [long pause] I also went on my second trip was to London and that was recently this year and I was uhh able to take tours uhh get to know umm the history of London and umm I was able to actually meet people that were traveling that were from here and I was able to make friends and it was uhh also very cool experience. 

E.R: What’s something that’s important to you?

A.V: Ahh something that is very important to me is probably family umm just uhh my mom always said that family will always stick around and that’s always uhh something that stuck with me umm just because uhh whenever you feel like you need someone umm your parents are always going to be around and they will always have your back and always take care of you even when you’re older and I always live by that.

E.R: What are you proudest of?

A.V: Uhh the thing that I most proudest of is probably finishing school after high school I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but I did like do arts and that was something I’ve wanted to pursue and umm it was challenging for me because umm being the first daughter to go to college uhh it was challenging for my mom umm because she didn’t really know how to go about it and we didn’t really have enough resources or any knowledge of how to go to how to put me in a school that I wanted to go umm but I was able to go to Santa Monica College uhh it was supposed to because it was very affordable but also because they had really good classes [pause] taking courses in Santa Monica I was able to kind of know what I wanted to do and I uhh started to umm take classes for fashion merchandising and uhh I like going there because umm they have really good programs a really good mentors and I was able to go into a latino club for first-generation students and they were very helpful and they were able to guide me into how I was going to be able to transfer to get a bachelor’s degree umm and I was very very helpful and I was umm able to transfer to Pomona and actually obtained my bachelor’s degree.

E.R: Why does it make you feel proud?

A.V: Umm it makes me feel proud because I was able to uhh make my mom proud especially because she always imputed in me that I had to finish school and like be someone better umm so I feel like I owe that to her and I was able to to make her proud uhh and I was also able to make myself proud of knowing that I all this hard work that I did was able to pay off with studying really hard so I feel like I accomplished something major in my life that is going to help me in the long run and has helped me umm just so I know that uhh my parents know that I have a better a better chances of having a better life umm knowing that I have a degree and I’m able to have a better job as well umm so yeah.

E.R: Can you describe one of your happiest memories.

A.V: Umm one of my fav- happiest memories umm I can think of is umm probably when I was a child I mostly spent time with my mother and we would always uhh do chores during the weekend and that was our whole day just doing chores and but the good thing was that towards the end of the day umm we would go to the movie store and rent out back in the day was vhs and then it became DVDs but we would always rent out like any movie that we wanted to see and uhh then we would order pizza or any of her favorite foods and we would go to the living room and that’s where we spend most of our nights just watching movies and eating until we got tired and yeah.