The main obstacle in the life of senior, Esmeralda Martinez, an adventurous student who loves to explore and be in nature, is being around new people. Martinez sees nature as a place that can help you connect to yourself, but with people around, it can take her away from the experience.

 

“She’s not shy, but she has a fear of being herself and being with people she doesn’t know,” senior, Raquel Hernandez said. “I think she is just scared she won’t have anything in common or anything to talk about.”

 

However, Martinez still loves to spend her free time exposing herself to new environments.

 

“I love meeting and opening up to new places,” Martinez said, “but I hate meeting and opening up to new people.”

 

It is not that she is scared to have people around, but the idea of opening up to a stranger is not easy for her.

 

Ever since she was a baby, Martinez and her family have traveled. She describes her parents as “modern day hippies” and says that they encourage her to be expressive and try new things.

 

“I believe I am on the same page as my fellow classmate Esmeralda,” senior, Mehak Khan said. “Although I love to go out and experience new things I can also relate to her tendency to become shy when meeting new people. Maybe with the help of experiencing new and exciting things Esmeralda and I can both overcome that fear.”

 

Although discovering nature with friends can be a pleasant experience Martinez prefers being on her own and discovering herself with no distractions.

The thirst for knowledge was never quite quenched for, junior, Chelsea Mendoza. and a poet in 8^th grade was where her passion for literature began. Not only does Mendoza want to expand her knowledge, but she wishes to use her aptitude in writing to get people to know her.

 

“I love mystery and suspense,” Mendoza said, “anything I have to read twice.”

 

To indulge her passion for mystery and suspense, Mendoza wrote her own horror story imbued with enigmas and apprehensions, one morning in the Downey High School library.

 

“Chelsea’s story is very well descriptive, and has good imagery”, her friend Beatrice Pena said.

 

Mendoza’s passion for books, although originating from Stephen King, has been provoked by other books such as the Hunger Games, the Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Me and Earl, and Mr. Mercedes. She does not like to know the ending of a story, but instead she loves the twists.

“A book is like a portable T.V., but travel size,” Mendoza said. “ I can read about stories that would otherwise be impossible in real life.”

 

Other than books leaving an impressionable mark on Mendoza, there is more to her love of reading. She is able to relate the mystery, and sometimes traumatizing events, that take place in her stories. She claims that the relationship that she shares with her mom is relatable to that of her stories.

 

“If I don’t want to listen to my mom yap all day, I can open up a book and dive into that world,” Mendoza said.

 

Mendoza wishes to use her passion for literature in a career some day. She either wants to be a writer for Teen Vogue or even a journalist for some other publication. She also considers being an author, writing the very books that she loves to read.