Reyah Cheek: Siblings Span Time

By KARLIE ESPINONZA

Being born and raised in one place and not having to move from place to place is very lucky. I was born in Hawaii but I have been moving around my entire life. I lived in California, Texas, and back here on Oahu. I have had to make new friends every time we have moved and I had to adjust to my new homes and schools. I have made many friends throughout all the times we have moved. I still keep in touch with them because I travel a lot for softball so I can visit them when we travel. I am very thankful for every single place we have lived because it gave me a chance to experience what it was like to live in the mainland and on the islands.

Unlike me, Reyah Cheek was raised in one place and didn’t have to adjust to different homes and schools. Reyah lives in Kaneohe, Oahu with her mom, dad, and her younger sister. She goes to Saint Francis and she plans on going to Damien next school year. Reyah has a very big age gap between her and her siblings. Her oldest sibling is 29 going on 30 and her youngest sibling is about 3 months. Reyah says that the age difference is not as bad and doesn’t really affect her because her older siblings don’t live with her. She says she misses her siblings all of the time and she wishes they can hang out more but she knows that they are doing big things. Her oldest brother is in the National Guard and is currently in Afganistan. Reyah says that she is very proud of him. One time Reyah had to adjust to something was when she moved from the Intermediate team to the Varsity softball team. She says that it was a big change for her because she had to adjust to playing with younger girls as young as the age of 12 to seniors at the age of 17. She says that it was very diverse, having to move from the Intermediate to the Varsity softball team.

“This past softball season I had to play up with the varsity softball team after the intermediate season ended. It was a very big difference because I had to get used to the age difference and the speed of how fast varsity games went. The pitching was faster and all the girls were bigger. But I got lucky and I was able to play with some good girls and they made me very comfortable. I traveled to Maui with them and it was (expletive) fun. I mostly hung out with Marie and Jordyn. We went hiking and you would, like, go right into the clouds. It was a pretty fun experience.”