The Baristas

Hi, my name is Yadira Rojas, I'm born and raised in El Paso, and I'm 16 years old. I grew up with my parents and have a younger sister named Dayana. I also have a dog named Fox which we like to call the baby of the house from how spoiled he is. Growing up I participated in many sports, but the ones that I truly stuck with were dancing and gymnastics. I went on to become part of a dance team and competed with my team for over four years. During my fifth year, I experience many health issues and had to stop participating in both sports but there is one sport that I have not stopped doing. I have been participating in off-road endurance racing as a sport since I was little. Being part of this sport has challenged me both physically and also mentally. I have been the only girl in a community that is male-dominated and at times experience harsh comments from other contestants. Nonetheless, I am thankful for what racing has taught me and all the life lessons that I acquired true the years.

Some of my hobbies are art, writing, reading, cooking, and watching anime. I love finding out ways to make a new meal as well as seeing what I'm imagining in my head coming to life. But most of the time I tend to read and write short novels that come to me. This has become my way to escape the world when things become too difficult or stressful. When I get a full day off or when I have free time to go out, I will go to the movies. I love going and watching the new movies that have been released. One of my favorite movies is Cars 3 and I live by that statement.

As previously mentioned I like to read and write in my free time, but this has not always been the case for me. In the past, I used to hate reading and with association also class. I would never understand anything in the reading and most teachers would not care much for me because I would also read at a much lower leave than the one that I was actually in. This started to change once the pandemic started and I started to read the thing that I much more enjoyed and that I understand regardless of how easy they may seem to others. As time progressed I went on to read harder ting and expand my learning. Something that I still gave struggle with is my grammar skills.

In this class, I want to be able to expand my reading and writing skills more. Where I can share my opinion on topics and receive constructive criticism back from my classmates.

Some of my favorite quotes are...

• "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission" by Grace Murray Hopper

• "It's during our darkest moments that we see the light." Aristotle

• "History huh? Bet we can make some." by the book Red, White, and Royal Blue

Hello, My name is Fernando Villanueva I’m 16. I'm a junior here at Valle Verde Early College Highschool, I want to major in mechanical engineering or aerospace engineering. I have 2 younger siblings my brother Saul and my sister, Vanessa. I was born here in El Paso Texas and I've lived here all my life. My interest mainly includes learning about cars, video games, playing guitar, and listening to music.

Playing guitar and listening to music are probably the ones I do most I play guitar every day for about an hour or two every day when I get home and throughout the day I am always listening to music. Music has always been one of the things I enjoyed most since I was a kid I remember when I was younger I would mainly listen to classic rock because my dad would play it in the car or when he was working. I still listen to classic rock but my taste in music has expanded a lot since then and now I also listen to a lot of harder rock and modern metal as well, those three genres are also the ones I find most fun when it comes to playing guitar and are also now a big part of my personality.

For playing video games, I really don’t spend as much time as I do with my guitar it’s something do once in a while but still pretty often. My favorite game to play is Minecraft and Need for Speed. I like playing Minecraft because of how creative you can be in the game doing different things and seeing what you can create. The Need for Speed games have always been a big part of my childhood because ever since I was little I always thought cars were one of the coolest things ever but I was too young to drive at the time so the closest thing I could get to driving was in those video games. Growing up I would help my dad fix cars and he would teach me about how things worked and how to fix them and that’s probably what made me start liking cars. I still help my dad fix up the car we have at my house and sometimes I just spend a bit of time looking at videos and learning about how they work.

Ever since I started school I always had some trouble with English it has always been the subject I’ve struggled the most with. I’ve always found Math and science much easier but with English, it just takes me a bit longer to understand. Ultimately I hope to learn as much as I can from this class no matter how long it takes me.

Some of my favorite quotes are...

• The only thing holding you back is the way you're thinking- Steve Vai

• Risk isn't a word in my vocabulary. It's my very existence- Slash

• Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens- Jimi Hendrix