To me, home is wherever my husband or family is. It is where my community is. I grew up with my parents and a little sister that was 8 years younger than me. I grew up in the south of Chile. Then I moved to two different cities growing up. I used to play a lot with my sister and have a lot of family time and church time. I spent a lot of time in high school in a small town, so Fairmont is a very familiar rhythm. I moved several times growing up.
I work at Fairmont Elementary School. I am passionate about teaching right now, and I’ve experienced that in a different way here in Fairmont. I think, recently, it serves a huge purpose. I’m really grateful for the opportunity of working with my students and my colleagues. Being in Fairmont Elementary has been a blessing. It’s what brought us here. I’m also passionate about living my own faith and how that directly/indirectly impacts people around me.
I like to spend time at home like reading a book, watching something, going on walks, and spending time with my cat. My favorite food? Sushi! When it comes to the food we make, I would say empanadas.
A challenge that I’ve faced is language. There are certain communication patterns that will always be hard to decode sometimes. Even the Midwest and MN Nice culture is sometimes hard to read for me. It’s something that fascinates me because I like learning about it. Language is affected by culture. My proudest accomplishment is probably leaving my country and culture. Taking the risk to get to a place where I am out of my comfort zone. More than language, my proudest accomplishment is being able to take on new adventures.
We can make systems more accommodating by starting to have conversations about what it means to care about others by getting to know where everyone is and understanding their values/backgrounds. It’s important to keep in mind that we don’t have it all figured out and that we are learning what it means to have a more equitable environment. I think we are moving forward for the better. Changes have been made and have been good for others, but there is still a lot of work to do.