Sorry

My name is Valentina Olortegui, 17 years old in my junior year of high school. I enjoy music like metal, rock, alt pop, vocaloid, the list goes on, and I watch anime. I grew up with immigrant parents, my mom being from Colombia and my dad being from Peru. I love them dearly, but of courses it has its challenges.

As long as I can remember, my dad wasn’t as fluent in English as my mom, but it faces problems like miscommunication. Because of that, I had trouble understanding my dad sometimes when he speaks spanish due to his lack of english, it didn’t help that I have autism and a language impediment. My dad would wonder why I don’t know a lot of spanish when it’s due to the fact that they often speak english to me and choose me to be in a english speaking school due to my autism. When I was younger, my mom would mostly translate for us since our spanish was limited at the time and our grammar wasn’t great at all. Despite the language barrier, we would always have fun with my dad since he has a goofy side to him. But now since i’m older and had the opportunity to learn spanish in school, I communicate better with my dad and speak more spanish to him which helps improve my spanish. Since my mom is not living b   with us anymore, i’m always the one translating for my brothers which can be challenging. But our communication has improve so much since my freshman year of high school.

I am the eldest out of two brothers, and it can be overwhelming since I’m expected to take care of my brothers. They sometimes give me pressure to take care of them. And sometimes I’m to blame for stuff that wasn’t even me due to the fact my little brothers don’t want to end up in trouble. Because of this, my relationship with my brother isn’t that bad but we aren’t that close unless I’m with his friends.

Despite my hardship with having immigrant parents, I had a lot of great memories, especially going to their country and meeting my family there. Traveling to my parent’s countries taught me a lot about their culture, but also the hardships people have over there. In Peru, I stayed with my grandma in Lima and went to Cusco to see Machu Picchu. Seeing one of the 7 Wonders of The World felt so surreal and I feel incredibly lucky to have seen such an amazing landmark since it is expensive to go and they limit the amount of tourists so they can preserve the area. Eating Peruvian food was my favorite thing because it made me feel connected to my Peruvian roots and it also felt like home since my dad would always make Peruvian food at home. In Colombia, I went to the Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal and it was so relaxing. Then later on we went to Parque de Cafe which was an amusement park that grows coffee beans and it was really fun. And then I visited family in a small town and it felt good to see them again since it’s been so long. Along these travels, I’ve learned that despite our language barrier and cultural differences, we still cherish one another and love each other no matter what.