Liz Arevalo- Intro & Ideas: Believe there is good in this world

Good evening loves! My name is Lizbeth Arevalo but I go by Liz I’m 19 and this is my third year at Chico State and I am a local. I was born in a very small town in the state of Michoacan, Mexico I was brought to the U.S. when I was 6 months old but I was raised here in Chico. Chico, is all I have ever known I visit Mexico here and there but when I think of home I think of Chico. Home is where the heart is and my heart, soul and spirit is my family. Everything that I am, everything that I have is thanks to them. I am the oldest of four and the only girl. They say that oldest sibling always has it harder and I can definitely relate to that. I started Kindergarten knowing, no English whatsoever my parents only speak Spanish and I learned as I went. I clearly remember coming home and having questions about my homework and crying to my parents because there was no one I could ask for help. I struggled a lot with the English language growing up, I did however have an amazing support system; my teachers. I have come across the most amazing teachers, thanks to them I have come this far into my educational career. My three younger brothers, are my children. I have two boys in high school (Go Vikings!) and one in first grade. I’m the one who speaks to the teachers during parent conferences, who volunteers etc. My parents work, they work a lot so I am their right hand. They are obviously involved but the language barrier that I went through when I was growing up is no longer there because now I am able to interpret and be involved. I now work part time at Tea Bar & Fusion Cafe; I love my job and my coworkers and attend school full time. Throughout the semester; I’ll be relating a lot to the struggles I’ve had with my boys’ educational careers as well as mine. I am a total Mom. I don’t go out much if at all, when I have spare time (rare but occasionally) I nap and I eat. I go hiking with my brothers, I tell my parents jokes and I dance it out when I’m stressed. I believe that in this world where there is so many different choices you can make for yourself; we should be kind to one another. I chose to smile, to laugh and to love.

To be a reader to me means is someone who is able to read and comprehend whatever it is they have just read. I read a lot of emails, posts on social media, order tags when I am at work(lots and lots of those), text messages and lyrics. I do read differently outside of school, there somethings that I merely glance at and when it’s school related I dive deep into the reading. Like at work, I see the first three words and I automatically start making the order I don’t have to sit there and stare at it and then start making it unless there is a modification in which case it shows up in red and I take 20 seconds more and boom orders out. My outside of school reading does relate to school for example when I read with my 6 year old brother I read children’s books and when my brothers have questions about a novel they’re reading I read those too. From the Williams article I stand by his argument that we all have very different definitions of how to identify a “reader” teachers as well as a society in general. My favorite princess growing up and to this day is Belle I love her. My face as a little girl was always shoved in a book; reading was so helpful when I was learning to speak English. It was a key factor to my reading, writing and speaking skills. Any one can read, it’s being able to interpret and comprehend what you just read that makes all the difference in my opinion.