My story MY LIFE I HAVE YET TO LIVE. BY: DIANA ARANDA

the Story of my life My name is Diana Aranda, I was born in October 1988, in a small city called Chimbote in Peru. I was born to Evert and Esperanza Aranda. I have two brothers: a younger brother Patrick (11 years old) and an Older brother Christian (26 years old).

My childhood. As far as I can remember my childhood was interesting, full of joy and happiness. I remember spending time with my family and friends, enjoying long days at the beach, one tradition that my family had was that on New Years Eve we would spend all day at the beach until midnight, waiting for the new year to come. The most that I enjoyed about my childhood was playing outside with my brother and friends, riding bikes, skating, hide and seek, plying ball was our way to have fun; I remember being outside all the time after school and after all our homework was done; our curfew was before it gets dark, my mom used to tell us, in Peru the sunset starts around six or seven pm I started pre kinder when I was four years old, and kinder at five. Later on elementary when I was six years old, my brother and I attended catholic schools. In Peru most of the schools are Catholics and required a baptism certificate, many school are taught by nouns and priests, and most of schools are separated by gender. I was baptized catholic at the age of two along with my brother when he was three years old. School are very strict in Peru, there are a lot of discipline for students, first of all, students wear uniforms, girls are not allowed to wear make up or jewelry, no nail polish and always wear hair up in a pony tail, boys always need to have their hair cut short and a handkerchief in their packets, I believe school uniforms promote a single standard of dress, therefore students would be more focused on learning than worrying about their looks.

A new beginning I attended school in Peru until the sixth grade, before my family decided to moved to the United States. A big key moment in my life was when we moved to Utah, I was twelve years old, I didn’t understand what was the main reason for my family to moved here, my parents told us it would be for a change of life and we also had a couple of family members living here already; it was very challenging for me to start a new life in a whole different place, leaving all my friends and the rest of my family behind, everything was different, I was really sad for the first couple months, I eventually got over it getting distracted and adapting to a new place. At the beginning it was hard to start a new life with many different cultures and especially a different language, the first couple years were challenging us because of the language barrier, I was enrolled in school a week after we arrived to United States, luckily the school that I attended had ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, which was very helpful, I learned a lot, I took three years of ESL classes.

My new life After two years living in Utah my grandparents decided to moved in from Peru, we were all excited, a few months later my uncle and his family also came along. My parents bought a house in West Jordan, we all lived there. A Surprising moment in my life was when my mom found out she was expecting a baby, she was told by a Dr. in Peru that she could not have kids anymore; she thought she was done with kids, since me and my brother were teenagers at the time, which makes me and my younger brother fifteen years apart.

Adapting to my life It took me about three years to learn the language, by the time I started High School I was already fluently speaking English. my teenage years was all about hanging out with my friends, going to the park, camping, going to the movies and shopping. I graduated from Valley High School In Sandy UT. When I was in my senior year, I started working in an assisted living as a CNA, and I have been working as a CNA ever since, earning money at a young age kind of redirected me from not continuing with college right after high school, I bought a brand new car by the age of eighteen, which made me have more responsibility to continue working, a decision that I regret sometimes, but is never to late to go to school.

My Life Now At this moment of my life. I am twenty five years old I have a beautiful daughter, she is eleven months old, I had her when I was twenty four, and I am expecting another baby girl, I am due in February, is been challenging this past couple months, being a full time employee, attending college fulltime, having a family and raising a baby, but I know is all going to be worth it, I love my family, and my goal is to complete college and graduate as a Register Nurse.