I usually take on summer jobs due to the interference with my many school activities. For instance, this past summer I worked at the local mall (it was convenient too because I live so close!) My jobs that pertain to my school work are my participation on the Mock Trial team (which is a team that simulates trial cases and competes with other schools), Model United Nations Team (which is that same idea as the Mock Trial team, only we are simulating United Nations Conferences at local universities such as Stanford or U.C. Berkeley), cross-country durning the fall, and track during the spring, as well as my participation in band (I have been playing the clarinet for some time now). So in short, my school is really my job.

To start off, I do not really have a job. I pretty much go to school and then go home. The reason I do not have a real job, or a part-time job is mostly because my dad does not want me to get a job just yet. My dad tells me to wait to have a job because I will most likely have to be working for the rest of my life anyway. As well, my dad had to work a lot when he was a kid and just wants me to enjoy this last year at least. But some jobs I have at times include: cat-sitting, dog-sitting, babysitting and helping out at my mom’s school. For cat-sitting I just have to feed my neighbors cats when they are gone. When I dog-sit, I will go with my friend to stay at this persons house where they have this very spoiled dog. We have to stay overnight at the house because, acording to the owner, the dog gets lonely and needs company. Its pretty nice though because the owner pays us well. I only babysit sometimes and mostly they are the kids of my mom’s friends. During the summer when I get off of school, I will got to my moms school, she works at a middle school, and help grade papers and such. So there are some of my jobs, but they really aren’t job jobs. Hope you hear from you soon and learn more about your job. Take care.

My family is somewhat small. I live with my mom, my dad and am an only child. Here in San Mateo we do not have any other family they lives here, so it is just us. The rest of our family all lives in Puerto Rico. It can be hard sometimes, during holidays, when we do not have any family but we have a lot of family friends who we consider to be like our family. My parents and myself try to go visit our family in Puerto Rico as often as we can, but it can get very expensive. When I was younger we would go visit Puerto Rico every summer but now it is almost every three years. My moms side of the family lives in Yauco, a small town in the south of Puerto Rico where she grew up. She has two sisters and she is the oldest. I do not talk to them as much as I do with my dads side because they aren’t the nicest people in the world. My dad’s family lives in San Juan and I talk with them on the phone most every other week. My dad has two sisters and is also the oldest child, I love his sisters they are the best!

My mom’s name is Maria and she is a spanish/french/life skills teacher. She teaches middle school and loves being a teacher. My dad’s name is Robert and hes a bank manager for Wells Fargo. He loves working with people and being able to help them with whatever they need at work. My parents and I get along pretty well and it is nice having them around. Talk you soon!

Hi Irene-

How are things going over there? I haven’t talked to you in awhile… I hope everyting’s okay at your end of the world!

Anyway, reading about you and your family sounds really nice; you seem to be very close to your siblings, and I’m sure you’re having a blast being an aunt for baby Ruben. Do you have to babysit him a lot? What is he like?

Though I myself am not an aunt (I have a brother named Garrett, who just turned 15 and is in no way ready to have any children!), I do come from a large family of aunts, uncles, and cousins. With my parents being one of four siblings on their respective sides, needless to say holiday gatherings are nothing short of fun and exciting. Having grown up with first and second cousins that are around my age, I have always been able to talk to them about anything without the fear of being laughed at (because sometimes I do talk about the randomest things).

However, with my immediate family- which consists of my mom, dad, younger brother, and myself- living out in the suburbs while the rest of my family lives in San Francisco, lately it’s been difficult for us to visit our relatives as frequently as we used to. And with this being my last year before I go off to college, I really have been making more of an effort to get closer to my family. A few months ago my aunt and uncle had a baby boy who they named Carter. He is adorable, and I have had the chance to babysit him a couple of times over the last month. While I am a huge fan of babies and really anything small and cute, I somehow forgot how much these little ones drool during the first few months. Nevertheless, I really should not complain- overall Carter is a very good baby, and I figure that I might as well start developing my maternal instincts, right?

I look forward to hearing back from you!