My mom came from El Salvador when she was 12. she moved in with her older sister and her boyfriend. my grandma pretty much abandoned my mom and her sisters so the oldest and her boyfriend were the parent figure to my mom. when my mom got pregnant with me she moved in with my fathers mother. my grandma took good care of my mom as if she was her daughter. a couple weeks before i was born my father left my mom and never came around to his mothers house because he didnt want to see me or my mother. he ended up kicking my mom out of his mothers house, and we were left with trash bags of our clothes and no place to go. until my aunt took my mom in and we lived with her for about a year then my mom met my stepdad and we moved into an apartment. we were afraid it was not gonna be a stable enviornment. then we moved into a condo until i was in third grade. my mom got pregnant when i was in kindergarden. when my sister was 8 months she got disgnosed with epilpsy and other conditions so we moved into a bigger house for more space and our own privacy. to this day we still live in this house. i never thought i would have my own room and a lot of space to live in. i am so grateful for what i do have and i would not change it for the world. when i grow up i will try my hardest to keep my kids in one stable house so they dont need to move from school to school and feel unstable.

You cannot pick your sister.. that is for sure. I never thought I would get a sister with special needs. But I would not trade her for the world. Amanda Elizabeth Contreras-Romero was born september 1, 2003. I was in kindergarden when she was born but I got to leave school early to meet her. My mom let me pick her name. I am surprised my mom let a 5 year old pick her second daughters name. I have so many nicknames for my little sister. Putuku doesn't mean anything it is just what I have been calling her for a long time and I don't even know where I got it from. Amanda was diagnosed with the things she has when she was 6 months old. It was all so sudden and we did not know what to do or think. We knew things were going to be different and hard but we can get through it all as a family. I don't care that she cannot walk or talk she is still my bestfriend. I know I won't get a response but I still tell her everything. She knows when I am upset. She gets so happy when she is around me. In and out of hospitals for the past 11 years and I have been by her side through it all. Amanda has made such an impact on my life I seriously do not know what I would do without her. It is very upsetting when doctors say that there is not anything else we can do because she has tried everything but I do not plan on giving up. If I could trade places with my little sister for a day i would do it in a heart beat. Amanda is always so happy no matter what the situation is. We do not treat her any differently than any other child. Yeah she is special but she is just as normal as everyone else. Knowing I cannot do anything to take all the pain away kills me but she is a strong little girl. Special kids are just an angel that god has sent us.

My name is mispronounced all the time. It really is no that hard the J just makes the H sound. I've been called Alejandro, Alexandra, Alegandra, aleandra, and many other weird things that aren't that close to my name. I did not like my name when I was younger because no one ever said it correctly but now I am used to it. Also in elementary school everyone started to call me Alee. So now people do not struggle on pronouncing Alejandra. My mom told me that when she was pregnant with me she could not choose what name she wanted to give me. I was going to be Gabriela Alejandra but her sister named her daughter Gabriela so my mom had to change it. Then she thought about naming me Camilla.. honestly I like Alejandra a lot better than those names. I like my name now because no one really has it. Ever since my mom named me Alejandra some of my aunts have named their kids middle name as alejandra or alejandro. When people first meet me they always say I have a beautiful name.

I've been apart if many of my cousins quince's but may 11th of last year was a very special day because it was my quinceanera. One of the few most important days of my life. I have a court of honor, which has 7 girls partnered with 7 boys. I also had a partner which was my cousin Jorge. Also I had a mini me which was my cousin Jocelyn she wore a dress exactly like mine and her partner had a white tuxedo like Jorge. My 7 girls were called damas they all had the same dress that was a gold color and their partners had a black tuxedo with a gold vest. I had two flower girls that wore light green dresses. We had a limo all to our selves that day because we went to take pictures in DC and we rode around to stall time before my party. The limo picked us up at my house early in the morning. All of us girls slept at my house the night before because we had to wake up at 4 in the morning to get our hair done. The boys met at my house after all of us girls were done getting ready then we headed out to DC to take pictures. Once we were finished taking pictures we went to my party. The DJ called the couples in one at a time. Once it was my turn to walk out my flower girls went ahead of me throwing their flowers on the ground. As I looked around I saw all my family in friends. It was truly a blessing to have everyone I love celebrate such a special day with me. My court and I danced a traditional waltz that I choreographed on my own. Once we were done with that it was time for the father daughter danced which I danced with my step dad since he has been there for me the past 15 years when my actual father was not. The girls and I went to change into a different outfit and the boys just took of their jackets because we were going to dance the surprise dance. I also choreographed the three dances we did for my surprise dance. We were all so happy because in the end no one messed up. Everyone else began to dance and the party had officially begun. Later in the party my mom changed my crown, my dad changed my heels, my brother gave me my ring, my aunt and uncle gave me a necklace and earrings and a braclete. My quince is an indication that I am becoming a young lady. We cut the cake and made a toast and the party went on until 4 in the morning. The next morning I opened all my presents and got 1,750 dollars. That will be one day I will never forget.

My family means so much to me. Especially my cousins. They have all been there since day 1 and our relationships will never change. We've all had similar problems and been through a lot with each other. We aren't always the smartest and obviously we get into fights sometimes but in the end we're like brothers and sisters. I see my cousins every weekend. We are all pretty close. We can tell each other everything no matter how bad or stupid. No one is ever judged. I've been fortunate to have a big loving family. I really do not know what I would do without them. My cousins always know what to say whenever I go to them when I am upset. We have all been close since we were born. There are about 23 of us in Virginia. The older ones experience everything before the rest of us so when we go through something they usually already went through it. Therefore they can tell us how to deal with the situation. I hope we never grow apart because that will be really sad.

Before moving here to Spotsylvania I lived in a little two bedroom house. The neighborhood was small and the houses were very close together. There was one street that wrapped around the entire neighborhood. All the little kids knew each other because we all shared one bus stop. Hagel circle was pretty bad.. I did not know about what really went on in there until we moved here. When you are young you do not realize what actually goes on around you. But what I do remember was my next door neighbor. I was playing outside climbing the cherry blossom tree that was in my front yard, when I looked over and my neighbor was sitting on the floor rocking back and forth pulling her hair. I called my mom outside to check it out and she ended up calling the police. Turned out she was addicted to heroin. It all made sense because she had needle marks on her arms. High school students smoked and sold weed in our neighborhood. I am surprised no one ever got caught. It was an everyday thing. If I still lived there I believe I would have made at least one bad choice with all my surroundings. Also I have a vivid memory of something that happened to me when I was 5 years old. One afternoon I was running around the neighborhood playing tag with some of my friends. The sun started to go down and the street lights started to come on which indicated that it was time for me to go home. I was on the other side of my neighborhood, as I started walking home I hear a loud noise coming from a house I was about to walk past. I heard screaming so I hid behind a couple bushes that were right next to me. As I peeped through the leaves of the bush I saw a man run out of the house and got into a car and sped off. I realized it was my friend Perry's house. Perry came out the door crying and screaming for help. I ran out of the bush to his house and as I walked into his house I saw his mother laying on the ground because she got shot. We called 911 off his house phone and I sprinted home to tell my mom. We went back to Perry's house and waited for the ambulance and police to show up. Thank god Perry's mom was able to come home and get the bullet removed. I am so glad we moved from that place. But I wish we never left Lorton. I miss all my old friends, but I still stay in contact with them. But I am also very happy about where we live now.

My cousins and I always had fun when we got together. I have so many cousins. When we were younger there were only 8 of us. We were the fab 8 I guess you could say. No one could join our group. We got together every weekend at family events. We would pretty much disappear from everyone and do our own thing. My aunts townhouse was haunted and we were young so we thought it was cool. My cousin Luis was always the one that tried to scare us. There was a lake at the end of the street that we would always go to. One night we were playing man hunt around the neighborhood, Vanessa could not find anyone so she just gave up and yelled on the top of her lungs "Everyone go to the lake!" So we all ran to the lake. We skipped rocks on the water and just messed around. There was a random tree that poked out of the middle of the lake. Luis pointed to it and asked if we saw the man sitting on it. We did not see what he was talking about so we tried to look closely. Then he screamed on the top of his lungs which scared all of us and we all sprinted back home. We would mess with the "ghosts" that were in the house. For example there was always a man with a black hat and red eyes. He followed us everywhere, especially when we played man hunt. He didn't bother us so we weren't really scared. But he was scary at some points. Like the time we all had a sleepover and slept on the floor. The window was open and there was a tree on the outside of it. Sitting in the tree was the man with the red eyes just watching us while we slept. We got creeped out and told our parents the next morning but they did not believe us so we never brought it up again. There was always something fun, bad, weird, and adventurous in everything we did. We always played pranks on each other. We found something to do no matter how boring the situation was. We were known as the "wild kids." One time we all took a trip to El Salvador and we went to this river that had a bunch of tall rocks and we would see who would jump into the water from the highest rock. Or like the time we went hiking and made a swing out of vines from a tree. And the time we went to a train track and waited for a train to come and see who could stand on the track the longest. All of us aren't as close as we used to be but i'm sure if we were to get together again we would be able to bring that bond back.

Everyone needs to have an education. No matter what everyone should go to kindergarten through senior year and what you do after that is all up to you. In El Salvador things are different than here. They don't need to go to school. Kids no matter how young are shown how to work for their family instead of going to school. It is a poor country but they should still go to school. Whenever I go to El Salvador I usually give my friends old clothes and some money. Some of them do not care about education because they grew up working. All they know is work. Some do not know how to write or count pass 30. They work all day and they only make about 4 dollars. Their jobs vary from picking up trash to delivering tortillas. They will do anything to take money home for food. Others just rob people. El Salvador is not the safest place. But if they went to school and use their education towards work then they would make more money. It is not easy waking up at 3 in the morning to work everyday and not going to bed till 12 because you're afraid of someone robbing your house or your kids not coming home. A lot of the kids that I know want to go to school so bad but they are afraid to let their family down.

I have so many nicknames. I got the nickname Alley from school because people can never pronounce Alejandra. But now people at school change the way to spell it so now it is Alee. My mom has always called me Titi, but I do not know why. Also she calls me Bruja which means witch. Don't really know why she calls me that either. My aunts and uncles call me Flaca which means skinny. I do not eat a lot and I stay in shape which is why my aunts and uncles call me that. My nieces and nephews call me Titi ale. Tia means aunt but they hear their grandma call me Titi so they use that as aunt. Lastly I am also called Nana. My godmother got that nickname from me. When I was learning how to talk I could never say my name right. I used to say Alenana instead of Alejandra. So my godmother and her kids have always called me Alenana since. I love all my nicknames. I know they are all out of love and sometimes I like my nicknames better than my actual name.

All females are beautiful no matter what. You do not need make up or beautiful clothes. It is not always about appearance. Do not try to copy what the "popular" girls do. Don't be like everyone else. Stand out! Caking make up on your face doesn't do anything but hide your actual look. Girls look completely different without make up. Some girls think they cannot leave the house without make up. That is pretty sad because it is just paint on your face. You kinda look like a clown when you cake your make up. I have never worn make up. 16 years old and I do not own make up or even know how to put it on. Beauty comes with your personality and how you present yourself not because you know how to paint your face. Be natural for a day. People should like

My family has get togethers and parties every month. I was in the court of my cousin Ashley's quince. We all had a partner to dance with for the surprise dance. I was paired up with a guy named Jayson. I have been in 8 quinces and I have always had the same partner except for 2 quinces. Jayson and I did not mess up the day of Ashley's quince. I sat down to eat when another guy named william asked me to dance with him. At first I did not feel like it. So I told him I had to eat. He left and came back as soon as I was finished eating. William asked me to dance again so I got up and walked to the dance floor with him. One of Romeo Santos songs were playing. I love dancing to bachata. I did not know how me and Will were going to dance. But we danced amazing together, we understood how eachother move and everything. We danced together all night. That is how we got so close. Now we are really good friends. All because we danced together. He is a very good dancer when it comes to spanish music. He taught me how to dance punta which was pretty fun. He leads very well. The last song we danced to was bachata and we did so many moves with it. As the night came to an end William and I talked and he came over because he was Ashley's bestfriend. When we got home William and I got to know each other a lot more. Now whenever we have family parties and my family from New Jersey come I know William will be with them and he is always my dance partner. When I go to New Jersey to visit them William and I always meet up to catch up on everything. I am so glad he asked me to dance.