For eleven years all you’ve ever known was one place to be home. With family surrounding and providing to help you throughout your life. Then all of sudden it’s time to pick up everything and leave what you’ve known your whole life behind. “It was a sudden change that I didn’t exactly want or know what to expect from,” Aaliyah Benavidez is a senior at Ridgeview, but before her move to Bakersfield she had a different life in Fresno. Benavidez had a close relationship with her family in Fresno and she relied on the support of family. “My mom was always there for me and always working [to provide] and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house,” Benavidez explains.
Growing up in a single parent household with her grandparents as a huge support system Benavidez took the news of moving to Bakersfield hard. That move would be even more dreaded when Benavidez reveals, “Right as I moved here to Bakersfield my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.” Now trying to help take care of her grandmother, Benavidez struggled trying to find her footing in Bakersfield. A year before the move her grandfather passed and now her grandmother, sick and relying on her and her mother’s care. “I didn’t know how to process stuff; I was still young and trying to process everything at once.
A sudden move and life altering news had Benavidez at a loss. “Making friends, especially at a school where everyone basically knew each other their whole lives, is intimidating.” With her first year of Ridgeview coming up another challenge was thrown at Benavidez having her freshman year of high school online describing the experience as isolating. It wasn’t until midway through her sophomore year Benavidez started finding glimpses into a hopeful future. “I was determined not to just stick myself in a box and get stuck in one plan like I did before.”
Benavidez paved the way for herself joining extracurriculars like cheer, ASB, choir and softball at Ridgeview. From starting her life in Bakersfield in a nightmare of a situation. Having to cope with the loss of her grandmother, Benavidez was able to find the light at the end of the tunnel, “You have to be open to change because it could be a blessing in disguise.” Benavidez continues to grow from her past and as she enters her last year of high school she dreams of a future in San Diego, “I’ve been through a lot for only being seventeen and this is only part of my story.”
