insight

"I’ve always lived in Moreno Valley, but I used to go to Vista which is right next to Canyon. And so I was supposed to go to Canyon once high school started. So I didn’t know anyone from this side of town because all my friends lived in Sunnymead Ranch, no one planned to come to Moval. And I was going to go to Canyon but my mom told me that it was better for me to come to Moval because it was cl...

"When I was little, my mom was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and that made it really hard for me to grow up as opposed to having a traditional childhood because I had to adjust to being exposed to mental illness at such a young age. My siblings and I were really affected by it because having to see our mom in pain whenever she had an episode hurt us as well. And starting from ...

"I almost died at birth. The doctors couldn’t take me out, I was too stiff. They couldn’t get me out with tools, so they had to use their hands. They used some tools, but next thing you know, they hit my head. Now I have two scars in my head, they messed me up. Obviously, when a baby comes out it’s bleeding but I came out bleeding a lot. My mom was like “Where’s my baby?” And they w...

"The skateboarding community needed another state park in Moreno Valley but never knew how to get it. I decided to get my community what we wanted. I created an online petition and then shared it across multiple social media platforms. I was able to gather more than 1,000 signatures overnight. I emailed the petition to each of the city councils in Moreno Valley and received feedback on how it w...

"A big factor in my life was being diagnosed with general anxiety when I was about thirteen. So at the time I just thought that everyone had these overacted thoughts and overwhelming behaviors I guess. So I thought that was pretty normal until I realized that crying in class over something really small was not okay. I went to a person and they diagnosed me, and they told me that I would have to ...