Being part of Mrs. Llamas daily life outside of school, I didn't really know what her dreams and struggles were. Fortunately I’m one of her granddaughter’s best friends. I always thought life was so easy for her since she’s an administrator of a successful school. As time went by I figured out a little more about her. I found out more about her childhood. I found out her dream as a teenager was not the dream she’s living today. She stated “I watched black and white movies and every woman lived in an apartment as a secretary so I wanted to be just like them because women only worked that job that was my American dream” I asked myself what changed her dream, but soon I would find out.

Life for Ms.Llamas was not easy at all. While preparing herself to live what she thought was her American dream, it was put aside for a while. She started off as a normal teen but then everything changed. “I got married when I was very young I was fifteen when I got married and I had my baby before I was sixteen, so I thought how do you raise a family at that age?” She left school and moved into an apartment with her husband Danny to raise her family. There was a day when her husband left to work and she was ironing his clothes with her baby asleep in the next room, she thought, feeling disappointed “God my friends are at school right now and they’re having fun what am I doing here, I’m ironing and I’m home and I left my world oh my goodness this isn’t right, I'm losing that..I’m losing my life as a teen...and I’m losing my American dream” Even though she was realizing that she was losing her education, her new responsibility was to her family.

As days passed by her life was about to take another route “It was a miracle” to be exact. She received a visit and a phone call from the truancy department, “I wasn't sixteen yet so I had the opportunity to gain back what I was losing”. When she went back, her counselor notified her that she didn't have enough credits to graduate with her class, “I was not happy with that so I took two years of extra classes, did community service, but I did it, I was able to return to what I thought I would never gain again.” The most important thing now was being able to get into college. Since her mom was also married at fifteen, she wasn't able to inspire her that school was a priority because “of her culture”. Thankfully there was an adult, who was able to inspire her in realizing her American dream was still a possibility. Her teacher, Ms.Goodman was a big part of her success. When Ms.Llamas told her, she wanted to go to college, “she didn't tell me that I wasn't prepared for college or that I didn't have enough credits.” Instead of not supporting her, she did what most teachers wouldn’t do “ she told me you're ready so she hooked me up with a community college and she even got me some scholarships so she was the one that got me through it.”

As she grew older she realized that there was more to life than becoming a secretary. After she graduated, she became a college student, but changed her major into teaching. “The more experience you get, the more roads there’s to follow”, I agree with her 100%. When she found her job as a teacher at Vaughn she “didn't stop there”. She took on leadership roles, volunteered, helped many kids through their struggles, but that was not the end of her success. One day the founder of Vaughn, Dr. Chan said “Suzanne we need this, this and this, so why don't you do this, this and this, so I left the classroom and became an administrator”.

Even though she became more than a secretary her American Dream was not that simple anymore, “It was something more.” Getting married and having her baby changed her dream not because they were a problem but because she realized they’re the reason why she was motivated in raising her family. Her life was “a give and take” because the road she went through, it gave her different perspectives how she said “it made me who I am today and has shaped who my family is at this point in time”.

So her American dream was not to be a secretary anymore, but it was “An educational dream”. Her dream was not for herself , it was for her children because her babies were her motivation. With enthusiasm she says “her dream consisted of letting her children know their education is very important, they have choices and those choices come with higher education because that will make them stronger”. Even though that was part of her American dream the most important part as she said was “ to make sure my kids live there educational American dream” As she got older she realized that she's living her American dream and she’s “blessed” with a family that helped her fulfill her most important dream. Even though she laughed, saying “I almost died, it was horrible” she would never change her impacting struggle.