CHANGES, ONE AT A TIME

By Anton D

Moving after staying somewhere your whole life is a difficult task to do. However, Yerba Buena student Benjamin Rios did just that. After staying in Texas for his whole life, his relocation to California helped him realize that his open-minded attitude was for the better.

While living in Texas, Rios witnessed his friends teasing him for socializing with someone who identified with the LGBTQ+ community.

Recalling his response after being judged for it, Rios said, “They did nothing to me, I don’t see why I have to be mean to them.”

He faced other students calling him slurs. The way he reacted was knowing that he was better than to fall under the pressure of their social norms. Instead of fighting back to those people, Rios said how he “just ignored them because I knew it was gonna happen.”

After some time, Rios became depressed from facing the toxic norms in Texas as well as other factors. He knew that he was not prospering where he was and decided to go somewhere new for a change of scenery and societal norms. Thus, he came to California.

“I was dealing with pretty bad depression and I wanted to come to California, see if I could change that,” said Rios.

After recuperating and warming up to Yerba Buena, Rios was able to adapt to the new environment with the help of English teacher Mike Tinoco, along with other supportive staff.

“Mike talking to me, asking how I’ve been and being very calm to me, and other teachers being very nice and welcoming.”

Furthermore, Rios was able to join clubs to further his interests.

“Now that I’ve adjusted more and joined clubs and such, I’ve learned to love this school a lot.”

From these interactions, Rios was able to piece back his life for the better. He realized that many people outside of Texas are much more open-minded. On top of that, people were quick to welcome him and help him warm up to a new environment. It helped him realize that he was not different when compared with his classmates from Texas, but rather, his classmates were different. From there, he set out to make his life different from his former classmates.

Lastly, reminiscing from his time at Texas, Rios said, “Living in Texas made me rethink how I wanted to live and who I wanted to be, and I didn’t want to be some racist homophobic person.”