Growing up with siana

By Navi G

For many Yerba Buena High School students, their parents have been their friends since the beginning but for Siana Perez, that may just be a different story.

Perez has talked about them having sisters and how, not only is there an age difference, but their closeness with both of them.

“I have two younger siblings. I'm the oldest, the second oldest being 1 ½ because she likes to be a butt and be soo specific that it's not 2 years, and the other one is I believe 9 or 7 years difference but we're so close.”

But having a sister close to your age growing up isn't always so easy, from slapping challenges for money to maybe fighting over a toy. Getting angry at your sister isn't always easy to deal with unless you learn to ignore them.

“My middle sister, ‘cause let me tell you right now, she gets on my nerves and she has the worst attitude ever. My parents or my mom and her boyfriend at the time would always be like ‘oh, I'll give you guys a dollar to see who can, like, slap each other the hardest’ and all you heard was *insert slapping noise* and then you heard someone crying who I wish I was kidding. Mean all I'm saying is I was a kid and I was older and she had to be nice back then and I wasn't and she was so rude to me.”

Perez had also shared their favorite moment with her family being a silly story of complete misunderstanding and not entirely observing what they had on them or around them.

“I remember we were trying to go into the house. I had a sweater on and my sister was helping my mom get the stuff out of the car and she's holding my little sister and she gives me the bottle. She's like ‘put it in the pocket’ and I’m thinking to myself ‘what.’ And I’m staring at her and she’s like ‘put it in the pocket, Alysiana,’ and I’m like ‘what are you talking about?’ So I stop trying to argue and I put it in the pocket of my sweater while I held the diaper bag. That was my favorite moment ‘cause you can see the stupidity and shock on my mom’s face to see her daughter put the bottle in her sweater, meanwhile, she has the diaper bag in her hand like it didn't make sense. I don't know where my head was but it’s practical because she was screaming at me ‘put it in the pocket’ and then looking around like an idiot thinking ‘what pocket are you talking about?’ when she started laughing and that's when it hit me. She meant the diaper bag pocket that I’m holding in my hand.”

But through the thick and the thin, Perez had their own ways of entertaining themselves with hobbies! Karate and sleeping, that is of course if you count sleeping as a hobby.

“As my family would say, 'she was The Quiet One who just stood by you and if you went near strangers, she’d hide behind you and start crying.' I didn't really do any hobbies unless you want to count sleeping a hobby. I got into karate as Mike showed in class but uh, I don't think I did any other hobbies.”

Perez has also had a trusting piglet by her side since the moment they were born, given to them by their dad. This toy is even still with them to this day.

“The moment I was born, he came to the hospital and I wasn't born at Kaiser. I keep forgetting about what it's called because I'm not really familiar with it but it's really close by in Santa Teresa. And he went in there and saw this, like, little piglet thing and he gave it to me when I was a baby and I've held onto that thing ever since and it's in my room still.”

They've also had to conquer an issue with sleeping with it and it not being there in the morning when Perez would be awake.

“I used to sleep with it. Like, I would sleep on it like I would have a pillow and then I put my hand under the pillow or on top of the pillow and I leave the stuffed animal on it. And I’d sleep like that and I’d wake up and I would feel, like, so weird 'cause I didn't have it on me. And I’ve had to, like, learn I can't keep doing that so I think a couple of years ago, I had to, like, maintain a way to stop, but I've had that thing since I was a baby the moment I was born.”

Perez was as forgetful as they are sweet. Perez said they had remembered a moment of accidental thievery and their heart was in the right place but I don’t think their mind was.

Even an incident with their sister occurred and it hasn't entirely left Perez and has left an impact on them.

“It’s, like, it's a little traumatic thing for me. So we used to have this door where we lived and the bathroom door was, like, really hard to open. Like, really weird, you had to yank on that thing. And one day she, like, held on the other side and I remember struggling to get out and I started freaking out and yelling and my mom came in as it was happening and then ever since then, I've been claustrophobic and I hate small spaces or being stuck in smaller areas. I've been claustrophobic ever since, I blame her for that everything was on 'cause if that wasn't the start of it, I don't know what was.”