By your side 

By: Vanessa D

Yulissa Gonzalez, a junior attending Yerba Buena High School, surrounds herself with fun and adventurous activities with her loving family and boyfriend. She travels with her family often and prioritizes her future even when it might not involve the people she’s surrounded by now.

She has traveled to places like Reno, Nevada, and Oregon. 

“We’ve traveled many times, but most of the time it was in the same areas,” said Gonzalez. 

Gonzalez mentions that most trips are taken with her immediate family such as her parents and her siblings. But other times like when they first started taking trips, “It would be like the whole family, like all my aunts, uncles and stuff like that,” she says.

One of her favorite things about traveling would be all the great memories that come with every trip.

“I think it’s been really fun, especially because we like to create a lot of memories together and if it’s a really good memory, it’s something that you always remember whether that person you have that memory with isn’t here with you anymore,” she explains.

Besides involving herself into family trips, Gonzalez occasionally goes out and about with her younger cousins. They bike around the neighborhood and go to nearby parks. They like to ride a different route every now and then, and enjoy every moment spent together. 

Growing up Gonzalez explained that she grew up always being in a room with her 2 other siblings so for so long, she’s been accustomed to sharing space. It was not until that long ago when she expressed her desire to get her own room, that she was given an area to call hers. Now that she has her own room, she loves everything about it.

“I feel like I can actually have my own privacy and I felt like I could be on the phone with my boyfriend without having to worry about my sister being there listening. I knew that I was finally going to have a say in what my room was going to look like and organize it. I really love to clean and organize so I was really excited about that,” she says. 

Despite finally having her own space, that never stopped her from never feeling alone. 

Gonzalez mentions that she had got her dog unexpectedly a long time ago on one of her old soccer tournament days. Her and her family were all ambushed with the arrival of her new dog, all except her sister. 

“In between my first and second game, my mom, my sister and I went home. My sister kept telling me to tell my mom that I forgot something at the house,” she says “next thing you know you just see a car pull up and it's a whole dog in there and he was so tiny.” 

It took a while for her parents to not hold a grudge and be mad about it, but in the end, Gonzalez explains, “prior to that we had asked if we could get a dog and obviously every parent says no, but now that we have him, they're like all in love with him and everything.”

As being the youngest in the family, it tends to get a bit lonely after a while. Just watching as everyone grows up and starts working, and being in and out of the house. However, Gonzalez explains that she always had her dog, Peluchin, to keep her company. 

“I'm the youngest one, my older brother doesn't live with us anymore and my sister works and all that, so i'm not really alone because he's always here doing something dumb,” she explains.

One of the scariest things about putting your heart out to the world and letting someone get close to it, would be the pain brought afterwards if things don’t work out the way we want them to. For Gonzalez, her and her partner, Bryan, are well aware that life will continue whether they are together or not. They communicate together about their goals for their future and push each other to their limits. 

“We talk about our future a lot and we always talk about how we need to push each other especially to our limits so we can have the best future whether it's together or not together,” Gonzalez explains.

Having her boyfriend has made Gonzalez a better person. She’s had a shoulder to lean on since the day they got together. There has been some hardships that she’s had to face, but she’s had her boyfriend to help support her through it all. Both her grandmothers had passed away and he did everything he could to comfort her and be there for her.

“It was still in the beginning of our relationship, when i’d see him at school, he would try his best to make me feel better and lift me from the sadness,” said Gonzalez.

And like many relationships, there are some struggles that come along the way. For Gonzalez, her partner never fails to remind her that he wants to be with her and doesn’t walk away from the relationship whenever it gets hard.

“Sometimes I would push him away because I was upset and I didn't know how to deal with it, but he never left,” she says.

Surrounding herself with people she loves and who love her back, keeps her motivated to continue working hard for her future no matter what’s yet to come for her.