I am a Colorado native. Both of my parents came to Colorado as immigrants from Mexico but became citizens of the US when I was in fourth grade (I’m not sure how I remember this so vividly) I was there and witnessed the moment. Due to both of my parents being from Mexico I speak Spanish fluently and have been to Mexico more times than I can count. Growing up I was always doing arts and crafts. There are pictures of me as a kid making collages. I was a good kid, I listened to my parents and was the easiest out of my two siblings and myself. I am the baby of my family and am the first to go to college and graduate with two degrees. After high school graduation, I enjoyed my summer then resumed school in the fall at a vocational school for veterinary medicine. I graduated from there with an associate’s degree and a Veterinary Technician. After my college graduation, it took me a couple of years to get a job as a vet tech, and in the meantime, I worked at call centers. A call center where people ordered checks, a Bi-lingual customer service representative, and was later promoted to tech support supervisor for a big cellphone company. While I worked at the checks call center I got a part-time job with an at-home euthanasia service for cats and dogs. This was my foot into the veterinary world. After about a year I parted ways with the at-home euthanasia service due to the constant sadness involved. Then in 2015 while working at the cellphone call center as a tech support supervisor I got my first job at a veterinary clinic. I worked at that clinic for 5 years then on a whim I applied at an animal emergency center in town. I was hired and worked there for 2 years. It was while I was working there that I d decided I wanted to go back to school because, after a year and a half of working in an ER, I started experiencing compassion fatigue and began having issues with my superiors about the way myself and other staff was treated (they said “How dare you accuse my company of favoritism!”) and started to self-sabotage. Long story short, I was soon fired but felt an immense sense of relief and happiness. I had a new job the next day with a regular general practice vet clinic near home. I had known the manager of the practice since I worked at the first clinic and had a good relationship with him when he heard of my firing I received a call from him a few hours later. I worked there for about 3 years while going to school to earn a bachelor’s in visual art and a minor in art history. I now work at a different clinic where I am the lead vet tech. The owner and main veterinarian Amy is like family. We opened the clinic together it’s called Mountain Lake Family Vet. I met her at the first clinic I worked at and have known her for 8 years. She is supportive of my dreams and desires of wanting to leave the veterinary field and encourages me to keep going. After I earn my BA I will venture off into a new field of work.

I picked visual arts and art history as my minor because art was my first true love and I had every desire to be happy and enjoy what I did work again. I started off my artistic school career wanting to be an illustrator but after a couple of years in school, I found myself with no inspiration, complete art block. Until one semester when I took an alternative photo processing class and when we got to the project where we had to make digital negatives I discovered a new love for photography. I was suddenly inspired again and saw inspiration everywhere. Shortly after I bought my first camera. A Canon Rebel T7. within the first month of buying it, I had already taken over 1,000 photos. I love being in the dark room where I can get lost in the process for hours making black and white prints and seeing beautiful colors when I print digitally. since finding my love for photography I have found that I can better express myself artistically and would love to sell my work someday.