Kendall: What is one of the experiences that has impacted you throughout your life?
Duncan: Well, if I had to think about it, a pretty big thing that impacted me is growing up in Mexico, actually. I was born in California in the US, but I moved to Mexico when I was six years old and lived there for about five years. And living in a different culture, different community with different values, and even in a whole entire different language has really just probably changed my life in a bunch of numerous ways.
Kendall: How would you say it changed your life the most?
Duncan: It changed my life the most through how I interact with other people, probably. In Mexico, it’s already tough meeting new friends, going to school for the first time, but going to a new school where you don’t even know the language is probably infinitely more difficult. So I had to struggle with acclimating to a new social climate, as well as grappling with not even knowing the language. So I think that’s probably impacted me in my life past that.
Kendall: How has it been for you since coming back to the US? Has it been weird? What kind of experiences have you had?
Duncan: When I first got back, it actually wasn’t that difficult acclimating back to the US. It almost felt like, even though I lived in Mexico for so long, that the US was both my home and also not my home. It was weird, but once I got into the middle school that I was in, I just realized that, you know, the kids in that middle school were pretty much just the same as the kids in Mexico; however, it was a little tricky, like, losing all those friends that I had made in Mexico and making a bunch of new ones, which is just a typical thing that happens when changing schools, but that was pretty tough.
Kendall Richter is a senior at the Academy of Arts, Careers, and Technology. KUNR’s youth media program is a special partnership with the Washoe County School District to train the next generation of journalists.
