Sra. Gomez

I grew up in Spain, and I'm the youngest of 8 siblings. I love having a big family. I grew up pretty free in a mid-sized town. I loved having the freedom that comes with growing up in a small place. And then, I went to university also in Spain, in a town called Cáceres, and I also really loved it because, in Spain, everybody is very social. We love Fiesta and partying, and it was a really fun experience.

I studied to be an English teacher. That was my major. When I grew up, when I went to university, I never had a native English teacher. So even though my major was in English, I couldn't communicate very well in English. Then, after I finished my career, there was a time when I felt like I really wanted to improve my English. So I left everything and had very little money.

I only had $3,000, and I took my little money and decided to move to England on my own. Just because I wanted to improve my English, but I didn't know anybody there. I didn't know what to expect. I just wanted a little bit of adventure. And in England, while I was learning English, I did a lot of fun jobs.

I started teaching in small primary schools all over England, and that was an awesome experience because I got to work with kids in underprivileged areas. It was a lot of fun and a great experience.

Who doesn't love exploring different cultures, trying different food, speaking with people and hearing about their stories? That's the most fun part of life for me. The more you travel, the more you want to travel, and the more you want to explore, and meet new people, and new cultures.

I think life in Spain, just the daily routine, and the way that people experience life back home, is extremely different from the way that we experience life in North America. For example, in Spain, people work to live instead of living to work. I mean that they don't let work interfere with their family life and their social life. While here, I feel like it's the opposite, where sometimes, when people work a lot, they don't leave enough time to spend with family and close friends.

Your family, your friends, depend on them; talk to them. But also, just knowing that every difficulty and every struggle you go through in life is a learning opportunity. And everybody needs to know that you will come out of it stronger. And it's hard to see that when you're in the middle of that situation, but you'll see how it prepares you better to deal with other things in life.

We come out of those situations stronger; you learn, and it better prepares us because life is not easy. There's always gonna be struggles. These situations will help you be stronger.