“I don’t like my school. I wanted to transfer, but I decided to just accept it and try to change it,” says 17-year-old Jillian Sanchez, who is soon to be a senior at Centennial High School. “So I tried to start a literary magazine, but there wasn’t enough funding.”
Despite the dislike for her school, Sanchez still has goals. At the moment she is uncertain if she wants to pursue a career in photojournalism or not, but she is planning to attend an arts school. She decided to take the summer journalism workshop to help her decide if photojournalism would be an enjoyable career choice.
“I guess I came to figure out what I want to do. I’m just testing everything out.”
With thoughts of the future put aside, Sanchez spends much of her spare time reading, writing and doing what she describes as, “normal teenage things.”
Though she describes herself as an avid reader, Sanchez still has time to hang out with her friends. Her friends have the qualities which she holds as most valuable, being that they are bluntly honest and can always make her laugh with their random jokes.
Sanchez, a Bakersfield native, lives with her younger sister and parents. She looks up to her parents, especially her mother, who she says is her role model.
“My mom is just so self-sacrificing, I wonder if I could ever do that,” she explains.
As far as boyfriends go, Sanchez has had a steady one for about seven months. They met last year at a friend’s birthday party, but didn’t decide to start dating until after the school year began.
Though she has a boyfriend now, her plans for the future include plenty of time to find out what she wants out of life. She says she definitely wants to get married someday, but first and foremost, she wants a career that she loves.