Fast Food

Who hasn’t eaten fast food as a kid? I know I did. It was almost every other day as well. I remember when I was a kid, everyday when my dad came home from work he would surprise me with bags of chips or candy. Everyday, I would eat bags of Hot Cheetos. I didn’t care about being healthy but just of how awesome it tasted. I would eat my Cheetos in a bowl with lemon and a pepsi on the side. I just enjoyed how I can have something a bit spicy and have it cooled down with a drink. I have two older sisters that are nine and six years older than me. Once they started working, almost everyday they would buy either Toppers pizza, Carl’s jr, and In N Out. If one day we had pizza we would always get a large pepperoni pizza with extra pepperoni and a side order of garlic bread with extra parmersean and garlic. With my pizza, I would always get side cups of ranch dressing. As for hamburgers, I am plain. I would just a hamburger with cheese, ketchup, pickles, lettuce, and mayonnaise. But I would sometimes get a double meat burger. There is this place in Oxnard called “Wins” and they have the best chili cheese fries. They are so greasy but extremely delicious. When I was younger, my dentist was right around the corner, and when  I was finished after seeing my doctor, my mom would take me there and I would get five tacos and chili cheese fries with a vanilla shake.

            As of now, I don’t eat fast food anymore. Very rarely would I go out and eat fast food but almost never. I see it more as a treat than a necessity. I stopped eating fast food since February. It wasn’t by choice but because I had to. I was hospitalized for two and a half weeks, and there I found out I have Polycystic Kidney Disease. I found out it is hereditary and I was the lucky one. Because of my disease, that causes me to have hypertension. Having hypertension, I can’t be eating out as much as I used to because of the amount of salt fast food has. I no longer drink soda. I only drink water and carry it with me everywhere I go. Occasionally, I will have lemonade and the only time I will have it is if I go to a restaurant with my family or friends. I am happy with my lifestyle of eating now, because I do save a lot of money, and I am living a much healthier life. Not only that but I am taking care of my health and drinking my medicine on time. I don’t feel lethargic like I used to when I would eat fast food, instead I feel alive and ready to go with energy.  

Jessica Mendez

            Ever since I was a little girl, I was a very adventurous and outgoing girl. If almost anyone dared me to do something I would be that girl that does it and wasn’t afraid.  I also didn’t like how boys are better than girls because I would prove them wrong. When I was about sixteen years old, my family and I went to South Africa on vacation. As we were traveling, we see people bunjee jump off a bridge in Victoria Falls. My sister dares me to bunjee jump off of it. I was bummed that I had to have a parental consent. I don’t know how I did it, but I tricked my dad into signing it. As soon as I was next, I was extremely scared to let go but once I did it was the most amazing thing I have ever done. I also did a lot of paintballing with friends and family.  I remember in third grade that my dream goal was to become a teacher because I enjoy helping others. At the time I believed that teachers were amazing people because they were there to teach you and to help you learn many things in different subjects.  At the age of 14, I got my first job as a tutor at the company called “The Tutoring Center.” There I taught kids from the ages of 4-18 in math, reading, and writing. Having that experience I knew I wanted to be a teacher of some sort. Once I graduated from high school, I was fortunate to be a college tutor in math at Oxnard High School as well as be an administrative assistant.

            I am now nineteen years old and I still do these crazy adventurous. I already booked my plane ticket to go to Utah to go snowboarding for the winter in December. It is a bit hard to go paintballing with my friends nowadays because not only do they go to school but they also have jobs. So it is very difficult for all of us to hang out. Some of us would have to take days off or just not go. Just this summer, my family and I still travel out to places and this time we decided to go to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was gorgeous but we did a lot of walking. My career goals of being a teacher have not changed. I still want to be a teacher in Biology and Chemistry. As much as I enjoy doing math, I don’t think I could go to school for it.

           

            As for my future, I hope to continue my wonderful adventures with family. I also see myself teaching high school kids because they are our future generation and teachers have a great influence just as much as their parents do. I hope to have a great influence on students just as much as my past teachers had on me. I also would like to have a husband who has the same interests as I do. Possibly having children together and just being a family. I would like to live in Newbury Park or the Thousand Oaks area. I would like to drive nice cars and hoping to live a great life and not have to worry so much about “do I have enough money for next months bills?”