I get a text to meet in the college counseling room instead of our usual place in Ms. Bodden’s room. When I walk in, Eunice Ineza is sprawled over the arm of the red couch in the corner of the room
“Sorry, Karen. I was just really comfy and I didn’t want to move,” Eunice says.
Marina Sandoval joins us and sits in the rocking chair. Senior year has been fine for both Marina and Eunice. They’ve been getting good grades, keeping homework in check, everything is great. But Eunice doesn’t have the energy anymore.
“Honestly, it’s fine,” Eunice tells me. “I just—aghhhh—I give up. I don’t wanna do school anymore.”
Although Marina and Eunice have only been at The Gregory School together since freshman year, their friendship goes way back to fifth grade in elementary school when Marina played the cello and Eunice played the viola.
Marina laughs. “We were in orchestra and I used to mess with her hair and she played viola and—”
“SHH. Marina, we’re going to stop talking about that because you’re gonna seem like a bully.” Eunice cuts her off and sits up.
“Eh, but it’s kinda funny,” Marina argues. “You pull her hair, it sticks straight up.”
The two of them laugh at the memory. After fifth grade, they split and then years later, met again the summer before freshman year during basketball practice. They have been playing sports—basketball and volleyball—together since.
But the best part about Eunice and Marina’s bond that it is lined with food; some of their best memories have food somewhere in the mix and many of their good moments together happen in the mall.
“Most of the time it’s Marina buying clothes and me going to get food,” Eunice tells me.
Marina agrees. “That’s true! It’s all about the food. Food is just great.”
And if it isn’t a mall where they’re having fun, you could find Marina and Eunice laughing in their rooms at the state tournament for volleyball and basketball or partying it up at the Arizona Thespian Conference.
Marina reenacts it: “So I’ll be, like, screaming in the corner of the room going, ‘EUNI’ and she’s like, ‘Marina!’ It was actually really fun.”
Before we part, I ask Marina and Eunice to choose five words to describe each other.
Marina starts describing Eunice as compassionate, athletic (obviously), tall and…
“Um...hmm…” Marina is trying to find the words. “She’s, like, wise. Like, you would have to be her friend to understand it, but I’d say she’s wise, honestly. And beautiful, I would say. Because she represents—I mean, she’s not from [the U.S.], she’s from Rwanda, and so she represents a whole different culture than people here. Like, she’s not just both physically beautiful, but what she represents is beautiful.”
Eunice says that Marina is caring, outgoing, smart, clever and very determined about certain things.
Eventually, we have to split up, but even when interviewing Marina and Eunice at different times, their answers are the same. As a life goal, both of them want to travel and see the world to experience different cultures. They also give advice for underclassmen: DON’T PROCRASTINATE.
“Do your homework the day it is assigned,” Marina says. “I was told that when I was in sixth grade and I still never did it ‘til eighth grade. But I tried it for a week, I think, and it actually worked so...do your homework.”
Eunice and Marina have many more fun times ahead of them, hoping to study medicine in the future (Eunice wants to be a neurosurgeon. Marina is considering becoming an ER surgeon.). Until then, all they hope is that everything in life works out.
Written by Karen Jie
Commenti