Ms. Marlene Sanchez did not intend to immigrate into the United States. She also did not intend to fall in love with her future husband within hours of being in the USA, begin living in California, or to get married within her first year in the States. However, fate is fate, and she doesn’t regret a second of it. Ms. Sanchez spent the next two years watching soap operas to learn English, as well as practicing to speak it with her husband. Because Ms. Sanchez had immigrated when she was 20, she was in the middle of her college career. After she learned the language, she wanted to get back into classes, so she continued her studies in Business Administration. However, she paused her education again after a year because she gave birth to her son while also trying to balance a full-time job. After giving birth to her second son and waiting five more years, Ms. Sanchez finally finished her schooling and received a degree in Business Management and certificates for Global Logistics.
When I asked Ms. Marlene what the biggest change she experienced was, she commented that she had to grow up very quickly. In Peru, her entire culture was different from the American lifestyle. She never had to cook or do laundry, because her family had a maid who took care of those things. Her husband had to teach her how to do all of that, and how to be independent in general. Often, he was away on deployments for the Navy, so she needed to tend to the entire house by herself. Although the change was so drastic, Ms. Sanchez said that she was eager to learn to take care of herself, as well as other new customs. American culture demands for people to manage themselves, so Ms. Sanchez also made sure that her sons would be okay on their own.
One of the most important things I learned from our interview was how to be happier. Ms. Sanchez noted that her immigration probably would have taken a bigger emotional toll on her if she didn’t have the attitude she did. She just went with the flow and appreciated the things she had in life, which made it very easy to be happy. Ms. Sanchez says that, if her husband called her and asked her to move to China right now, she’d say “Okay, let’s do it”. I decided that, from now on, I’m going to say “Okay, let’s do it” more often and have fun while I still can. 
