NORFOLK – “I am someone who likes to be happy while making the people around her happy.” That is how Erika Ramirez describes herself.  

Ramirez, 18, was born on June 5, 2001 in California. Her family moved to Mexico when she was seven years old and had lived there for about eight years, moved back to California to live with her grandmother for a year and back to Mexico for another two years.  

She later came to Nebraska to visit her aunt and ended up deciding to continue her education here and staying for a longer term. “There are a lot more opportunities here than in Mexico, more scholarships, jobs, colleges,” Ramirez said.  

Even though Ramirez has been on her own for about four years she said, “living here on my own really kicked my life off, it can be hard because there is a lot of things that I have to think about like work, college, bills and also trying to help out my mom.” 

Her mother still currently lives in Mexico with her sister Jasmine, age 17, while her father lives in California. “Living without my mom has been really difficult, what I miss most is her not being able to be there for me,” Ramirez said.  

She is currently a freshman at Northeast Community College and is undecided on her major. She said she chose Northeast because it is inexpensive, but also helps prepare its students for bigger universities and liked that there are also a lot of tutors and courses that are specifically made to help you within a certain class.  

She currently works at Walmart in the online pickup department. She makes a work shift easier on other employees, coworker Trisha Grevson said, “Erika is a hard worker, dedicated and a pleasure to work with.” 

During her work shift, Ramirez prefers staying busy and handling a larger number of customers. However, in the slower times at work, she will always play her part in creating a fun environment with her coworkers to pass the time.  

With her dark brown eyes and long brown hair, she can appear to be a quiet and reserved girl in the beginning. However, once you have conversations with her and get to know her you can see her true self. She is also someone that you can have a good conversation with and will always make sure to ask questions with the other person.  

For the future she is hoping to find a career wherever she is comfortable, but does not feel forced to go to work, “I just hope that in the future I am able to make something productive and not live like I do now,” Ramirez said.  

Ramirez said she feels like she looks at things in a different way than most people, when people say they are going to purchase a big house and a fancier car, Ramirez tends to recognize the hard work and dedication that needs to be put into actually accomplishing that.  

From moving around a few times, Ramirez has picked up on a lot of interesting characteristics each place and environment has. She said, “California is so different from here in Nebraska because school here is very important and teachers want to make sure that everyone has a chance to do something and have a decent job, in California school is not as much of a priority,” she said. 

 She also said that the style of living in California feels like you are in a rush every day with the busy highways and more people in the streets while Mexico is calmer and more relaxing with the fresh air and birds chirping.