Facing Arizona: ‘I love meeting and talking to people’

Editor’s note: Facing Arizona is a series that will appear on KTAR.com and social media  — follow KTAR News on Instagram and Facebook for updates — highlighting unique and everyday people across our state and give you a glimpse into their lives.

I am 22 years old. I was born in Santa Cruz, Calif. but raised in Modesto.

I moved to Tucson when I was 16 to stay with family here. The area I grew up was pretty was rough. There was a lot of gang activity, drug dealers and gun violence. My mother didn’t want me to be surrounded by that anymore. She was afraid something would happen to me. I didn’t want to be surrounded by that anymore, I’ve never been in any trouble, so I moved here. I graduated high school and now I’m trying to make a better life for myself.

I have my state residency — which is important for tuition reasons — a regular job that pays pretty good and is steady. So now it’s time for me to take the next step and go to college. I’ll start taking classes this fall and I would like to focus on photography and video work. I have always been interested in doing both.

I love meeting and talking to people and I feel everyone has something to say, a story to tell. I feel I can give them an opportunity to do that. Like you talking to me and asking me to tell a little part of my story, that’s what I want to do. I want to travel and meet people from different places and really learn about the world around me. I want to take some business classes as well.

I would like to be able to work for myself, but I know nothing about owning a business. I figure it would be a good idea to learn about that also. You can’t be successful if you don’t have the knowledge to back up your dreams. I’m hopeful about my future.

I’m grateful that I have family here that was willing to take me in and now I have better opportunities than I did back home. I honestly don’t know where I would be right now had I not had that chance. — Roberto