Senior Snapshots, Quarter Four: Family

“Lexi is very creative, kind, focused—when she wants to be—on things like narwhals or the color purple,” Lexi’s mom, Monica Chua, said. 

“Lexi’s like me,” Paul Chua, her dad, added. “She’s very eccentric, very creative, industrious. She can be a silent killer.”

Lexi, according to her parents, is the unassuming and witty one in their family. Although Lexi is the youngest in her immediate and extended family, she has matured to find her own ground and delved deep into her own interests, whether it means sneakily winning at family board game nights or reading all the narwhal books in the school library.

“She’s really learned who she is. She’s tried a lot of things—music, swimming, scuba diving—and she’s really figured out what clicks for her,” Monica said. “It’s funny how, if you just let her be herself, she’s really amazing at what she does.”

“She’s the one who instigates—in a good way,” Monica said. “She’s always like, ‘We should all cook together,’ or, ‘Let’s make cupcakes for the block party,’ or, ‘Let’s all have dinner together at the table. I don’t want to eat by myself.”

“She brings everyone together,” Paul added. 

“I think doing everything outside someone’s comfort zone—like doing a musical, or spending time with different people and having different friends—those are things that are really hard. It sounds simple, but in high school, it’s hard to put yourself at risk and open up, be vulnerable,” Paul said. “I think Lexi’s done a really good job of opening up to other people, including me.”

As she moves to UCLA, the main thing Lexi will miss is being able to see her family every day. “I know I’m going to miss my family a lot. I talk a lot at home, more than I do at school. Not having that social aspect outside of family might be hard to adjust to,” she said. 

“Just having a group to eat dinner with and share about the day—things like that,” she added. “And, knowing that everyone is there at the end of the day to support you, and you can support them.”

Her parents feel similarly. Even though they have their own projects that they’re planning to pursue—Paul will get back into working on cars, and Monica will work on crafts—the house will feel even emptier. 

“I already know what’s going to happen to me. It’s that I’m going to have a breakdown one day, and then it’s out of my system, and then on to the next thing, but it’s a tough transition,” Paul said. Monica mentioned how Paul cried almost all the way back from Chicago when they had dropped Jayna, Lexi’s older sister, off at college. 

“If someone didn’t know, they would have probably thought that someone had died,” Paul said. “It’s going to be like that for Lexi, too.”

Regardless, the Chuas are excited for Lexi’s new adventure. As native Angelenos, they’re looking forward to seeing Lexi find her new home, all the while remembering the one she has in the Bay. 

“I hope she remembers the happy things in her childhood, and why those things made her happy,” Paul said. “Hopefully, she can carry those same things into adulthood.”

“Every girl dreams of something when they are little—a dream house or dream car. Since I was little, I dreamed of having a kid,” Brenda Nunez Hernandez, Yandel’s mother, said. Due to a childhood injury, doctors had told her that she wouldn’t be able to have a child. 

To her, having Yandel was more than a miracle, but also a gift. “He’s my Timothy Green of my life,” she said. “I know that in life, you need to do good things to deserve good things. But sometimes I look at my good things, and I see my son, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, this is too much.’”

Brenda moved to East Palo Alto from Mexico in her youth, and eventually went to school at Carlmont. She recalls taking the bus after school to a liquor store, where she would work until 11 p.m. to make money and raise her siblings. “I’d put my backpack on, look both ways, and start running–never looking back, never stopping, and I’d run all the way home,” she said. 

The building pressure to take care of her siblings due to her parents’ divorce caused her to drop out of high school in her junior year and take on the role of becoming a premature caretaker. “I don’t regret it because my sisters finished high school,” she said. “My sisters finished their dreams.”

Brenda’s difficult childhood, often filled with abuse from her parents, fueled her to create a different reality for her own son. “I educate my son in a way that gives him what I never had. I’m not talking about money, because I tell him money is nothing,” she said. “Love, time, always being there for him—that is something that will be with you for the rest of your life.”

“She sacrificed a lot, and she never gave up, even though she didn’t know how to speak English,” Yandel said. “She never stopped. She never stopped loving. She never hated people. She always forgave them.”

“And that’s exactly why I look up to her so much—because you don’t need to be successful in life, money-wise. All you need, in my opinion, is love, forgiveness, and resilience,” he added.

“Yandel is my motivation every day to go to work. I can work 12, 15, whatever hours because he’s my motivation in every single thing that I do,” Brenda said.

Yandel is set to play soccer at Skyline College next year. Brenda mentioned that it won’t be easy for her to adjust to her son’s absence—even when Yandel was away for a few days on high school field trips, Brenda struggled to be by herself. “I came home and it’s like there were no voices—nobody. All I did those three days that he was out was cry, because I was like, ‘Where is he?’” she said.

No matter what the future holds for her son, Brenda knows that she’ll always be there to support him. “I can’t promise to be with him for the rest of his life, but I’ll promise to love him for the rest of mine,” she said. “I want him to know that he’s the best, best thing that has ever happened to me. I would pass through everything again—every single thing—just to have him again because he’s such a blessing.”

“Growing up, Ofa was like the star of our family,” Grace Tahaafe, Ofa’s older sister, said. “In Tongan, we have a saying that’s called ‘the bella,’ which is kind of the favorite, and I’d say that Ofa was kind of our bella in our family.”

“Ofa has always been a dancer since she was a baby. When I think of our younger times, I just think of her always dancing, always being like the star of our family, and just being outgoing,” Grace said.

“She’s very outgoing, a very fun person to be around, and she’s authentically herself,” Grace said. “She’s also very loving to her people, to our siblings. She puts others first before her own, and I love that about her.”

Grace, who is 19, is just a year older than Ofa. Their closeness in age has made them become each other’s “built-in best friends,” whether they need a shoulder to cry on or a voice of reason.

“I know that I can go through a lot of trials and tribulations in my own life, and I love knowing that I have her by my side,” Ofa said. “I love having her as an older sister and as a role model to guide me and lead me on the right path.”

Both Ofa and Grace attended Eastside Prep, but Ofa transferred to M-A for her senior year. While admiring from afar, Grace has come to appreciate not only M-A’s welcoming environment, but also her sister’s ability to open up and transition so quickly to a new school. “I know that it could be hard moving from high school, so that adjustment—seeing her adjust really easily—was something nice to see,” Grace said. 

“I’m proud of her,” Grace said. “I feel like that’s something not only I, but our family, doesn’t tell her enough.”

As Ofa moves on to college, Grace hopes Ofa will prioritize herself before others. “She’s very selfless. She puts others before herself, and she’d rather care about others than her own well-being, so that’s why my advice is to just put yourself first sometimes,” Grace said.

Grace is currently studying to become a medical assistant and has also served as a guiding light for Ofa, who is looking to pursue a career in health and medicine as well. However, despite Ofa looking up to Grace, Grace often also sees Ofa as a role model.

“Ofa is more mature than she is for her age. She’s very emotionally intelligent,” Grace said. “She knows how to communicate that as well. I feel like she does those things better than I do, actually.”

“She’s more of the voice on my shoulder than I am to her,” Grace said. “I feel like, as the oldest, sometimes I think my decisions are the best, and I can just go do things on my own. But having her as my sibling, she’s just there to reassure me and give me reminders of what I should really be focusing on, or things like that.”

“To me, family means love. It means everything. Without my family, I don’t think I’d be where I am today,” Ofa said.

“In the Tongan culture, family is a big thing. We always say: love others the way you want to be loved, or treat others the way you want to be treated. My family is my biggest and best support system,” Ofa added. “We can’t always rely on others, but we can rely on family, because at the end of the day, that’s all we have.”

As the eldest in a family of three, Xander has consistently and proudly borne the title of a role model. “Xander is very hardworking and loving, and he’s a really good person to look up to,” Emma Eschelman, Xander’s youngest sister, said. “He always tries his best, and he’s devoted to everything he does.”

Beyond setting an example for his sisters, Xander also takes on two even more important roles: a morning mood-lifter and chauffeur for his younger sister. “Emma makes me drive her to school in the morning because she ‘can’t walk,’” Xander said. 

“I would say she’s usually definitely not a morning person. Sometimes, she’ll get in little arguments with my sister or my mom in the morning because she’s kind of grumpy,” he added. “So, whenever I drive her to school, I’m always trying to be overly energetic to pick her up.”

“Usually, I get to her. If she’s super grumpy, she’ll stay grumpy, but usually I’ll play music loud and bounce around in the car, and she’ll crack a smile. So that’s always good,” Xander said.

During high school, Xander realized that the time he spends with his family is becoming increasingly limited, which makes each moment all the more valuable. “I didn’t fully appreciate family dinners until recently. It was always just a given—I’d come home and eat dinner with my family,” he said. “But, getting to high school, I saw that not everyone does that.”

Naturally, his family is also closely tied to football. Xander’s grandpa and father both played at Stanford, while his cousin played at Washington. “Football’s always been a big thing in our family. I think I was always kind of destined to play football at some level,” he said. 

Despite these continued legacies of football players, Xander said that his family never pushed him to fit into anyone’s shoes. “They let me choose, but I looked up to my uncle, my dad, and my cousin, so I wanted to be like them and play football from a young age,” he said. “That’s something they influenced.”

This sort of constant support system has helped Xander navigate the ups and downs of high school. “Regardless of what’s going on in my life—sports, school, whatever—it’s helpful just having a nice, supportive family to come home to,” he said. “We’re all going to eat together. Regardless of what’s going on, I know the world’s not ending.”

The freedom Xander has received from his parents comes from a place of love and trust. These values have inspired Xander, especially when thinking about the kind of family he wants to build in the future.

“Both my parents are really hardworking. They set the tone for what they expect from us. There’s never a question of whether I would get my stuff done—it’s just expected,” he said. “They’re not very strict, but they hold us to a high standard. It’s not that we get punished if we don’t meet it, but I’ve always wanted to make sure I’m doing what they want me to do, not to avoid punishment but to make them proud.”

After moving back and forth between Utah and California, Mattea settled in Menlo Park for high school with her nana. “Mattea’s a very nice, quiet person. She’s smart, gorgeous, and she loves to be in the mirror,” Patricia Martin Harris, her grandmother, or “nana,” said. 

Although Mattea didn’t permanently live with her nana until high school, as she grew up in Modesto and Stockton, her nana visited often. “She was my first grandchild,” her nana said. “I would pick her up every Friday.” 

From surprising Mattea for her birthday in elementary school, to annual family vacations and the funny stories that come with them, it is evident that her nana has always enjoyed supporting and spending time with her.  

Freshly relocated to California in her freshman year, adjusting to a new community proved difficult. “I’m proud of how Mattea has grown. She has truly grown and matured, and I think it’s probably because she feels more stable now,” Patricia said.

Mattea and her nana have a beautiful home. With cousins, aunties, and uncles close by, the house is almost never void of family members and the love that they bring. One cousin significantly impacted Mattea during her high school years. 

“Someone who really sticks out to me is my cousin Jaysce,” Mattea said. “She’s just such a social butterfly, and I’ve always admired her for that. She’s very outgoing and really knows how to talk to people.” Both Mattea and Nana credit a significant shift in Mattea’s confidence at school to the companionship that Jaysce brought when she joined M-A a grade below Mattea. 

“She helped me get out of my shell in high school,” Mattea said. “Family is the people who are always there for you and always have your back. Whether in the wrong or in the right, they help you grow.”

“She reminds me a lot of my son,” Patricia said about Mattea’s late father, Jamal Harris. “She has a lot of my son’s ways, so that helps me out a lot. Mattea brings me happiness, and I learn a lot from her. I’m drinking more water now since she bought me a Stanley.”

They both help each other in many ways. “What I love most about my Nana is how giving and forgiving she is,” Mattea said. “She can be very understanding, and I feel very comfortable talking about things with her most of the time.”

Although Mattea is staying close at San Jose State University, they’re both preparing for the distance from home. “I’ll miss the security. I’ll definitely miss my room, my room and I are best friends,” Mattea joked. “I’ll miss the comfort of being around family, because going to college, I have to be around new people.”

“I’m gonna miss going to her room and saying, ‘okay, let’s pray together,” Patricia said. “I hope she knows she has a place, she has a home, this is her house. I want her to know I’ll always love her.”

“I just want to be part of her life forever and always, because I love her very much,” she concluded.

“Your family knows things about you that you don’t even know about yourself,” Jayden said. Jayden and Jordan “Jodi” Lavulo’s relationship as cousins proves his theory correct. 

The two grew up together in East Palo Alto until Jayden moved to Utah when he was ten. Although Jodi visited him occasionally, they were able to fully reunite once Jayden moved back in his sophomore year. 

“Jayden’s a very enthusiastic person, he’s always been very creative and very outgoing—at least when we were younger, but you know he can get shy sometimes,” Jodi said. 

“I admire Jordan for his personality, like how he can talk to anyone,” Jayden said. “He’s a loyal person, and I admire how he treats people.”

Only a year apart, the two shared many high school memories together. From football at M-A to Rugby with the EPA Razorhawks, their friendship remained close. “Jayden has a very good work ethic when it comes to school and sports,” Jodi said. “Last season, he came to almost every morning workout, even when nobody was coming, and with school, he’s always been a very big academic weapon.”

Since playing rugby at the park together from a young age, they’ve grown into committed athletes who hold each other accountable. “During morning lifts, when almost none of our friends really wanted to go, it was mainly just us two,” Jayden said. “But that’s what kept us motivated to go because we had each other there.”

They’ve learned valuable lessons experiencing their teenage years together. “One of the lessons I think we’ve learned together was to see the glass half full instead of half empty,” Jodi said. “It’s important to always see the best in things, especially as you go into becoming more independent in college.”

Despite encouraging him to remember this advice, Jodi has also admired Jayden’s perseverance during childhood until now. 

“I’m proud of how he faces adversity. He came back to football after transferring in his sophomore year and had some difficulties with the transcript process from his old school,” Jodi said. “For him to keep coming to our practices and offseason within the year, and the way he finished this season strong—I’m really proud of that.”

Throughout his time at M-A, Jodi and Jayden stuck together, proving the importance of family to encourage each other. “I don’t want to sound cringey, but I feel like family is like everything,” Jayden said.. “They’re the ones that are always going to be with you and have your back and be in your corner when you’re at your lowest.”

“I just feel you’re not going to trust anyone as much as you’re going to trust your family, and no one’s going to know you as much as they do,” Jayden concluded. 

Reflecting on the years together, Jodi feels nostalgic. “I feel like time’s flown by really fast, you know, I still remember being a freshman and Jayden transferring over as a sophomore,” Jodi said. “I’m really proud that he’s graduating from here.”

Angeleah’s interview with her mom, Maritza Rivera, took place at the perfect location. At Red Morton Park, where she has cheered at, had picnics with her sister, and leisurely walked around, the park represented much of the nuanced and layered nature of Angeleah. 

“Angeleah is very smart, very funny, she is a sweetheart, and has a heart of gold,” Maritza said. “She’s overall just an amazing, amazing young woman. She really is a good friend, a good daughter, and a good sister.”

Angeleah and her mom are similar in many ways, but one way in particular is their shared commitment to family. 

“To me, family means everyone supporting each other,” Angeleah said. “Friendship can go on and off, but with family, it’s always going to be there.”

Despite the unconditional love and connection of family, Angeleah is intentional in fostering relationships while chasing her ambitions. “I’d have to say her number one quality is that she’s determined and she’s competitive,” Martiza said. “She means business, and if she wants something, she goes and gets it. She doesn’t let anything stop her, she doesn’t let her height stop her,” she joked. 

“She does a lot and still has time to like to make family events and show up for her brother, sister, and for me,” Martiza said. From helping her younger sister with her homework to cooking up posole, tamales, or gumbo in the kitchen, Angeleah gives back gladly to her family.

But Angeleah’s boldness took time to develop. “When Angeleah was little, she was very quiet. She only talked to me and wouldn’t talk to other kids,” Maritza added. “She has changed a lot and she’s improved.”

Angeleah emphasized that her growth wouldn’t have been possible without the support from her mom and her loved ones. “I still get really shy sometimes during presentations and stuff like that,” she said. “ I think it depends if people are there supporting me, I wouldn’t be that scared to present if my friends were there and cheering me on. The more support I got, the more confident I felt.”

Angeleah’s academic prowess has only improved since her youth. Her mom reminisced on Angie’s intelligence, saying she had her first words at the age of two, one of them being “calculator.”  

“Whatever book the teacher read to the class, Angeleah would literally come home and say that story happened at school that day,” Maritza said. 

As Angeleah follows her academic pursuit to higher education, Maritza hopes she remembers what she’s rooted in. “No matter where you are, no matter what school, what job position, whatever you decide to do in your career, never forget who you are and where you came from,” she said. “It’s all about family at the end of the day.”

“I’m going to miss hugging my family,” Angeleah said. 

“It’s mixed emotions for sure,” Maritza said. “I’m so sad, I’m gonna miss her so much, but I’m so happy for her and I want her to do very well. She is a huge factor in our family; she’s the backbone, she’s the glue to the family, so I’m going to miss her. As long as she comes every single holiday and does not decide to spend it with her friends at her new school, we’re good,” they laughed together.

“My mom’s a badass lawyer,” Paul said in his first quarter interview. “I love her to death.”

Gabrielle Whelan adopted Paul from Chita, Russia, when he was four years old. Before committing to a certain child to adopt, Gabrielle had surveyed an array of different photos—Paul’s stood out. “He looked very proud in his picture,” she said. “He was standing up very straight. He just looked like he was going to contribute something to the world.”

“He knows what he wants, that’s for sure. The first time I met him, we went into the living room and played games—they had a lot of construction-oriented games, like hammering, screwing things, and sawing. He really liked that,” Gabrielle said. “But then, after about an hour, I think he had grown tired of that, and he went and faced the door like he was ready to go.”

Gabrielle had visited the adoption center with her mother. “We were playing a game where we tossed the ball from person to person, and for some reason, my mom wasn’t getting the ball thrown to her,” Gabrielle said. “Paul noticed that and threw the ball to my mom. I definitely noticed that—my mom cried.”

At four and a half years, Paul moved to San Francisco with his mom, despite not knowing any English. Paul attended a Russian-speaking preschool there, and eventually attended elementary school in Alamo before moving down to the South Bay in second grade.

Gabrielle doesn’t think Paul has changed much from when he was a kid—he was always someone outgoing, creative, and expressive. “I remember he was an incredible dancer,” she said. “I feel like, as a parent, I could never take my eyes off him when he was dancing. He was fantastic.”

On Saturdays, she and Paul would ride their bikes in Golden Gate Park and visit the de Young Museum. “They always had art projects on Saturday mornings, and I remember his art projects were always incredible,” she said. “It kind of makes sense, seeing him now, that he’s going to study architecture. From the first minute I met him, he was building.”

Paul’s mother and grandmother’s love for art also inspired his passions in architecture. When he was seven, he visited Modernism Week in Palm Springs with them. “You can tour these historically significant homes that were built in the ‘50s. And, of course, I was usually the youngest person on the tours. I was with, like, 80-year-olds,” he said.

“I think we went for five consecutive years, and every time I would see the homes, just walking through them and getting the vibe, and imagine, ‘Oh, imagine the parties I could hold here.’ I was like, ‘I want to become an architect and create these beautiful spaces where people are interacting, where people are creating connections,’” he added. 

As Paul leaves for college, there are many things he’ll miss. “The cooking. Always having someone that I know I can laugh with and be really honest with,” he said. Someone I can do anything with—whether it be having a deep conversation or a little dance party in the living room. It’s those little things I do with her that I’ll definitely really miss going into college.”