Name: Valentín Calvillo
Birth: July 10th 1995
Major: Biochemistry
Year: Junior
When and where were you happiest?
Valentín Calvillo, junior, shares his experiences and responds to our questions.
I think that happiness comes and goes, and we must learn to look for these moments that make us happy to feel content. I like to believe that I am happy when I am with my friends and family, when I don’t have any worries or problems burdening my shoulders. Where the sky is clear and sunny, and the temperature and humidity is just right. Those sort of moments are the times that I am happy. Knowing that my family is well. Seeing my mother laughing and having a good time and knowing that she is comfortable after so many years of hard work and laborer chores, especially after my parents got divorced.
There are many moments that I remember being happy, because I think that many of us are not happy with our current situation in which one is placed or placed himself. I have classes and work and other things that are an annoyance in life that can make somebody not feel happy. But in that situation, what is the right response or the right action to that feeling? Do we turn to drugs and alcohol for a momentary feeling of pleasure or do we take our time and effort to work on ourselves in order to become somebody who we are content with? I like to believe that working on oneself should be the best method to accomplish this lifelong journey, and that is currently what I am working on.
I remember a few moments in SST while in Senegal that I felt a brief moment of happiness and being content. It was the last week of before our SST group would see each other again and then we would head to our resort, but that last week I got injured. I was playing soccer and I didn’t stretch well and I think I ended up pulling something on my leg. It didn’t hurt at first, but later that night I started to feel cold when it was really warm outside. I went back to my room to sleep and I broke out in a fever. I didn’t know what it was and took some ibuprofen to ease down the pain, but I was also light headed and felt like vomiting. It was just a bad situation to be in. What made it worse is that my room was being shared by 3 other people and there was no circulation because I was sleeping in the corner under the window and the other people would close the door because it was “cold”. I was breaking out in a fever, feeling lightheaded and feeling like vomiting, and I forgot to mention, but my leg was in extreme pain and couldn’t move it and it was so swollen and the room was extremely hot because we had to use mosquito neat which would reduce air circulation. I still remember that night and that was probably the first time that I’ve experience the true fear of death. It was just bad and I kept having fevers for the next 3 days till I was taken to the hospital. The doctor didn’t know what it was causing the fever so he just gave me some antibiotics. Well, it turns out that I was allergic to those type of antibiotics and started developing red, itchy and painful rashes all over my body.
I was definitely not in a good position, and I think the moment that I was sitting on the plane, heading back to Goshen, I think I was really content. When we were picked up from the airport and drove to McDonalds for food, I was really happy. When I arrived at Goshen College commuter parking lot, the same place we got on the bus to take us to the airport, I was really happy too. When I saw my father and he took me home. I was like “is this real?” and was so glad to be back. I was happy when I ate my first bowl of coco Krispies and ate my mom’s famous enchiladas, when I took my first warm shower back and put on clean clothes that didn’t have sand on them, when I was able to be in an air-conditioned room, when I was able to go to a store and buy something that I wanted and just being with my family and dog and being able to speak Spanish and English. These were the moments that I was really happy and looking back at it now, it makes me happy to know that I have all of these things in my life.
What was one of the most defining moments in your life?
I think that one of the most defining moments in one’s life comes when you do something that either scares you or something that you don’t expect to do at all. Last semester there was a student on my floor that had done something that I have never experienced before. He had intentionally tried to take his own life by cutting his wrist with a razor blade. It also didn’t help that he was drunk out of his mind. When he started to bang on my door I was “what the f…?” and when I opened it, he stared to yell “I’m bleeding” and “I’m going to die!!”. I was pretty scared and I didn’t know what to do. But then adrenaline kicked in, I told him to calm down. I gave him some bandages and told him to put pressure on his wound. Reena was with me and told her to call Chad. I called 911 and was on the phone with them till help came. It was just a bad moment, but I stood up and did something that I thought that I would never do. I was afraid and yet I did what was right. He ended up being okay, and is currently with family and receiving help. I am really glad that I was there for him, because I had barely arrived with food a couple of minutes’ prior this happening. Imagine if I would’ve taken a bit longer with food or had gone out and not return to later in the night.
If you were president, what is the first thing you would do?
If I was president, I would hope to do many great things. One thing for sure is that I would like to decrease the military expenditure of the US because paying billions of dollars for something that only causes more violence and hate, should not be something that needs the main focus of the US. I would also like provide free tuition to public schools and support programs such as EPA and Planned parenthood and be more like Bernie Sanders in a way. I think that instead of focusing on foreign policy, and focus on the domestic affairs here in the United States, his country in fact could be “great again”.
What does a perfect day look like to you?
A perfect day for me is waking up around 9am and not feeling tired or still sleepy. Wake up, take a shower, eat a really good breakfast, and make my bed all under one hour. Then, I would go visit my mother and brothers where we could go to watch a movie or go visit my grandmother, and go back home and still be back by 12pm. After playing with my indoor dog, I would like to go back to college and so some of my homework, in order to feel like I did something productive. I would finish all my readings for the week and study a bit for physics, all under two hours. By the time I am done, it would be time for lunch. I would invite Reena to lunch with my mother in a small shop called south side soda shop here in Goshen. We would eat and have a good time and by the time we are done, it’s 5pm. I would head back to my room and maybe watch a movie or watch some Naruto. I would also get notification that I received a scholarship for free schooling for next year. I would also, somehow, get a vision that would show me what I want to do with the rest of my life. Around 7pm, I would go and hang out with my friends from high school that I haven’t seen in a while. By dinner time, I would invite Reena to go to Venturi’s. I would get the pesto and ricotta cheese pizza because it’s so amazing. We would have a nice dinner and then head back and watch a movie and then go to sleep early around 11pm in order to feel refreshed the next day.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
One thing that I would like to change about myself is to improve my ability to do public speaking and to have more confidence in myself. The lack of confidence can be something that many of us have to deal with and it’s also something that is not early attainable. Not only would confidence help me with my personal development, but I would also just feel more confidence about being myself. If one is more confidence with being themselves, then the need to change themselves is not really important.
What do you feel most proud of? I feel the proudest about being in college. I come from a poor and uneducated family, and I am one of the few in my big family to go to college and the first in my immediate one to go. My parents didn’t even complete middle school, so for me going to college is a huge achievement, but I also feel that it is not enough and that I must succeed.
SHORT ANSWERS
What is your strongest personal quality? A strong quality that I have is that I am honest and understanding when looking at a conflict.
What is a skill you would like to learn and why? I would like to learn how to cook a lot better. I think it would be beneficial for when I am older and cooking for myself that be able to eat good and healthy food.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I always use “however” in almost all of my papers and when I am talking.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? I think that the virtue of beauty is pretty overrated. Yeah, there are beautiful people out there and what not, but sometimes people forget that we are all human and making somebody feel lesser solely because he/she doesn’t fit the other persons “beauty” standard is inhumane.
What teach in school made the most impact on you and why? My high school teacher once told me that we all need to “Live in the now, and learn from past”. He was my biology teacher from high school and I learned a lot from him and some of his beliefs, were shaped into mine.
Best childhood memory: Best childhood memory is when I was in the Pringle park swimming pool. As a child, I loved being in the water
What is your most marked characteristic? I think that one of my characteristic is that I like to help people.
Which living person do you most admire? I admire Keanu Reeves. Besides making really cool movies and what not, his life story is just amazing and he is really humble.
Which historical figure do you most identify with? I think that I resemble Alexander Hamilton?? We both come from immigrant families and want to do great things.
What is it that you most dislike? I absolutely hate tomatoes and avocadoes.
Greatest fear: Being buried alive.
Favorite place to live: Somewhere where it’s not super-hot but also cool? Maybe in France but no in Paris, closer to the coast.
Favorite occupation: I think that being a zoologist or a veterinarian is really cool.
Favorite writer: Seamus Heaney
Favorite song: Correct me by Foreign Fields.