By AMEARA DITSCHE
Staff Writer
Bobbi Le Rae Valentin is a freshman here at Saint Rose. She was born in New York City but moved to Puerto Rico when she was six years old. She has few memories of living in New York pre-move but nevertheless attributes aspects of her personality to these early years in a city. She described her young self as being thicker skinned than the children she met in Puerto Rico. Everyone there seemed oriented around making friends while Bobbi was more introverted.
Her childhood in Puerto Rico was for the most part, free of abnormality. She went to school during the school year and spent most of her summer in her room doing arts and crafts. She is an only child and lived in a more rural area, away from her school friends. In order to be less lonely she begun to write letters to pen pals all over the world.
From an early age, Bobbi put a lot of effort into academics. The private school she attended for most of her life, Caguas, was incredibly competitive and utilized a rigorous curriculum.
In September of 2017, Puerto Rico suffered the effects of two Hurricanes. The first, Hurricane Irma, wiped out power across the whole island for 10 days. There was one day of power before Hurricane Maria hit. Bobbi describes the days leading up to Maria as just everyone not knowing. No one knew how much of an impact it would really have.
It started raining around 4pm and the hurricane fully hit at around 2 a.m. Bobbi and her family stayed up the whole night through the storm. She talked about how the windows shattered and she could hear the loud winds and felt the house shaking. She described the winds as sounding like a train was running past her house all night. She also recalls hearing debris hitting the rooftop and assuming it was her neighbors house falling apart.
After the storm ended, it was still incredibly windy. The weather slowly improved after about a week of very gloomy conditions. During this time roads were blocked and food had to be rationed. There was no phone signal most areas, causing the one active radio station left to be receiving calls from all over the world from people attempting to check in with their families. Bobbi and her family drove to an urban area to be able to have better reception and alert their family that they were safe. She described the dangerous conditions that ensued, like people robbing ambulances at gunpoint for medicine, and gas stations having lines with overnight waits.
Bobbi was there in San Juan when Trump famously visited. “He was throwing paper towels at people who needed homes.” is how she described the experience.
These factors combined with the fact that there was no running water or electricity lead Bobbi’s family to come to the decision that Bobbi would move to the mainland U.S. to finish her senior year of high school.
Bobbi moved back to her hometown of New York City to stay with an Aunt in Manhattan. She left Puerto Rico on Oct. 8. It took her about a week to find and enroll in a school, she ended up attending the Maxine Greene School for Imaginative Inquiry. While waiting to start school Bobbi’s grandfather took her to the Julio De Burgos Latino cultural center. The center provided Bobbi with resources she needed to adjust to her new life, like clothes and toiletries.
Starting a new school a month into a senior year can be tough on any teenger. “I didn’t really have time to think about that. It all happened so fast I jumped in and just tried my best to catch up and match pace. The kids and teachers were all friendly,” said Bobbi.
“With a good education under her belt and a competitive streak Bobbi drew strength from the experience and faced the city head on,” said Margherita and Robert Valentin, Bobbi’s parents.
Bobbi was used to a rigorous academic environment which she didn’t necessarily find at her new school. She said the teachers are surprised to work with a student who had such a work ethic. When graduation began to roll around, Bobbi was the student with the highest GPA, the technical valedictorian. The school however gave the ceremonial duties, like delivering a speech, to the second place student who had attended the school for the full four years.
One of Bobbi’s friends back in Puerto Rico, Andrea Hernandez describes Bobbi as strong and direct.
“She handled the change like a champ. I bet she had tough times over there but she still let us know she was doing fine and getting accustomed which speaks volumes of her strength.”
Hernandez has known Bobbi since middle school and recalled many fun memories of Bobbi. She discussed missing Bobbi dearly but being glad she was able to get better opportunities.
Another friend of hers Andrea Alejandro said that Bobbi may have seemed to have a better experience due to those opportunities, but she had to bear the other burden of leaving behind her friends and family.
“To describe Bobbi in a few words she is ambitious, sincere and witty,” said Alejandro. She shared the fact that her and Bobbi didn’t get along but “as we got to know each other better everything changed.”
Bobbi is an English major and hopes to work as an editor at a publishing house. She is a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success. She is passionate about photography and pursuing a minor in it. She plans to move back to NYC after graduation for grad school and her career.
