Hey, y’all!

I’m Reylyn Roldan. I’m eighteen years old and I’m of Filipino descent. I moved to Staten Island, New York when I was seven years old. Along with my two older brothers and a handful of cousins, we became part of the second wave of immigrants in our family. Pioneering all of this is my great aunt, Felicitas, who came to America with dreams much bigger than the unfamiliar land she settled in. Fast-forwarding nearly fifty years to 2014, she still remains the foundation of the hundred or so family members she has helped brought to the United States. And for that, I am forever grateful.

Although I have been here for ten years, being around my family serves as a constant reminder of who I was, who I am, and who I will be. Because of that, I can still feel a deep connection to my past, to my childhood, and to my homeland.