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Carlos Negrete

Clair Wilden

English 120

7 September 2021

Teen Mom

Jessica Negrete, my beautiful mother. A hardworking mother who is loving, caring, and

someone who would do anything to protect her family.She has the brightest smile, with the

strongest heart. My mother is someone who looks a little menacing but is the nicest, and realest

person I know. There is no lying in her, she will always tell the truth no matter how real the

question is. She had no idea I was going to be interviewing but was very excited that I chose to

help me with a couple questions I wanted to ask. Although I would've loved seeing my mom and

being home sitting next to her and the rest of my family, this interview had to be done over video

call.

As soon as the interview begins, my mother instantly asks me how i'm doing with the biggest

smile on her face. I start off the interview with question number one.Where are you from? I ask.

My mother replies “I’m from Firebaugh California, a fairly small town with a population of 7,000

people. I was born in a hospital in Fresno, because Firebaugh did not have any hospitals.”

Do you still live there? I do not live in Firebaugh anymore, I left there when my older son was

little.
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Have you ever moved ? I have moved several times. I would have to say I moved over 13 times.

I have lived in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Sacramento CA, Firebaugh CA, and where I currently

reside in Clovis California.

Do you have any kids? I do. I have two sons. One's name is Juan “Carlos” Jr after his dad

obviously and my other son's name is Jeremiah Anthony.

What do they do? My oldest son Carlos, is currently a Freshman in college, enrolled at NDSU

on a full ride scholarship and will pursue the nursing path. My younger son is a freshman in

High School.

Do they play sports? Yes, both sons wrestle. However my older son Carlos has been wrestling

since he was 4 years old and has always been his passion. My younger son kind of just found

wrestling even though it was in his face for many years and he was at every tournament his

brother was at. Jeremiah has only been wrestling consecutively for maybe 2 years or so, but he

is very much into it now and wants to go as far as he can with wrestling.

How old are your kids? In high school? College? My oldest son Carlos is in college and is 19

years old. My younger son Jeremiah is in High School and he is 15 years old.

Did you finish high school? I finished School in 2013.

Have you ever been to college? I have been to college. I went to a private program called

Gurnick Academy of Medical Art.

What do you do? For work/ What is your profession? I’m a hospice nurse. I provide end of life

care to patients that have 6 months or less to live. I visit patients in their homes, at skilled

nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and board and care homes, and make sure all of their
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symptoms are managed, and they are comfortable and that they are living the best quality of life

until the end of their journey.

Because I know you're a nurse. What helped make you a successful nurse: I think what makes

me a successful nurse is that not only do you have to have the basic nursing skills you have to

have something that can’t be taught, which is compassion and courage. A lot of the time

patients come to you at their weakest points and they need help and the last thing they need is

for someone to treat them poorly. I treat my patients the way I would like to be treated when I’m

at the other end.

What helped get you through the program?

What helped me was support from my family, which was my kids and husband. My husband

was there for me through my meltdowns and he helped me with my homework and studying. I

also met some ladies in my cohort and we bonded so we helped each other out. One weakness

was another’s strength so we put our heads together and got through it.

What are some of the Hardest times in your life? My husband and I had our first son at a young

age. I was a teen mom. During my labor, my son turned and he was too high up, and his heart

rate started to drop. My doctor said my labor was becoming complicated so she did an

emergency c-section. After my son's birth my recovery was a bit complicated and it took long to

recover. On top of my own complication, I was informed that my son was born with a club foot

and he had to see an orthopedic doctor a few weeks after birth. I was young and scared and

wasn’t sure how that would affect my child. Once we seen the orthopedic doctor, he informed us

that we would have to do casting treatment for several months. He also said our son would not

be a great athlete or anything, we should just be happy he could run, jump and play like a

normal kid. That was very hard to hear as my husband was an athlete all his life and his dream
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was for his son to follow in his footsteps. After my son started casting, he was in so much pain,

because the cast was turning his foot in the direction it was meant to be in. He was so little and

it was so hard to see him go through that. Another hard time was when I was pregnant with my

younger son Jeremiah. I had so many complications. I had what is called placental abruption, so

I bled the entire time I was pregnant and was having contractions. The complication that I was

having was very dangerous for myself and my son as the oxygen supply from my placenta was

decreased so it could have caused brain damage to my son. My son ended up being born

premature due to the complications.

A hard time in my life was also when I was in the nursing program. I was in an accelerated

program, so it was a lot really fast. It is a lot of information that you need to retain and you have

to pass so that you can sit for your licensing exam. I felt I had more pressure on me to complete

the program, because at that time my husband was having some health issues that was causing

him to miss work so I needed this to take care of my family.

Tears are running down my eyes as we take a break. This was an emotional part of the

interview for me. Emotions and memories flowed back into my mind.

After a long moment we came back to the interview. We both sit down and I ask another

question.

What are some of the happiest moments in your life? The happiest moments in my life are

when I’m with my family. We can be anywhere and just doing nothing, but as long as I'm with

my family that’s all that matters to me.

Accomplishments? I would have to say my kids are my biggest accomplishments. Raising kids

is not easy, especially as a young parent. My husband and I worked very hard to give them the
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best life we could and guide them in the right direction so that they can be successful in life.

They both turned out to be good kids, and are very focused in school and sports.

My next accomplishment would be my marriage to my husband Carlos, my kids dad. We got

married very young and are still together. We have been married for 20 years.

Another accomplishment would have to be my medical career. I have been in the medical field

for 16 years or so. Eight of those years I have been a hospice nurse.

Future goals? My future goals are to continue to climb the ladder in my nursing career and

further my education.

What are some things you haven’t done in your life that you want to do one day? It has been so

hard, starting your life off very young, it’s always been about my kids and family and I would not

change it for the world. I would like to have more time to travel the world with my family. When

we travel, we travel for wrestling for my son to compete, so all of our extra money goes to that

so I never really had money to travel the world just for fun. We did try to make the best out of

every wrestling trip and find fun things to do while we were in other states. We also enjoy going

to Six flags and Universal Studios, which we frequent.

Who do you look up to? I look up to my son Carlos, because he got a great opportunity to go to

school for five years without having to pay, and he is taking advantage of that and setting

himself up for a successful future. He is far away from his home and family and he is making the

best of it.

I also looked up to this doctor I used to work for, her name was Dr. Hailu. She was not only an

amazing physician, she was an amazing human being. She would give anyone the shirt off her
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back if they needed it. She was very caring, not only with her patients, but with her staff as well.

She always wanted to make sure everyone was doing okay. She is the type of clinician I wanted

to be like.

The interview concludes. We both say goodbye. I sit back and think how my mother went from

teen mom, to becoming a nurse, and having her oldest child(myself) receive a full ride

scholarship to attend school. After all she has been through, she never gave up, stayed strong,

kept her family close and has now become successful.

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Work Cited

Negrete, Jessica. Personal Interview. 5 Sept 2021.