^B00:00:01
[ Music ]
^M00:00:04
[ Singing in foreign language ]
^M00:00:19
>> I use languages and mathematics as my therapy and it's made me the person I am today.
I love conversation, especially about different foreign languages and fancy mathematics. 
^M00:00:31
My depression was started in middle school via bullying and I used calculus as my therapy because three bullies was very rough for me, and even throughout high school I just couldn't help but just to mask the depression with math and languages because it just took my mind off things. 
^M00:00:53
I have the ability to conversate on some level in about 13 different languages varying from indigenous to others. 
^M00:01:02
What keeps me going, my students, I teach preschool through 8th grade -- the language.
I met Mr. Siva, November of 2017, and I remember our first meeting with him and his wife June.
I remember asking him like, how do you say hi, how do you say very basic things, because with Serrano language, you couldn't find material on it unless you were a linguist. 
^M00:01:30
If it wasn't for Mr.
Siva, I wouldn't be there.
I can't even come up with a word to come up with how encouraging he's been, not only to learn the Serrano language, but to encourage me to learn others too. And he never pressured me to do Serrano only. Every time I would tell him, oh, I'm learning the Gabrielino language, and he would just be happy to hear it that somebody, one of his students, has the passion not only to learn his language but has a passion to go on and try to learn as much as he can about the other groups from California. 
^M00:02:05
No matter where I am in life, whether it's pursuing my doctorate in mathematics, or wherever I may be in this world, I'm always willing and I always want to help to preserve the Serrano language because I've spent five years of my life as we speak trying to learn and preserve it.
^M00:02:24
And that's not going to go away from me, that desire to keep the language alive, that's not going to go away no matter where I am in the world. 
^M00:02:32
I've been truly blessed with that.
My goal mathematically academic-wise is to get a doctorate in mathematics and specifically in the field of mirror symmetry. 
^M00:02:44
One day I want to be a professor myself. Maybe like some day, I'll teach math and Serrano, who knows. 
^M00:02:52
I am seeing the fruit of my labor pay off, and I got to say it's not what I imagined it would be.
So if anything, I would say --
^M00:03:07
[ Speaking foreign language ]
^M00:03:11
Calm your heart and always believe.
^M00:03:14
[ Speaking foreign language ]
^M00:03:18
That's all I have to say. 
^E00:03:21