Freshman Stephanie Volotao has planned to go back to her home country for this year’s summer vacation. In December of 2021, Volotao resettled from Brazil to the United States. She had spent her whole life in Brazil and loved it, but was excited to move to the United States to live the “American Dream.” 

   Volotao had initially moved to Pennsylvania, which she did not enjoy and missed her friends in Brazil greatly. In March of 2021, Volotao and her family moved to Virginia for a new start. Volotao is having a lot more fun in Virginia and is making a lot of new friends. 

   Volotao has made the decision to book a plane ticket for the entire summer to visit all her friends in Brazil. She is turning 15 this summer and wanted to celebrate her quinceanera with life-long friends. 

   “I wanted to travel back to see my best friends for a couple months because I wasn’t having a good time in Pennsylvania. And even though it will be winter when I travel there, I will still be able to do summer events since it is almost always hot in Brazil,” Volotao said. “I still think it’s strange how the seasons are flipped, but when I travel to Brazil, it’ll seem normal to me since I’ve spent my entire life in winter from June to September,.”, Volotao said. 

   Her family didn’t pack much when coming to the United States. Volotao and her family left all their furniture, and only brought a suitcase of clothes on the way here. Going to Brazil will be very easy for her since all her clothing is still there.

   “It is taking a while to get some furniture in our apartment, but at least we finally have a table and couch now,” Volotao said. “It will be really easy traveling back to Brazil because I don’t need to pack much. More than half my clothes are in Brazil sitting at my grandmother’s house,” Volotao said. 

   Volotao does love her Virginia friends now, but is very excited to visit all her friends while they’re at school in Brazil. Volotao is also very close with her grandmother and is excited to live with her for the next three months. She calls her daily and loves to have simple conversations with her.

      “My grandmother is pretty much my bestfriend and it will be a lot of fun seeing her after so long,” Volotao said.

   Volotao actually visited the United States about 4 years ago to visit some family, and that’s what made her family want to move here. The process took longer than expected though, but eventually it all worked out. 

   “I find a lot of things in the United States very interesting. School is definitely the strangest to me; I am not used to having so many classes with so many different people. In Brazil we would have different classes, but with the same students and the teacher would come to us,” Volotao said. “The slang and clothing is also strange to me. Everyone seems to wear a lot of the same style of clothing and says some weird phrases.”