Andrea

Andrea, 21, is a dynamic young woman, studying biology in Santa Rosa, the small capital of the Pampa province. She was born in the village of Winifreda, around which her parents transformed a farm into a tractor-renting business. Describing herself, she strongly emphasizes the importance of being born and raised in the countryside, as opposed to the inhabitants of villages and cities. Her world, as a child, was her house, her parents and brother, the animals, the fields surrounding the farm, and the silence of Nature. Going to school in a 2,000-inhabitant village was a big step for the little girl: at first, she did not like having so many people around, and being separated from her family. She describes the two kinds of kids at school: the ones from rural areas, shy and quiet, and the villagers, used to speaking a lot more and commenting their private life with no shame. In the countryside, she explains, one is so used to the loneliness that the need to express oneself is not as important as in places where social life is much more developed.
Nevertheless, she liked school, and adapted herself to the urban relationships. She made friends, and, despite the parental restrictions, started to go out. Her parents kept on encouraging her brother and her: they were not given the chance to study when they were young, and repeated to their offspring the importance of having a proper profession. Accompanying the kids to the village school every day was a sacrifice Andrea is aware of, but the hopes generated by education were up to it. However, her parents taught her a lot, from life-orienting values to the basics of mechanics.
Biology was at first a subject her brother hated, which, being contrary, she wanted to like. She ended up liking it so much that, after high school, her decision concerning studies was clear: she wanted to work as a biologist in a laboratory. Moving in Santa Rosa, a small city, was a greater step to be taken: living surrounded by urban concrete, having to speak to strangers in the streets, having to make new friends and, more than anything, being far away from her parents were some of the challenges this new life meant. Now, Andrea is fully adapted to the urban lifestyle, and she loves her independence, surrounded by her friends and her boyfriend. Andrea’s evolution was hard to accept for her parents: her father more than anything had trouble dealing with the idea of his daughter having a boyfriend.
Thinking about the steps she took so far, the young woman is proud of being able to adapt to both rural and urban environment, a switch she would not be able to do as easily if she had grown up in a town. And she is still learning: for example, she is now acquiring what she calls ‘city skills’, such as reading and playing violin. No one ever sits to read a book in the countryside, she declares!
As far as her future is concerned, she is full of hopes: for interesting studies, for a nice job, for travels, for an equilibrated life. But, she smiles, there is no hurry, right now, she is happy, calm and laid-back.