Posted on October 20, 2021
Lyle Topping, Staff Writer
Whether the move be across the state or across the country, moving away to go to school can be both exciting and frightening. What about across the globe? For some that means a new culture, language, and social norms. This all can be overwhelming or even a bit frightening.
Laura De Chavarria Munoz, a freshman at Daytona State College, gives a little insight on growing up in her home country Spain. “I can remember my childhood, being at the beach the whole day either with my parents or my friends,” she said. “I have always been surrounded by good people and people I love.” Munoz plays outside hitter for the volleyball team at DSC. What got her into volleyball, she tips her hat to her
mother. “My mom played professional volleyball. That’s why me and my other two
siblings started playing,” she said. She started at the age of 9 years old.
What she misses most about back home, outside of friends and family, she gives an answer that may resonate with a lot of students. “I miss my car and being able to drive alone,” she said. “I miss it so bad, and I always ask the girls if I can drive their car and they don’t let me, obviously.”
Laura plans to study Interior Design and move to Italy “because I feel like it’s the best country for studying design.” Laura is no stranger to moving around. She played two years in high school in Florida before moving to Germany, due to COVID.
Finally, Munoz gave an “interesting fact about herself” and she did not disappoint. “I have broken both of my mom’s legs.” She goes to explain that one was a skiing accident and the other was a roller blading accident. “The other one was [while] roller blading. I was just making fun and it was not fun anymore.”
Roughly 1,600 miles north of Munoz’s hometown is Varberg, Sweden. This small coastal Nordic town is home to Sandra Acheampong, a freshman volleyball player at DSC. Sandra was introduced to the sport after moving from Ghana to Sweden. “I have been playing for almost nine years and I got into it because my friends played it,” she said. “They were like ‘We play volleyball, do you want to try?’ then I tried, and I just got stuck.”
Growing up in Varberg, “It is kind of a small city, compared to the other cities we have, and I wasn’t there that often. I was mostly in Gothenburg where my brother lives. My parents are so old, so they don’t really do anything, and I can’t sit still.”
Thinking of her expectations of America before moving here, she smiled ear to ear and said, “It was something I have wanted to do for so long. Seeing these high school movies and college movies and had so many expectations.” “High School Musical” was one the movies she was referring to, along with “Camp Rock.”
Acheampong is also undecided on what major she wants to set her sight on. “My major is Business Marketing and I want to be a real estate agent. I also want to be a chef, so I haven’t really decided what I am going to do, but that is what I have been thinking.” Due to her passion for cooking, she finds the over abundant fast-food restaurants in
America “annoying.”
One thing that Laura and Sandra might agree on is that no matter where you come from or the background you have, at the end of the day we are all just college kids trying to figure everything out one day at a time.
Munoz (8) and Acheampong (7) with the team, cheering in a game against Florida Southwestern State College on Saturday, October 9th, photo credit: Alex Espinal
Acheampong before the game on October 9th against FSSC, photo credit: Alex Espinal