“It’ll be fun babe come on, please”, Kaden whines.

 “Fine I'll go but you owe me” Maricela sighs.

Maricela is a senior at the University of Chicago. She grew up in a Catholic, Hispanic household. She was raised to believe that family is everything, no exceptions. In Maricela’s childhood years, she always watched over her younger sister Gloriana. They both grew up with household duties and chores, and since family was everything, it was important that they abide by all the rules given to them by their parents. One of the biggest ones being absolutely no dating or messing around with boys. 

“No man es good enough para mis bebés!” Mr. Gonzalez always says. Gloriana always responds with an eye roll, and Maricela always responds with a smile. Maricela never struggled with this rule. She was so busy being a big sister and role model that she had no time for a boyfriend. She invested all her time into her studies, her family, and sports.

Maricela graduated from East Kansas High School, class of 2020, summa cum laude, 4.23 GPA, salutatorian. She also plays softball, and was offered a full ride scholarship to the University of Chicago. Her career plans were to go to college for nursing, and become a nurse practitioner by the time she was 28. She was completely set up for success, but the success meant nothing to her if she could not help provide for her family. On the other hand, Gloriana was not, how would you say, responsible. She is graduating high school at the end of this school year, does not play any sports, has a 3.00 GPA, is 150th in her class, and often spends her days watching telenovelas and facetiming her friends. She calls Maricela everyday as well. Their conversations almost always go like this:

“Hola Mari”

“Hola Gloriana, did you finally sign up for honors classes or sports?”

“You already know the answer to that question.”

Maricela sighs, “I know you can succeed. You don’t have to be like me to earn our parent’s attention. If they can’t see the amazing smart girl in front of them, that's their problem.”

“You’re right but thats so much work”

They laugh, then talk about all the random drama in their lives. Now, Kaden grew up in a very different household. The Williams family is a Black, Christian household. Kaden has two younger siblings. They all grew up in a decently sized house in Kansas City, Missouri because their father is an attorney and their mother is a real estate agent. Although, because their parents were both so focused on structure and work, Kaden ended up basically parenting himself, then his younger brother and sister. Kaden was the big “house-wife” as his siblings called him. He was still incredibly intelligent, however he was not nearly as “perfect” as Maricela. He graduated from West Kansas City High School, class of 2020, magna cum laude, 3.8 GPA, 103/425, in his class. This was enough to get him admitted to the University of Chicago. His future plans are to become a pediatric nurse, and prioritize his family over everything else.

These two people who seemed so different to each other, genuinely held the same values. Family. They had known each other from elementary and middle school, but their friend groups were on completely opposite sides of the spectrum. They ended up at different high schools though. They were nothing more than mere acquaintances. Although, their freshman year of college in Biology 102, they were lab partners, and inseparable ones at that. They fell in love and have been dating for 3 years, which was no secret to the university students, but was the biggest secret Maricela had ever kept from her family. She refused to tell them, fearing that they would not accept Kaden. Kaden is not Catholic, he does not speak Spanish, and most of all, he is not Hispanic. These were all important things to the Gonzalez family in terms of marriage. Maricela had never let her family down before, for it is one of her biggest fears. 

Around rolls in the first month of their Senior year of college, and Kaden begs Maricela to come with him to homecoming. UOC’s homecomings are always the biggest in Chicago, so you would think Maricela would be a little more excited, but her free time consists of reading, studying, and journaling. When she and Kaden arrived at the extravagant homecoming, there were performances, stands, and all types of fun things to do. Kaden and Maricela walked around for hours, and just after sunset, the fireworks started. 

Maricela turns to watch them, “Babe they look so beautiful!”, she looks to her left and Kaden is gone.“Uh, Kaden? Where did you go?” She looks left, right, but nowhere to be found. She finally turns around and sees Kaden down on one knee as he says, 

“I love you Maricela. I see myself being with you forever. I see myself growing old with you, and creating a beautiful family. Will you marry me?”

Maricela’s face turns red as a tomato and she screams “OH MY GOD YES”, with more excitement than she had ever felt for anything in her entire life. There was no GPA that could make her feel the way this did. They loved each other, and were still inseparable lab partners. A few months later comes thanksgiving. Maricela goes to her parents house alone and without her ring on. As she is helping her mother prepare the tamales, Mrs. Gonzalez asks the question Maricela dreads. “Tienes un novio?” asks Maricela 's mother. 

“No Mamá not yet”, Maricela replies. Maricela hates lying to her parents, but she is afraid to admit the truth. Mrs. Gonzalez drops her smile and says 

“Well could you hurry up yo quiero nietos!”. Maricela and her mother laugh, and Maricela looks over to see her dad angrily staring and listening in on their conversation. 

“¿Qué pasa Papá?” asks Gloriana. 

“Yo no quiero Maricela con un novio. Sigue siendo mi bebé y ningún hombre es lo suficientemente bueno para ella,” states Mr. Gonzalez. Gloriana looks at Maricela and signals her to her room.

 “When will you tell them Maricela? It’s been 3 years and quite frankly I think Kaden is getting a little annoyed.” says Gloriana. 

“I’m working on it okay. It’s difficult because Papá wants me to have this perfect person that doesn’t exist, and Mamá would probably faint if she knew Kaden wasn’t Catholic nor is he Hispanic” explains Maricela.

 “You’re right but…” Maricela grabs Gloriana’s hand and rushes to the bathroom and starts throwing up. 

“EW, I mean are you okay, but EW” Gloriana says while trying to avoid gagging. Maricela cleans herself up and says to Gloriana:

 “This has been happening for like 2 weeks, I think I have the flu or something”. Gloriana slaps Maricela on the forehead.

 “You’re telling me you were valedictorian and can’t tell when someone is pregnant? Pathetic.” Maricela’s jaw dropped what seemed like 5 stories. 

“There’s no way I'm pregnant. I’m on the pill Gloriana!” Maricela exclaims while trying to convince herself that she is not pregnant.

 “Fine Mari. Just take a few pregnancy tests and you’ll see if you actually are pregnant or not.” Gloriana says smirking in hopes she can soon have a niece or nephew. Maricela takes the tests and terrifyingly passes them all to Gloriana. After 10 minutes of being too scared to hear the results, Gloriana finally just reads them. “Positive, positive, positive, positive. Oh girl, you're definitely pregnant.” Maricela throws up again. When she returns to the dinner table, she continues conversing as if nothing happened. 

Maricela did not want to tell Kaden over the phone, so when she arrives back at the University, she visits his dorm and sits a baby onesie and baby shoes on his bed. When Kaden walked in and realized what this meant, he began crying and ran to hug his fiancé. Although, he was expecting that since Maricela was with her family, it was the perfect opportunity to tell them about him. So, he asks:

“Mari,” Says Marco. 

“Yes Kaden?”, replies Maricela. 

“Did you tell your parents about me?”, asks Kaden.

“Mari you know how they are”, Kaden sighs and starts to walk out of the room. “What are you doing?” says Maricela. “I can’t do this Mari. You’re going to be my wife in 1 year and we are going to have a baby together in less than 9 months. If you don’t tell your family by Christmas, I'm calling off the engagement” says Kaden as his eyes fill with tears and he leaves the room. Maricela bursts into tears. When Kaden comes back, Maricela confirms that she will tell her parents next month over thanksgiving dinner, and that he will be accompanying her.

 Now rolls around Christmas time, and Gloriana is maliciously smiling at the dinner table and her Papá asks “Dondé está Maricela?”

“No se” replies Gloriana with a smirk. The doorbell rings, and in through the door walks Maricela and Kaden, and Maricela’s bulging baby bump. Maricela’s Mother dropped presents in her hand on the floor, and Maricela looked around with all of the family baffled, waiting for an explanation. 

“This is Kaden, my fiancé. we will be getting married next year, and would like all of you to attend.” Maricela was right. Mrs. Gonzalez passes out onto the couch. Mr. Gonzalez looks Maricela up and down and says 

“Get out of my house”. 

Appalled, Maricela replies “But Papá le amo! We are building una familia together. He is my family, which makes him important to me, and should make him important to you!”

“Él no es mi familia. Now take you and that mixed breed baby along con tu novio out of my home, I'm getting tu madre agua porque casi la matas.”

 Maricela and Kaden leave to go announce the baby and wedding to Kaden’s family. Maricela cried the entire car ride there. She knew that all love comes with a cost, but she was willing to pay that cost for her new family. Kaden’s family was completely ecstatic, but Maricela still yearned for her family’s approval. 

Maricela’s mother secretly had followed Maricela to Kaden’s house. She knocks on the door, and Kaden’s mother says “Maricela does not wish to speak to you right now.” Maricela’s mother pleads with Kaden’s “Please, I just want to speak with my daughter.” Mrs. Williams let Mrs. Gonzalez into the house and told her where Maricela was at. As Mrs. Gonzalez walked into the room, Maricela said “What Mamá? I understand that he isn’t the person you and Papá envisioned for me but I love him and he loves me. He proposed to me with his mother’s ring. If that isn’t love I don’t know what is.” 

Maricela’s mother sighs. “Mari, I love and accept anybody who loves and accepts you. He is family, and family is forever. Your Papá will come around eventually when he sees his nietito, and especially when he sees how happy you are. You are all family now.” Mrs. Gonzalez walks downstairs, and begins happily gossiping with Mrs. Williams. Maricela and Kaden join, and could not be happier to do so.