{"id":458357,"date":"2026-10-06T21:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458357\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T21:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:08:14","slug":"nunca-dejes-de-sonar-solo-quien-suena-aprende-a-volar-the-prospector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458357\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nunca dejes de so\u00f1ar, solo quien sue\u00f1a aprende a volar\u2019 \u2013 The Prospector"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Whenever a chapter ends in my life, there\u2019s a sense of relief, but also a fear accompanied with the question, \u201cwhat am I going to do now?\u201d High school was like that, four years of laughter, memories and wins, but also a period of tears and insecurities that were created by \u201cteachers\u201d and \u201cfriends.\u201d I lost people I never thought I would.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, I am aware that the Lesly I am now is a product of multiple events and people in my life, and whether it was good or bad, it got me to where I am now.<\/p>\n

One of the major changes in my life happened in 2024. It was a year full of major wins, but nothing could overcome losing my Tita, Irene Roman, in a fire.<\/p>\n

That dawn, I lost a part of my soul. She was my first best friend, the person, that apart from my mom, I would envision to be by side in every moment. Every time I look back to that last April 19 with her, I remember the last conversation we had. She picked me up from Montwood after the 2024 yearbook arrival party and I told her a desire that had sparked in my heart after hearing The Prospector\u2019s Spring 2024 staff give a presentation in the yearbook room. I wanted to work for The Prospector. Little did I know, this would become a reality months later.<\/p>\n

For a long time, my passion for journalism turned into dust. It was like my body was here, but I evaporated on April 20. When senior year began; although I was grieving during most of that school year, I came back to journalism because of the overwhelming support of my family and closest friends who I love more than any words can express; but also thanks to my incredible teachers, Norma Chacon and Marvin Hanley. Ms. Chacon was one of the people that first took me under her wing after the fire happened, looking out for me in every way she could and encouraging me to apply to one of the greatest blessings in my life, the Terry Scholarship, the reason why college became a reality when I thought it wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

As for Mr. Hanley, or \u201cPapa Pato\u201d how I have proudly called him for many years, was the person that like a good \u201cmother duck with her ducklings,\u201d led the way and never stopped encouraging me to keep learning and keep shining. Amid being surrounded by people who just caused me struggles and obstacles, these two souls I consider my mentors always kept their faith in me and helped me rise not only professionally, but personally, and for that I will always be thankful for.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to college, I applied for The Prospector as a photographer, where I started as a photo contributor. I had the security of being with people I knew from high school, but again, to start another chapter frightened me. However, during my time as a contributor, I had the blessing of capturing moments for amazing stories and writing some of them too. It also taught me in a cold, cruel way that the work that I do here matters.<\/p>\n

During my second semester at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), in April, (cause of course everything major in my life happens in April) one of my closest friends, Mario Mendoza, committed suicide. He was a soul who I had introduced to the media world and encouraged him to join the broadcasting team back in high school.<\/p>\n

When I was at the hospital waiting to say my \u201cgoodbyes\u201d to his physical self, his mom told me something I will never forget; during one of last conversations she had with her son, he told her that he was proud of what I was doing at UTEP and that he wanted to follow my footsteps in multimedia journalism and join the newspaper after his graduation in 2027. That is why months after when I got the email from my editor-in-chief, Ximena Cordero, asking if I was interested in the multimedia editor position this fall semester, I felt like I was walking on air, I looked back to that somber night and realized that I was given the opportunity to be part of something bigger than me, and that my work can impact others in ways I could never imagine.<\/p>\n

All my life, one of my favorite films to watch is \u201cPeter Pan\u201d, and before she died, my Tita often highlighted a phrase that I keep close to my heart, \u201cnunca dejes de so\u00f1ar, solo quien sue\u00f1a aprende a volar\u201d (\u201cthe moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it\u201d). All the moments that lead me to where I am now is because through it all, I never stopped dreaming, even if ran into some gray clouds along my journey.<\/p>\n

God has blessed me with angels who are by my side and two that now are looking over me from above, and during my time in The Prospector, I can promise one thing not only to those who are reading this, but to myself, I will put my absolute best on every creation I am part of for this publication, and I will help others believe in their dreams and remind them that in this crazy journey called life, \u201call you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lesly Marlene Chavez is the multimedia editor and may be reached at\u202f[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u202fand social media @pics.by.lesly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever a chapter ends in my life, there\u2019s a sense of relief, but also a fear accompanied with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-458357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}