By Kayla Cruz ’20
Waking up early and getting ready to leave for school, senior Yaneet “Shelly” Rodriguez can be seen riding her bike to school. Rodriguez loves to ride her bike and considers it as one of her hobbies. When she makes it to school, Rodriguez can be seen hanging out with her friends and her best friend, a junior, Roger Torres.
“I love to hang out with [Torres] because we always have a fun time together,” Rodriguez explained. Rodriguez and Torres usually hang out at “Dunkin Doughnuts, McDonald’s, the park, Downtown, Chinatown, or [Rodriguez] will go over [Torres]’s house and hang out with his mom, brothers, and dogs.” Torres agrees with Rodriguez that when they hang out with each other they always “have fun and make great memories together.” Rodriguez explains that she really does value her friendship with Torres by having him as something “important” to her.
Other than her love for her friend and riding her bike, Rodriguez loves “to listen to music, play soccer with my sister, bake, cook, and especially MMA.” Rodriguez explains that she really does love doing MMA and hopes to continue it in her future.
Rodriguez also plays rugby. As this is her final year in Pritzker, Rodriguez wanted to try something new: join the Girls’ Rugby Team. Rodriguez wanted to join the team since her “sophomore year when my advisory sister told me about it, but I could not join since I was busy.” As this is her final year at Pritzker, Rodriguez finally decided to try out for the sport. Rodriguez fell in love with the sport because she “had fun and met new people.” Rodriguez also explained that since she was new to the sport, her teammates and coaches helped her when she was lost or confused.
Now here is the real question everyone wants to know: how did Rodriguez get the nickname “Shelly”? Rodriguez explains that she got this nickname in her sophomore year. “Ryan Torres, Roger’s older brother, gave me the nickname during geometry class and I guess the name just sticked to me,” Rodriguez explained. Rodriguez also says she has other nicknames. “People know me as Shelly, Shelingling, or Chata,” Rodriguez explained. How she got her nickname “Chata” was during the rugby season. “It was during the beginning of the season, my coach, Jovon Hernandez, was getting to know everyones name and it was my turn I told him to call me Shelly. He somehow heard orchata and shorten orchata to Chata,” Rodriguez explained. Also, Rodriguez expressed how easier it was for everyone on the team to call on her during the game instead of having to yell her full name or Shelly.
Even though this is Rodriguez last year at Pritzker, she is glad she met amazing people here, made awesome memories, and made new experiences.
