Ring, ring, ring. Do you hear those bells? Well, of course you do. It’s the sound of Tania Santana’s wedding just around the corner.

She is ready to put on her wedding dress and white high heels and engage herself to her boyfriend, her pink backpack and books to engage in education. With school and homework on top of her wedding you are probably wondering how she is managing everything.

Santana is a 20-year-old-student at City College, who is majoring in business to be an accountant. She has attended City College since fall of 2006, when she graduated from Luther Burbank High School, and she hasn’t stopped yet.

Santana’s wedding is in May 9, 2009, a month before her planned graduation in June from City College.

“It’s going to be hard, but I’mwilling to work hard,” Santana says.

Santana is going to school on Mondays and Wednesdays and working in a restaurant called Alonzo’s Coffee Shop Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to pay for her college tuition and books.

“I don’t come from rich parents, but I’m willing to work in order to get an education, finish school and get a degree,” Santana says.

Santana says she is sure of getting married even if some people give her negative comments and say she is too young. She says she loves her boyfriend, soon to be husband, and knows that this is her happiness. She is aware that she might only be
taking a couple of classes after her marriage, but says she will not stop going to school.

“She’s different from other girls,” says her 21-year-old boyfriend, Nicolas Beltran, who has been with her since October 2005.

Beltran says Santana is a mature girl with great qualities and has done all she can to get where she is right now. She works hard to get the grades she receives, all because she puts great effort to her job, school and her relationship.

“I will support her unconditionally because she is worth it,” Beltran says.

“It’s about time she gets married so I can have the room to myself,” says Karen Santana, Tania Santana’s younger sister, laughing.

Karen says her sister is going to have her hands full, but she knows her sister well enough and knows that she can do it. She says her sister has demonstrated that she is capable of keeping up with her job, her grades and her relationship.

Karen says her sister never stops. Tania is either working, going to school and when she is not working she is studying for a test or planning for the wedding but no matter what she finds time to do everything.

“I think she’s going to have a good life because she deserves it and she has worked so hard for everything,” Karen says.

Tania Santana’s plan after her marriage is to graduate and transfer to California State University, Sacramento, to take more accounting classes. When Santana gets her degree in accounting and feels she is a professional in her major she will visit her future husband’s home country, El Salvador and her home country, Mexico. After she has finished her education she will think of building her own family.

Even though she gets negative comments about her getting married at a young age while she is in school, Santana knows that this is
what she wants.

“I will feel happier because I really want to be with him, and he really wants to be with me,” Santana says.