By Lori Goldson
“My mother guilt-tripped me into moving here,” Ashley Durán says of Delaware. “She told me I would have my own space, and it would be good for me to be near the family.”
Two years ago, no one could have told the 21-year-old English major she would spend her junior year of college at the university.
Alas, here she is, two years later residing with her Colombian father, Puerto Rican mother, 18-year-old sister, Tiffany, and 13-year-old brother, Rocky.
“My entire family had to relocate because of my father’s job,” she says. “I was going to stay in North Carolina, but I am close to my family. So, I decided to move with them.”
Ashley’s father, the head of quality assurance for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, moved Ashley and her mother, now a teaching assistant for Wilmington Christian Academy, to Wake Forest, N.C., from New Brunswick, N.J., when Ashley was only five.
“My parents both went to Rutgers University together,” Ashley says. “They’ve been married for 24 years.”
Although her family makes trips back to New Jersey, Ashley says she vaguely remembers her childhood in N.J.
“I lived in North Carolina for 14 years,” she says. “I had my first kiss in eighth grade, and was on the prom court when I was a senior.”
Ashley says her parents we and still are very strict, but she had a typical upbringing.
“My family went to Myrtle Beach every summer, and holidays were always great because I love being around family,” she says. “After being here, I miss it more because people were friendlier and just nicer to be around. Here, if you speak to your neighbors, they look at you like, ‘Who are you?’ ”
At the time, Ashley just didn’t seem to appreciate the simplicity of life in the South.
“I guess I did take it for granted,” she says. “I do have family in Jersey, but North Carolina was definitely my favorite place to live. It will always be home.”
