“DA Voices” is a recurring feature used to spotlight De Anza College’s diverse community voices. We ask the same question of different people and arrange their quotes so that readers can see varying points of view. This week, our reporter Yumeno Matsuo asked, “What’s your favorite word?”
Quotes have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Meli Rodriguez, 18, a business administration major, said her favorite word is passion.

“Passion is just important to me because that’s what drives me to do what I want to do,” Rodriguez said. “I have a lot of passion towards business administration.”

William Martinez, 27, an electrical engineering major, said “luck” is his favorite word because it’s something that either everyone wants or they have.

“I’ve been pretty lucky with almost everything,” Martinez said. “And if one door closes, I’ve always been lucky enough to have another one open almost immediately.”

Yan Shan, 16, a computer science major and international student from China said the word that popped in his head was his favorite flower, “桜 (sakura),” which means cherry blossom in Japanese.

“In 2013, I went to Japan with my parents around the sakura season. Looking outside my hotel windows, there (are) sakura (blossoms) everywhere,” Shan said. “It’s a magical experience for me.”

Daniel Bizuneh, 17, a business administration major, said his favorite word is “dream.” Bizuneh said he believes everybody in this world has a dream, that it is their motivator, keeping people alive and helping them.

“My dream is to make the people around me financially stable and help them achieve their dreams,” Bizuneh said. “I want to prosper in life.”

Juniper Astle, 23, a psychology major, said she chose “thought” as her favorite word because thinking or considering have acted as a sort of refuge from her difficulties with dysgraphia and arthritis.

“I have a lot of problems physically with my hands and with keeping track of stuff for all my life,” Astle said. “It’s very, very important to me to put a lot of thought into everything I do.”

Jaden Reyna, 18, a psychology major, said she picked “water polo” as her favorite word because she thinks it’s a cool sport that many people don’t know about.

“I was the captain of my team and I had a lot of fun and good memories from playing water polo,” Reyna said. “I wanted to play for De Anza, but they didn’t have enough players, so there’s no team this year.”