Classmate Profile: Genesis Rosich

Genesis Rosich is a contrast to the windowless dryness of the sixth-floor newsroom. She has a shock of curly red hair, heart-studded acrylic nails, and a personality that is a mix of introversion and affability. Right off the bat, Genesis makes clear that she is, and has always been, a New Jerseyan.

Genesis was born in Paterson, New Jersey, a city she says was “poverty at its finest.” Growing up, it was typical for everyone she knew to be on food stamps. Though Paterson wasn’t the largest city, it was dense and had a clear city center, a precursor to Genesis’s later New York life.

Despite the mostly homogenous community of Paterson, Genesis never felt she fit in with her peers. While most of the community was from various South American countries, Genesis’ family is Puerto Rican, making her one of the city’s few Caribbean residents. Also, for the 13 years she lived in Paterson, Genesis’s family moved apartments several times and switched schools frequently.

When Genesis was 13 years old, she moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she still lives today. Yet still, Genesis doesn’t feel connected to the city.

“I just went to school and came home,” she says.

Though Genesis has lived in cities her whole life and chose to attend college in neighboring New York City, she doesn’t necessarily feel drawn to cities–more averse to small towns. Briefly, she stayed with her aunt in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a small, conservative town near Scranton. For her, remote places “feel unsettling.”

Even though she lives only a river away from NYC, Genesis doesn’t feel she has explored the city enough. She never visited the city with her family, and although she works and attends school in New York, she doesn’t go out of the way to leave her bubble–and that’s how she likes it.

“I’m a creature of habit,” she says. “I don’t go out of my known radius.”