People of Montecito: Shalini Lewis

What is Your Earliest Memory of Montecito?

I’m 15 and I was adopted from India. I moved to Montecito with my wonderful family when I was two and a half. I couldn’t speak English. I spoke Hindi. And I was with my new parents, so it was a little frightening. You know, not being in the same country anymore and having no friends or like anyone that I really knew. I just had to kind of trust what was going to happen in the future.

I was very nervous my first night in America. The night we came to Montecito, my first greeting was a 120-pound Labrador named Montana. Straight from that, we went to a birthday party. And it was at that birthday party that a little girl my same age (Maizie McKnight), walked up to me, took my hand, and took me into the bouncy house. We’ve been best friends ever since.

Shalini Lewis