JUAN CISNEROS: Grand Plans for the
Future
Juan
Cisneros never intended to spend the rest of his life in
New York. He would work as a bond trader until he could
pay off his college loans and put away money for his
parents. Then, said his girlfriend, Stephanie Albert,
they planned to move out West. They would go to graduate
school and become professors. He would teach history, she
would teach English.
Mr. Cisneros, 24, who lived in Manhattan, was gentle
and patient. He loved running and reading. "You're going
to do what?" Ms. Albert asked him, incredulous, when he
told her he was taking a job at Cantor Fitzgerald. His
parents had immigrated from Guatemala when he was 6. He
went to Dartmouth College, volunteered as a Big Brother
and fell in love with Ms. Albert.
One Saturday afternoon two months ago, they found
themselves in New Jersey, having offered to help a friend
set up for her husband's 40th birthday party. Alone in a
room with a view of Manhattan, they began dancing. They
were joking, teasing, making grand plans for how they
would celebrate each other's 40th when the time came.
"Thrilled with the present, excited about the future,"
Ms. Albert remembered sadly. "And it absolutely takes my
breath away that we won't even be able to spend our 25th
birthdays together."
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