Junior year is generally a time for ACT tests, college worries, school activities and being with friends. It is a hectic year and for most students, parents are nearby for support, but not for junior Eddy Otgonmunkh.

Eddy lives in Glenview with his sister and guardian, senior Narmandah Otgonmunkh, while his parents and other two sisters live in Mongolia. According to Eddy, their parents and sister moved back to Mongolia for family reasons this past summer.

“It was pretty cool at first,” Eddy said. “We had a car and my sister would drive me around […] After a couple of months I started missing my parents.”

The Otgonmunkh family moved from Mongolia in 2005. They lived in Chicago for a few years before coming to Glenview.

“We moved [to America] mostly because of my sister,” Eddy explained. “She needed medical attention because she had Leukemia, so I’m kind of like a donor to her if she needs anything.”

Despite leaving friends and family behind, according to Narmandah, Eddy was looking forward to the move.

“He was really excited to come here and just experience something new,” Narmandah said.

At Jamieson Elementary School in Chicago, the first change Eddy encountered was a language barrier.

“When I was in fifth grade, I didn’t speak any English at all,” Eddy explained. “I was sitting in math class and I really wanted to go to the washroom.  All I had was a book and it was like a picture dictionary thing.  It had a picture of a bathroom on it, so I took the book to my teacher and pointed to [the picture]. It was pretty funny.”

In Chicago Eddy became friends with junior Amraa Otgonbaatar. After eighth grade Eddy moved to Glenview and began his freshman year at South, Otgonbaatar did as well. Both boys began wrestling their freshman year.

“He is a great teammate,” Otgonbaatar said.  “He is very supportive and gives us great advice.”
Through wrestling Eddy and Otgonbaatar met junior Sanjaa Erdenebaatar.  Since then, according to Erdenbaatar, the three have been great friends.

“Our coach calls us ‘The Mongolians’,” Erdenebaatar explained. “We’re three best friends and three varsity wrestlers. Our ‘trio’ is unbreakable; we’re best friends outside of school and on the mat. We always do things together.”

Besides wrestling Eddy has a part-time job at a beauty salon cutting hair and selling wigs.

Eddy leads a busy life trying to manage wrestling, school and work without the support of most of his family.  However, according to Erdenebaatar he is able to manage it all.

“It’s definitely hard to live on your own, but I think Eddy handles it very well,” Erdenbaatar explained. “He’s very mature […] without his parents around, he faces difficult challenges every day, but he handles them like a grown up. I have a lot respect for Eddy as a teammate and as one of his best friends.”

Narmandah echoed Erdenbaatar’s statement about Eddy’s maturity.

“Being Eddy’s guardian is not really a problem for me because there is something about him that makes him really mature,” Narmandah explained.  “He sometimes even acts like he is my older brother, but at the end of the day he is still my little brother and I love him.”

With Narmandah’s graduation coming in the spring and their family already overseas, Eddy stated that they will permanently join them this summer.

“I am planning to graduate high school [in Mongolia], then get a scholarship and go to school out of the country again, maybe Europe,” Eddy said.