What is Success?

     Success can be different for everyone. Some people find success in material things, wealth, health, or completed goals in their life. For me, success is happiness. Pure bliss.

Smile :)
Who needs diamonds when you have a smile plastered on your face. A smile is a girl's best friend as the saying goes. Be happy with your life that you are living in. There are so many things to smile about just as there are things to be sad about, yet never yet the bad times ruin that smile. Just by walking down on the side-walk and smiling, can bring a smile to another person who may be having a bad day or just by looking at you makes them smile. Be silly! Be yourself! Life is too short to sit around being sad and miserable. Get out there and venture out, see what life could bring. Always have that bright smile on :) 

Do What You Love <3

What do I love? I love to dance. Dancing brings me joy and it's a good way to exercise too! :D (And I'm not a big fan of exercising :P) When you do what you love, you are happy. When you are happy, you enjoy life. When you enjoy life, everything is 100 times better. It's a chain reaction. Doing what makes you happy gives you positive energy to put up with the stress in your life whether that is school, homework, family, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc. Don't give up on what you love because it makes you happy and keeps you sane as well! XD

hehe, I'm the one in the purple :P

Fulfilling Your Goals

Everyone has their own goals that they want to accomplish in their life. I have both short and long terms. I like keeping a list of my short term goals because well, their short and easier to achieve. Every time I reach a short term goal of mine I get excited because it's one less thing I have to accomplish. Getting through all my goals will be something but I still have a lot to go through and a ton to live for. I like to think of my goals as stepping stones of my life. It's my road map to my life that will soon begin when I grow more and more independent as each and every day goes by. One stepping stone at a time, right? :) 

Ted Talks - Education

     She speaks the truth. There are many students that can't handle the school work and eventually drop out. I think this video connects with what we have been discussing in class because education plays a huge role in people's lives. With education, people get better jobs and more income as well. This plays along with the passion video and the student from Duncanville High. Students need to be motivated, we need, no, crave that motivation to keep us going. Many students give up when they receive a terrible grade on a test or exam and feel like they can't compete or are not good enough, or have an excuse to why they did so poorly. This woman though, encouraged a student that got two points out of twenty that they can do better. That student was then filled with motivation and wanted to do much better. If students are constantly put down then don't expect them to get up anytime soon. Students victimize themselves. It's true, we always blame someone or something else and never blame ourselves. Say you have a test to study for on Monday morning. A student has the weekend to study and prepare for that test, but instead they decide to go out and hang out with friends or play video games all day long. When test day comes, and find out that they failed, they either blame the teacher for not teaching them well enough, complain that the test was too hard, or maybe that they didn't have the time to study when they actually did but chose not to. If teachers can't motivate students and students can't motivate themselves, then who will? 

Duncanville High school - Amazing Student

     Holy crap, this dude is AMAZING!! Who would have thought that a student who looks like he might not care much for school and dresses like a gang banger for that matter would actually stand up to a teacher (in a decent manner may I add). This guy brings up a good point about how there are students who don't learn by doing worksheets and having teacher that pretty much don't give a crap if there students learn or not because quite frankly, they get paid either way to teach whether or not their students learn. It's quite depressing really. Students need a teacher that makes education fun and gets the class excited and eager to learn everyday. Just by listening to how the teacher talks back to this student you can tell that this teacher really doesn't care and just wants peace and quiet from the class. Well then Ms. Teacher, news flash, students will not learn anything and will fail because students aren't robots and will not process the information without being taught. It's one thing to do worksheets and a completely other thing to actually explain and help students understand what they are supposed to be taught. If there were more students out there that would stand up to teachers like this, the world of education may just be a better learning environment.

Growing Roses in Concrete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CwS60ykM8s

     Wow, just think that so many people have died and that citizens of Oakland have PTSD twice as much a soldier does. If that is true then wouldn't soldiers go insane? I mean if there's citizens in Oakland that don't go to war and have PTSD, what would that do to someone that was able to make it back home safely, but have this disorder and live in a whole community with the same disorder? I knew Oakland can get pretty bad sometimes, but I didn't know it could get THAT bad. 

1. How can we help improve the lives of those with PTSD?
2. What other ways are there to get students more motivated and involved in school?
3. Is it possible to apply Jeff's method to other schools around the world that could benefit their students?

Into the Wild

     So far in class we have discussed many topics throughout the two books that we have read and they intersect in various ways. The book, Into the Wild, is no different, and yet it is. The protagonist in the book is an educated white man who refuses to be given new things, whereas in the previous book, Bread Givers, anything that was new was a major blessing. This man was privileged for being white and was given anything he could ever want, if he wanted it that is. When comparing it to Laramie Project, there was privilege for the white race and colored people had not much to say and had to submit to the white race. Honestly, the man in Into the Wild, is pretty bad-ass. He does the complete opposite of what the other two books have done. He refuses all his privilege and he goes off and does whatever he pleases. 
    Who would have thought that someone who has it all, everything that anyone would be envious of, just throws it all way like trash, like it doesn't matter? Heck, if I was given a new car from my parents I would be the happiest person ever! ...If I learn how to drive better that is ha-ha. Not only is he given anything, but he is also well educated. He graduates and everything, and yet he refuses to receive anything. In the other books, being white was the best thing that could ever happen to you or the fact that just being white no one questions what you do because of all the privilege a white person gets. 
    As far as race goes, if the protagonist was colored instead of white, it would have been much harder for him to do what he wanted. Take for instance hitch-hiking. The white man was able to get a few rides because he was white and because of that, other white privileged folks saw him and felt sorry for him and wanted to help him in whatever way they could, whereas a colored man, people would probably keep on driving on and not care for the colored man because he means less than a white man. This can also tie with the education portion of it because colored people are not as well educated as the white's were. 

Deal Breakers in College

      There are many deal breakers when you go to college, whether you go to a community college, UC, or CSU, there will always be some challenges and obstacles in the way. One deal breaker for me is my after-school activities. I have dance practice for two hours twice a week, then I have piano lessons for an hour on Wednesdays, not to mention that I decided to take up an English class this summer to get ahead which is good-bye mornings three times a week, and lastly my driving lessons. There is so much for me to do plus my school work. It is hard to balance school and your social life. So many obligations or maybe it's just something that you love to do so you may not want to give it up because it keeps you from going insane from all the school work professors give out. 
       The way I try to handle all my responsibilities is by finding unused time whenever I can and do as much as I can. Take for example a bus ride. The bus takes FOREVER to come by so you can use that time to read, study, or look over any quick homework instead of using your phone and checking your instagram, twitter, facebook, etc. Even in the bus you can continue doing some work. It also helps if as soon as you get home, start homework immediately! Most college students say, "Oh, I'll do it after I eat" or, "I'll get to it when my t.v. show is over". It never happens until it is late at night and then students realize, "Oh crap! I forgot to do my homework!" and then stay up late at night just to finish. I know most students want to relax after a long day of school and listening to teachers talk, but if we as students are able to get to work sooner, not only would it save time, but also since we just got out from school and learned the lesson, it is fresher in your heads than if we wait later in the day. 

       Another deal breaker is finding a good spot to study. As a college student, we need somewhere quiet where we can study in peace to do our index cards or any helpful notes for that quiz or exam. Sometimes college students can't find a nice place to study because their household is too loud or they have siblings that never SHUT UP! ....Or bug the crap out of you. Possibly both. There is also the fact that their can be so many distractions. 
       The way that I handle this is by going to my room and shut down all electronics. That includes phone, t.v., laptop (unless I need it for typing), or any other possible distractions. Once everything is shut off I can work in peace knowing that nothing will interrupt my studying besides maybe my parents...or sisters. Sometimes the house isn't the best choice though, however; there are other resources. The library at school is always available and it is pretty quiet for the most part and there are not many distractions. It would be even better if you had a study group. Where you ACTUALLY study and not just chit chat by the way. Another possible place to go is to go somewhere in the outdoors like a park. You can sit at the bleachers or at a picnic table and study when it's a nice day out. 

Movie The Passion Project

Ok, for real now. Here's the link: http://vimeo.com/64410009

Passion Project + My Passion

Passion Project 

        This movie was really inspirational and very true. Sometimes I do feel the same way how these students feel and I can completely relate to them. When they get the part of teachers not being passionate about their work and seem very dull and boring, it makes students just want to sleep and not attend that class at all. I actually had a math class that was soooo boring! Normally I can deal with math, but this teacher was dead. I would fall asleep in that class so much and I don't fall asleep in classes. On the other hand, I had this history teacher last semester (by the way, I don't like history -.-) and she was AMAZING!! No joke. She made history come alive and every day I had that class I looked forward to attending class and she what new things I would learn and hear what she has to say. This movie speaks loud and clear to me in the sense that I am a dancer :) I have been dancing ever since I was about 6. Whenever I dance, I feel so free and stress-free. It's my getaway from the world of stress. I feel like I'm soaring on my feet along to my partner. I have tons of fun dancing and messing around with friends (when we're not practicing :P). There is nothing better than to dance and at the end receive applause from the audience. It makes me happy to be able to perform infront of people and watch as they smile and record the performance. 

            This is a picture of me (left), my mom (middle), and step-sister (right), at the Saint Joachim Church about to dance the Aztec dance. I forgot what was the occasion though, sorry! >.<

        Here's also a link to the movie The Passion Project so you can watch it for yourself :) Enjoy!