AHHHHH!!!

Video finally uploaded after many tries

FINAL VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1GZ_SqIaEY

"Final Assessment !"

Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door.“- Benjamin Jowett

       It’s here; it flew as fast as a dove… Now let’s tally up the score to see. In the beginning of the year we were introduced to a class called Inquiry, the syllabus was straightforward, simple and right to the point; “This INQ section challenges students to immerse themselves in the college experience: juggle multiple tasks, be problem solvers, ask questions, take risks, grapple with difficulty, be creative, learn from failure, take ownership over their own learning, and apply abstract concepts to their actual everyday lives.” Now as I said before let’s tally up the points, maximum amount of points you can get? A hundred of course!

First one: Juggling multiple tasks, well let’s see in the Jurassic era, (by that I mean the beginning of the year) we talked about how much hours we should spend per class and we got a barrage of assignments handed out to us to cope with. Blogs, readings, videos to watch, even going around the campus to complete certain coursework, it wasn’t really a surprise to me as it was to a lot of people..So how’d I do? Well the first thing to say was that I had no idea what a blog was and I never expected myself doing blogs, but once we got our theme assignments for our blogs, I sat and thought about how I wanted to word what I wanted to say. That wasn’t quite enough for me just to do an assignment, I felt like I had to outdo myself and make myself standout from the other classmates in the class.  Now as I look back, it was absolutely worth trying out different ways to approach the blogs as for example making analogies, interesting titles, etc. Next up in the juggling multiple tasks was to watch videos; I’ve got to be honest, I struggled watching the videos in the beginning, since I was focused in the other tasks that I had to do from other classes and the responsibilities I had for this same class but as time moved on I started to figure out time to watch the average 20 minute videos. The best part of it was that the videos weren’t the typical drool-on-your-face videos, they were humorous and engaging. Lastly for juggling tasks were the campus safari, which to me were the most difficult out of all the errands we had to do for this class since I had a tight schedule with academics and athletics. The exhaustion of the dynamic duo only encouraged my laziness (Yes I’m going to call it laziness because at the end of the day through all the excuses it’s still laziness) to find the balance to afford getting everything done. Overall, in the juggling tasks category I’d give myself seven out ten.

Second: Be problem solvers. The class throughout the year definitely presented me various problems that I had to go out of my comfort zone to find a way to resolve. A chief point of this to me would be the midterm video project, for any other project I would have normally used anything and I do mean ANYTHING besides iMovie since I didn’t dare to put my face or voice in front of a class in high school. The point was that I wasn’t in high school anymore and I knew in the summer that going to college was going to extend and alter my comfort zone. Why not start now? I went on to use iMovie… Yippie! Oh wait… how the HECK do you use iMovie? I had no idea on how to use such a program neither did I know someone that was quote on quote an expert. As Jimmy Neutron (cartoon character in nickelodeon) once quoted “ think…think… THINK… EUREKA!” I did the same thing. The answer was simple and in plain sight but yet a lot of people ignore it and lose a enormous opportunity. The answer: The Internet, so easy to use and yet so commonly unused for knowledge on productive programs. I found tutorials, information, tricks and even more than I ever expected. Problem solving score? Eight out of ten.

Numero Tres! Asking questions! This one I totally used it for my complete advantage on the class. For almost everything we did in the class I had some kind of question. I know that sounds kind of unnecessary and bothersome but I wanted not only to be sure of what I was doing, but to also know the extend of how far I can go trying to outdo myself without overdoing it, if that makes any sense at all. Points? Ten of ten.

Fantastic number four! Take risks.. In my opinion this might have been the most important and personal one to me. All of my life I have been the student in the classroom who was too shy to express himself even though they had good points and unordinary ideas/comments. As I stated before I knew college was going to modify my personality including my fear of being embarrassed in front of the class, this class was the perfect place to start especially on my freshman year and first semester. I started right from the start taking risks just to comfort myself in the act of doing so; I began to make comments, started being more social, expressed ideas, and even stayed after class to talk to the professor. A few years ago… Actually scratch that, all of my life except till the start of the semester. In my belief, this one is tied back-to-back with the fifth element of Inquiry class, which is to grapple with difficulty. Out of all the categories in INQ this one to myself deserves a perfect ten.

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” –William Shedd

Six! My favorite number is to be creative.  Well first how do we define creativity? With a little help from a quote from Frank Barron! “ The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot more saner, than the average person” one of my own personal goals is to be original and out of the ordinary as I always disliked the fact that the vast majority of people only follow the same path that other people choose and most of them are awfully unoriginal. In this class particularly, the concept of creativity is tied in with almost every activity, therefore I got to say that the most of the examples that I gave before should determine how creative I have been throughout the semester but in the end I would give myself seven out of ten for creativity because I know I could have done better.

Lucky number seven is to learn from failure. What exactly was my failure this semester? I would have to say one of my failures was my midterm project though I got a solid B on it. The reason I say it was a failure is because in my view it didn’t stand out at all compared to other classmates in the class, but though it was a failure to me the lesson was learned on what to do and what not to do. I analyzed the project that other people had and what they didn’t have, and from that on I applied it to the next big assignment that was the final video project. Comparing the two assignments let’s you see the difference of the amount of detail and technological adjustments made in order to make the video stick out of the group. A ten of ten.

               To take ownership of your own learning is to have integrity and discipline, that’s number 8 on the list. Inquiry class this semester became a wake up call to many students including myself when it came down to finally realize that there’s no hand holding anymore and that the path is not always pointed out to us, we had to make our own and even motivate ourselves to keep going (which of course was a lesson in the class.) A certain memory about this class stirs when I think about this concept of being the owner of my academics and it was when it was when we were first set out to find out how much time we spent in each class to study their respective subjects, it turned out to be pretty straightforward with me as if I was taking a test to portray how much I know of the subject. I figured I’d be one of the students that spends an average amount of time in academics but to my surprise it showed how much free time was being wasted that could have been productive, since then I’ve manipulated almost every minute that was wasted. Points? ten out of ten.

“The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.”  ~Joan Didion

Roman numeral IX is applying abstract concepts to their actually everyday use. Well for our class what have we learned? Well there’s time management, which now I use to balance my swimming, education, and personal life. Check.  There’s professionalism, I believe when it has come down to events, parties, and even swim meets I’ve tried to show up with appropriate clothing, I’ve resolved problems in an easy and understandable way with others, and lastly I’ve become adaptable to changes without repelling myself. All in all, the practice of using concepts learned in real life situation has improved my lifestyle. From this one I would give myself an eight.

So from nine categories which a total of ninety points I’ve come up with a summation of eighty points which is a B- right now…. But in the beginning I said there was an overall amount of hundred points, so where are the last ten points?

Well in my opinion I think the last ten points should come from you Professor Guarino by grading me how far I’ve come in this class and how well I’ve done in it. Thank you for this whole semester! You’ve taught me many things and personally I’ve think you’ve taught me how to be a college student.

"My Future Isn't Written In Stone!"

“Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”  ~Les Brown


For my next semester in college I’ll shake things up by trying out different ways to approach problem solving situations, and instead of expecting things out of my semester I’ll be more flexible to prevent personal problems intervene with my academics and other aspects of my life. In my own personal life my goals are simple yet difficult, I will try to accept the way life has written itself around me and move on, simply to let life keep writing more. In the social category of my life, my goals for next semester is to be able to manage time to find space in my life for those special people who are always there for me as I have been too busy to be there for them. With the first semester gone I knew I was going to struggle a bit as I had to juggle a lot of new and different experiences while trying to remain myself with my friends, now that it’s over I’m a bit more experienced with how time works in college life. Lastly, in academics I will most definitely stop my personal and social life from intervening with my education, I’ll learn to separate them so I can have balance between them. My other goal concerning academics is to achieve getting two As in my honors college classes to start the Honors College on a good note. Those are my goals concerning next semester.

"The Pros And The Cons!"

“Of course there is no formula for success except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”
                                               - Arthur Rubinstein

This semester was a flash, there’s no other way to describe it but when I reflect back to what happen between “Then and Now,” times slows down to show me that there was more to this semester than I ever expected. There was turns and twists, and nothing came to according to plan but I managed to came through. I would say that my success this semester is that as I said before.. I MADE IT! Yea I know it’s only the first semester but personally to me and to my family it is something special to know that one of us actually is trying to make it out there, I’ve been wanting to make a name for myself in my family and break boundaries while also trying not to fall on the stereotypes of Hispanics in this country. The biggest success that I had to stand myself against stereotypes was that I made in the Honors College, one of the things that I doubted at first if I should be in.

“Behind every successful man there's a lot of unsuccessful years.”
                                              - Bob Brown

My failures this semester was to expect everything to go they way I wanted it, not expecting any twists or unexpected events that could affect me. From October on my semester grades went down a bit as I took a barrage of hits of unforeseen things.

"Escaping The Rat Race!"

The real world… That might one of the scariest yet most exciting thought that can pass through any college student ‘s head. Just thinking of leaving the nest of where you were raised, fed, and most likely taken care of for a good chunk of your life is tough for the majority percent of the population but what of the other percent? I am part of that petite percentage that is ready to flap their wings and fly far, far away from home and start a new life somewhere else, the thought process of knowing that in a few years I will be out there constructing my life the way that I wanted it to be since I was a kid. I will be enjoying my profession while making side profits in investments (Got to play big, to win big right?) I know most of the things that I want from life will never be achieved but that’s why I’m using my strength of being flexible and adaptable to virtually any situation to get by the rough times ahead. Tight budgets, recessions, and even bad luck are inevitable but all of them can be reduced to a minimum and I’ll achieve that with a positive outlook in life and leading my life, not as quoted in “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” getting caught in a “rat race” with no escape and losing control of life. My ideal life is having my own house with adopted children and a profession in which I can enjoy for the rest of my life.

"Leading Through My Fears."

Did you know that as a kid I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming at the top of my lungs? Not to mention that I ran to my parent’s room because of my nightmares? I was the type of kid that was terrified of the darkness, closets, clowns, dolls, etc. Most of probably came from all of the scary movies that I watched as a little kid and my interest in them though the nightmares made me sweat, of course my dad got frustrated after a while and told me the typical; “You have to face your fears” but I didn’t have the guts to face them. Now I’m in college and it was just recently October, the month of horror, I happened to have gone to the “Trail Of Terror” with a couple of friends and just one look at the place made my blood turn ice cold as I got a flashback of all the dreams that I had as a kid and blocked out for years. So you see the thing that was kind of ironic was that all of us were a bunch of babies. Go figure right?  Well just staying in line was an experience with 40 year old guys soaked in blood with chainsaws giving you chills but as we were about to enter the trail of terror we were told that we needed someone in the front. The choice was a landslide, I was voted to go first and surprisingly I took it without hesitating. Clowns, dolls, and insane people (literally) you name it, every single nightmare. I just walked in and went right through… no hesitation. It might not be a big leadership experience but it was pretty big for me.

“Can I Get A Flashlight So I Can Out Of This Tunnel?”

Almost everyone has that certain someone that they want to help but no matter how hard you try, it just seems that they don’t want to help themselves. As of right now I have someone like that in my life and I believe that person can do much better then anyone else expects, the catch is…. They don’t seem to have a gram of faith in themselves no matter how many times they prove to me, everyone and even themselves that they are able to do whatever they please with just a little pint of self confidence. But it’s all “Jokes And Laughs” isn’t it? It’s the time to have the time of your life, that’s what teenagers are expected to do at their age. Well you know what?  They’re right. It is the time to have the time of their life but we also have to be responsible for ourselves, why waste life by cutting it short and having an insecure future? I should probably let you guys know that I took AP Psychology in high school and I know that’s probably not nearly enough to help people like that but I’ve had experiences like this in high school and I was close with my AP teacher as she taught me of how much people can have with confidence and a clear view of life. Now the toughest things about situations like these is that sometimes the person becomes contradicting and that’s the frustrating part, especially when they listen and agree with you but still end up making old mistakes. Do these people actually have a chance to change their ways? In my own personal opinion, I pull all the cards out on the table and ask them if it’s worth caring about them… It just turns out that they want me to care for them and that’s just enough for me to not give up no matter how dark the tunnel is right now, I’ll find the exit sooner or later.

"Give Me A Map And I'll Show You Where The 'Giraffe Women' Live!"

"Everything has to do with geography." Judy Martz 

Indians in the West, Culture conflicts up in the Middle East, Climate problems up in the North and Political changes down South. Oh Geography class! How much I've learned from you and I've actually enjoy it! Yea I know.... Geography? One of the classes that usually everyone dreads, but to be honest I don't know why. The class consists of various powerpoint slides where the teacher points and/or talks about cultures and give interesting side notes of the region/country/continent to keep us even more attentive on the subjects presented at the class. Did you know that the Women in the Padaung or Kayan Lahwi (A subgroup in Asia)  culture have to wear necks rings since they are 5 years old and that's how they got their nickname as the "Giraffe Women". Punishment for adultery? Take the rings off and since their neck muscles have become atrophied by the excessive amount of time wearing the rings, they have to live their rest of their lives laying down. Now I know that seems kind of crazy and all but its their CULTURE and I find it so interesting to find out things like that which are out of the ordinary. The crave this semester for that class has become so intense that my lowest Exam grade for it is a 94.  The class is demanding when it comes to memorizing countries and other continents plus the facts of the different regions but when you're having fun in a class and your eyes and ears have full attention on the subject, the class is not a class anymore, it's an incredibly enjoyable lifetime event.

"Not Only Am I Cozy But I'm Also Being Productive!"

Where else can you possibly find the double Cs  with a side dish of silence for a study place? No idea? I do Ever been to the Student Center's Fire place? A room located on the third floor of the center designed only for students to be able to have a secured study place to work on their homework practically at any time  they please to be productive. Now I know hat you're asking, what are the double Cs ? Well it's just the simple combination is for a study place. Now this is my personal favorite thing about this place, it not only provides comfortable couches and a pleasant environment but it exposes an extraordinary view of the campus with its enormous windows. In here I've experienced looking at the different seasons and weather, from sunny days to rainy to windy and even snowy, now if you're the type of person who likes to observe sweet mama naturaleza (Mother Nature) I recommend for to you to go here. The last thing that this place has that is pretty attractive to people such as myself where I need space for myself is that there's not a lot of people who go there, its always very presentable, and to me... Well it's my favorite place in the entire campus.

" Organizing Emotions Is Far More Effective"

“There are thousands of causes for stress, and one antidote to stress is self-expression. That’s what happens to me every day. My thoughts get off my chest, down my sleeves and onto my pad.”

It’s finally the month of November, and I couldn’t be any happier. Why you ask? Well the reason why is because it’s a whole new month and a whole new month to sew myself together from the past few weeks of October that have brought me down entirely to the point where I couldn’t handle simple task that I did in my usual schedule.  At the lowest point I remembered something crucial…. Why am I bottling everything up? I mean what’s the point of that? My friends continuously told me that I was always my own worst enemy because of my over thinking in every situation I’m in and they’re absolutely right on target. In the past summer I told myself that I would keep an online diary where I can organize all my thoughts in a single space or in this case; a screen.  So far I haven’t fulfilled my own promise to myself and I’ve been going downhill,  that sort of became the consequence for being unorganized and let admit to you that it wasn’t the best feeling… But that’s all good and done as I started typing out feelings again and according to the article that I read recently, emotions are leading factor on how we act and it affects our actions in a great percentage.

"You're Inflating My Ego!"

            3.0? Check. Same classes as everyone? Check. Changed the teacher’s mind about my grade because I felt it was unfair? Check. Will someone tell me who made this “To- do” list? It seems that almost every student have a large share of similarities in their academic history, now why do you think that is? Now in my class we talked about how does grade inflation affect us in our individuality, apparently we agreed that it debases the term “out of the ordinary” as we start learning consciously and unconsciously to not do as much work as the hard working students only because the teachers are suddenly curving their test grades and changing grades. The laziness is easily spreading out but how can you even blame the students when these teachers are becoming more and more gullible and vulnerable to students who strongly demand a better grade for honestly no reason. It has become a cycle and the cycle only gets worse as the cycle only keeps boosting the student’s ego to never be wrong and to reject and deny the accusation of having a bad grade even if they know they’re doing average work. There’s been a study about college students to prove that they have become far less working then what generations before have done as it quoted “This would mean that today the amount of work required of an undergraduate student is similar to what a high school student needed to accomplish 40 years ago.” if you want to read the article here it is “Data suggests that college students are getting lazy.”

“I Don’t Want A Treat, I Want A Trick To Fix My Grade!”

“Nice job in that class!” “ Oh that’s so good” “WHAT THE HECK?!”

Yea… sorry mom. Midterms grades came out and what do I see? Pretty much of what I expected, except for one little thing that brought my whole GPA down. What’s it called? Math. The thing is, I was actually really good at math as a young kid, so what happened? Beats me. As I stared at the screen gazing at my grades I couldn’t help but to feel so aggravated and frustrated as I saw every grade that I wanted but math; my academic weakness, and not to mention that I also knew that my only academic flaw was going to bring my whole academic GPA down, even though I worked hard throughout the semester. So what now? Back to the beginning of course! That’s probably the hardest thing to do in any problem-solving situation, find out what’s wrong with your original plan/agenda and try to modify it. Another factor to count in is that since it’s October, almost everyone got use to his or her daily schedule and though humans can adapt, they usually dread change. But of course life is an ever-changing environment which the need to resolve daily problems is essential to all of us.  My goals for the rest of the semester is to improve my math grade by going to tutoring and finding more time in my schedule to use it to study for test and quizzes.

"Move Out The Way! I Want to Lead The Pack!"

Who has ever heard of a freshman leading a team workout? Especially in college! The thought of a younger athlete leading the pack is not very commonly accepted throughout college teams because of the sense of seniority from older kids but at times there are some freshman that dare to challenge the hierarchy, when that happens it tends to be very controversial. I got lucky; my teammates acted more accepting then what other teams would usually act like when a younger athlete or maybe “inexperience” athlete would take leadership in practice, they encouraged me to keep going though they said their “competitive” nature was aggravated and turning on but when they said to me it made me wonder if that’s really a bad thing to turn on your competitive nature? I mean when you start competing within your own practice wouldn’t that help you way even further during real championship competitions? I think so. At the beginning of the year I let the juniors (who are basically the top swimmers in the team) know that I wanted to stay close to them during practices, at first they made it seem to take it as joke that how could someone that hasn’t gone through the practices they’ve done for 2 years now could keep up with them, but as the practices went on and they assigned the lanes, to their surprise they saw that I could keep up with them but just recently I tried to lead the lane, it was extremely hard but I’m sure it’ll pay off at the end.

My Project

The video!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esp3mJBzTQw

"For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic"

            “What seems to us as bitter trails are often blessings in disguise.”  -Oscar Wilde

You want to know what my title for my blog was going to be before I changed it on the last possible second? You already know it I promise, just look above the quote posted above. It is the title of a song from one of my favorite bands “Paramore,” and to be honest that song is not one of my top ones from them, it’s just the title that trapped me in. This week has been a drag, and no it was not school related nor friends but it was because I just kept receiving news after news from home that just pummeled me down every second counted on my phone from the calls. At times this week I got to admit that it was hard even when I talked to my close friends at home about it but as much as I was down for some strange reason I couldn’t help but to keep reminding myself of what I’ve been through and experienced before. I don’t know why, but I kept doing it and to my surprise it was actually uplifting to think about my past and then knowing that I am still here. I feel like the quote that I picked described exactly what happened to me this week, the paths that I took that were my worst nightmares were the ones to actually throw a rope to the bottom of the barrel and lift me up. So my closest cousin is going to rehab and my parents are getting separated, it’s depressing but I have to be optimistic not only for my family but for my own sake. I’m sure I’ll look back one day and know that it made me stronger.

And again

What seems to us as bitter trails are often blessings in disguise.

"What the HECK is a PM?!"

A teacher? A friend? A student? What exactly is a peer mentor?  Most people would say that a peer mentor is a teacher’s assistant to help them in class but is that really what it is? I can’t help but to think that a peer mentor has to be something much more meaningful. There’s a vibe that comes from the peer mentor in which the younger students who haven’t been here long pick up the sense of comfort in which they can lean on, especially since they’re not really an authority figure. To the teachers, I’m assuming they’re some sort of helping hand that help encourage doing the work that need to be completed from the class. Personally, I think what works with the peer mentor is that they are just in middle ground between teachers and undergrads who might still be in “high school” mode, while the mentors are in the fully realized “college mode,” the exact perfect transition guide to turn off that high school switch off and flick the college one on. The peer mentors add to the class that extra reach for the class to understand the importance of what the teacher really is saying, not to mention the power to be more personal to the students since 90% of students often feel awkward getting on a personal level with teachers/professors. What I have learned from my peer mentor Kaitlyn is that you can basically do anything in college, more specifically is to make yourself better of you didn’t like what you were in the past.

"Mr. Everything’s Setback"

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Well to be honest Mom, Dad, and the rest of the world. I simply don’t know. I’ve always been known to be the kid who’s the “All- Around” player, always been average or a bit better then other people in not only in academics but almost every aspect of my life (except in math, the numbers and I just don’t get along.) Don’t believe me? My freshman year in high school I was called “Mr. Everything” by the local newspaper as my old coach said “I can put him in anything and he will swim it, he’s so versatile,” ok it sounds like I’m bragging but there’s a point, I promise! The thing about being “All Around” is that yea you’re average/good at almost everything but of course as someone once said, “ For every action there’s an equal but opposite reaction,” and to me that reaction is that I don’t really excel at one thing. That to me is a big price to pay, especially if you’ve been known to be indecisive to situations like these. Now I’m in college, the place where you really should’ve already narrowed down your choices and either you’ve picked a major or have a gist at least of what you want to do for the rest of your life, the pressure is felt everyday. There is a positive side to all of this mess, as we are almost through with this semester and getting ready to pick classes, I for example can finish all of my graduation requirements and explore possible interests for a career at the same time! 

"Blog Schlmog"

Does anybody want to tell me what the definition of a good blog is? Of course there’s the usual like putting links and pictures but even if you add those elements to your blogs does that really make it interesting? I wonder what those professional bloggers have that catches the attention of thousands, is it just luck that people happen to like about what they’re talking about or is it something else? While going through various INQ blogs of students I saw that many people have a completely different writing style then others but even though they were talking about the same thing, some had comments while others didn’t. Is it correct grammar? No I don’t think so, is it pretty pictures? I guess that matters at times, like for example Mike’s blog had such a symbolic picture of a person sitting in front of a computer screen with the guy’s feet turning into a tree’s roots, that picture just totally blew my mind. Is that it though, pictures make a good blog? No answer yet, so I decide to look through more blogs. Oh what’s this? A video? Awesome! I’m not going to lie for a second I was confused when I saw the link to the video, don’t judge me, I was just in shock someone did something different! Jacob’s blog was the first one that I saw with a video so I became a follower of his blog. Something just raced passed my mind. That’s it, I know what it is the definition of a good blog (except this my opinion of what a good blog should “look” like.) The definition IS…….. Well there is no definition actually, a good blog consists of various factors and most of them you manipulate them to support your voice on the topic that you’re talking about.  Even though every interesting blog out there have similarities to other good blogs, the major difference is that they all have a different taste in how to support your opinion and not to mention they are very “out of the box.” Writing is almost like water; it flows, curves, and changes its state depending on how you want it to be, the thing is you just have to find a way to change it in a way no one else has done before. I dare you to me tell it won’t catch an audience.

"Endless Battle Between Genes And Practice"

How’s practice going for you? How are your performances’ going during games and/or meets? Are there people who just seem to just play or have better times then you, despite your effort you put it all on the practices? Or am I completely wrong and it is the exact opposite. You barely or put no effort in your work and you seem to get by just fine or do absolutely incredible in your performances, eclipsing others with less strain then any of your buddies or athletes. Either way your life plays out with you, this question has been asked by countless athletes and not to mention its also closely linked to the subject of “Nature vs. Nurture” in which scientist have debated which one affects us the most for years or decades. Our perspectives of everyday views are constantly changing these days but it seems that we have forgotten some topics that are lingering on an everyday basis in athlete’s lives. So what to do? We have to start somewhere don’t we? Why not start here in Southern? In the process of learning the answer to my question: “Talent Vs. Hardwork: Which one affects our performances more?” I’m going to have to go around the campus and talk to experts (Mainly coaches), students and team captains, the reason why I’m doing this is to look at the view of undergrad students who are either enrolled in a sport who are in the present time, captains who have more experience then the newly enrolled freshman, and of course the expertise of coaches and professionals who know athletes inside out. So where is the answer? We are going to find out.

"A Crowd Or A Family?"

All you see is a crowd, not really a crowd but more of a mass of colors just moving almost in sync. You see it all over the place: on their hair, on their face, some even on their whole body. A combination of white and blue, which together symbolize the Southern Connecticut State University’s Owls, and just to make the excitement rise to a new level they began to enter the field; The Owl’s Football team. The crowd’s roar felt like an earthquake, the stomping just re-enforced the sensation. The cheerleader’s tricks supplied the fuel to continue the crowd’s level of excitement to be endless, and I stood there watching and absorbing the vibe from everyone as I myself had my hair sprayed with white and blue colors. After about 10-15 minutes of watching the players continuously tackle each other and trying to find a gap that would give a lead; it suddenly came… TOUCHDOWN, the ground shook violently and like a reflex I was soon standing and screaming at the top of my lungs.  The score? 7-0 with the owls leading the game, and within another few minutes another one was scored. The crowd was relentless, and I was totally a different person. There was one last goal that I saw, and now we are winning 21-0. I watched my school, everyone so united, I asked myself: Is it only because the game was in National TV the reason that everyone showed up and was in this mood? I thought about it and started to think back, all the encounters with everyone, my swim team, the students, even the staff. The answer? The constant pride of the school runs through the school like it was its own blood, since the first time I’ve been here the community has had shown support to this school as if it was there own home, who am I kidding? We are  home.

           

Picture by Alexis Petrone

“The Wonders Of ‘Emorationality’ & The Man of Service”

Ever felt like your head and your heart are in an eternal battle at times? That they clash and you are torn to choose between one from the other? But my question to you is “Have you ever wondered if there’s anything in between the suppose ‘Polar Opposites’? If there is such a thing as emotions being intertwined with what seems right from wrong or vice versa? The article ‘Emorationality’: Where Your Head Meets Your Heart by Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar touches upon such subject in where she quotes on an expert Professor Olivier Oullier, talks about the old binary trap, states the source of research on the subject and last of all it includes you at the end of the article. Within that article it includes links on answers that myself and I bet a massive amount of people have asked themselves countless times in terms of a daily basis and or on relationships.

In another topic, “Mr. A-Z” talks about what would life be without music, where musicians would be, and finally where he’d be without music in his life all in his Blog. The life that he’d pursue, and the dreams of becoming someone riding a “Bigger Wave” that would help masses of people. He even talks where he’s standing right now so far in terms of his music career and how the critics and not to forget the false claims have affected his life. Now you may be wondering who the heck is Mr A-Z? Well you might know him from the hit single “I’m Yours” that lasted in the number one spot for months, yes ladies and gentlemen; it’s Jason Mraz. The perspective from a bohemian artist lets fans such as myself know what goes on in the minds of great musicians such as Mr. A-Z.

"Playing Around With The Hands Of Time And The Screen."

Have you ever asked yourself where do the hours pass by when you do homework and the next day you find out it’s incomplete? It doesn’t make sense right? I mean you spent so many hours doing homework and yet it seems that overnight half of it ran for its life. To me it sounds like your hours didn’t run for its life but that it jumped to a hole called distraction. What? What distraction? Well you tell me, I’d say an estimate of over 85% of teenagers are involved in a social network which includes hot websites such as: Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Roughly the same equivalent to that percentage have experienced going from doing homework for a couple of minutes to finding themselves wasting hours chatting on such popular networks where you can stay connected with friends. There’s a point though, we need computers to do such things as research, typed papers, etc. So how can we avoid the “Network Effect” as I call it? I’m no expert but in my own personal opinion I think the best thing to do is to set yourself time for friends and time for study, homework, or essays that are due throughout the week. It is not hard and most of all teens complain about the amount of homework that they have when they don’t even notice that they have so much more time to finish it and still be socially active. Don’t fight time itself; it is not there to put a halt to your life, It’s actually quite the opposite; it’s there to move your life forward.

Vision Board

Keep on swimming

stay in contact with the friends who let me be myself

Have a dog

Keep making my parents proud of me

Keep having an education

Keep being myself

"Luma’s secrets to a successful life."

It’s not really a secret actually; it’s more of a way to live except it takes a lot of discipline. So what’s the secret you ask? Well the article ”Work Hard or Work Smart” put it in very simple words; “Work smart, work hard and live strong.” SURPRISE! It’s a combination of both! Exactly how was Luma able to make the Fugees, a group of kids from all kinds of different places the best team of their league? By staying strong all the way through and working both smart and extremely hard against the barrage of issues that her team had. According to the book Coach Luma during the tryouts while watching the kids play soccer she sat on the grass endlessly writing up plays and erasing them and re-writing them yet again, this continuous habit she developed made her work in a strategic way for her upcoming soccer games of the season. So she has already achieved the first basic step of being successful, and so what’s next? Working hard of course; right after tryouts she set down the rules and what she expects from them kids. The expectations were incredibly high though they were achievable and she knew that the kids she was training could follow them. There’s also another thing that she did that assisted her in becoming a coach of the most competitive team and that is that despite having to overcome personal problems in her life, Luma stood her grounds through thick and thin. She showed dedication through her hard work, as she was being strong for the people around her. Overall,  as we can see that with her plays that she made and the practices she set for the kids; Luma and the Fugees came a long way.

                                          

                                          

"The Chronicles of College. The Lion, the Witch, and the Laundry?"

                                                  

Ferocious wolves that can talk, a humble Lion that knows what’s right from wrong and a Witch with the ambition to take possession of Narnia. Oh how I miss watching those kinds of movies when I was a kid, and I bet that all of us have those certain movies that just caught our imagination and took us into a world of fantasy unlike any other. As a kid I would invest a serious amount of money trying to see all these adventures movies because they sparked an adventure land everywhere I went. Of course now I’m a teenager in college and fantasy has decreased a significantly large amount but what does that say? It might be that reality’s gravity is finally hitting with full force. By spending so many hours on the TV watching cartoons and movies that only expanded my imagination it created an equal but opposite reaction as it was decreasing the hours needed for me to learn basic skills of how to take care of myself later on in life. As for example: Laundry. I’ve never done laundry on my own, in the Universe my mind with all kinds of mystical creatures cramped inside this skull, chores as basic as doing the laundry was the antagonist to the story. So it’s true that reality is cracking through my life but that’s part of growing up, and a lot of people think that growing up means that you lose the ability to have a fantasy world but that will not be the case with me as I believe that my dreams are a part of me and for them to fade away is to lose myself. It just turned out that I had to my own laundry this week; it wasn’t that bad, in fact it was almost like an adventure just as good as the stories inside my head. Reality doesn’t seem that bad.                

                                           

                                               

"A toast for all the papers that are due!"

First 2 week of college? Done deal. How was it?  Very messy. Why? Because of all the papers due of course! In the transition of becoming a college student, the first weeks are crucial in the college career of any freshman. It’s a learning experience like any other; everything is thrown at you at the same time, a new place, new friends, new teachers, but most importantly lots and lots of papers that need to be completed. Is that the biggest change from high school to college? A change in the amount of workload and homework? From my own personal view, it might just be. From swim team papers sheets that need to be filled out to syllabuses that need to be memorized. The whole thing just overwhelms anyone; notice that I haven’t mentioned the homework that is also a contributing factor of the challenges presented in the first month of college. As I stated before the first few weeks is a very crucial part of college, and though it is annoying and it’s overwhelming, it’s essential for the transition into becoming a full-pledge adult with responsibility. Millions of years ago we had to endure the freezing era by killing a few wolves and ox to warm ourselves and survive. So if we all went through obstacles and changes in our past and endured temperatures far below 0 degrees, what can we learn from them? The best way to overcome all of it is to do what us human do best. Adapt.  That’s just what I’m going to do.

"The Forbidden Marshmallow Fruit?"

Eve fell into temptation as she ate the forbidden apple and God forever condemned her. As we saw in the Marshmallow video 2/3 of the kids ate the marshmallow though they were warned not to. They only had to wait 15 minutes; after the forever-long minutes were done they’d get two marshmallows instead of one. Rarely any of them waited, the white puffy sugary sweet was right in front of them ready to be eaten… Well in the case of these kids, they were ready to be swallowed whole. Exactly how does this relate to the typical college student? Well ever heard of self-discipline? Or how about self-control? They made it pretty clear in the video that if only the kids were more patient they’d have more then what they had when the experiment started. They had to plan ahead and see the big picture or as we say “The long shot.” Well yeah, college kids definitely know better then these much younger kids, or do they? How many times have we seen the average teenager go to a party instead of doing homework or study for a test the next morning?  The stats are very similar to the statistics of how many kids would eat the marshmallow instead of waiting to have two of them. Of course though, the teens that didn’t go to the party had a much better chance in passing the test or having a better grade of homework then the wild party craze adolescents that like to stay in the fiesta the whole night. So what’s the lesson learned? Avoid that little guy in the red suit with two horns called temptation; he likes to mess around with you once in a while.

"Getting To Know Me"

• So to start off the blogs I have chosen 5 concepts that describe me in a way to picture my personality
  
  • Intuitive
  • Dreamer
  • Escapist
  • Compassionate
  • Secretive
  
  Intuitive:
  The power of knowing things from a natural knowledge inside your mind, that’s what being intuitive means, to some people it seems that, this concept is sort of being psychic but really its just knowing the surroundings you’re in. My parents, family and friends have always told me that I am not the usual teenager and one of the reasons is because I have a sense of intuition that helps me on a daily basis. Usually my friends come to me for advise on situations that I’ve never been because I’ve been told that the way I know how to control the situation at the present moment helps them in whatever they are doing.

Dreamer:The desire of things that are usually unrealistic to achieve and accomplish. I’m a dreamer, there’s no doubt about it. When I have time to myself I imagine and live in my world, in there I am able to do whatever I please and manipulate what goes on in my life. There’s a problem with that and it’s that it sometimes becomes hard for me to touch the ground and be able to realize what’s fact from fiction.

Escapist:
An escapist is someone who likes to escape from they’re surroundings or someone who doesn’t like to face reality. This is pretty related and similar to the dreamer concept though it is more like a reaction to what’s going on in the real world. Everyday I try to separate both of these worlds; the real world from my dream world. The problem is that when things get to tough I start crawling back into my dream world where I can stay safe behind it.

Compassionate:
Compassion is the feeling of feelings other’s emotion. I am the type of person who knows how to read people, from their face expressions to their body language. With that said I can see what they feel and typically I try to react to that certain emotion they are going through.

Secretive:
This is one of the concepts that is both good and bad. It means to contain information from everyone, which is what I do. I’m usually very good at keeping secrets because I try not to betray the trust of the person that told me but sometimes when the secret is something that is life disrupting to that person is when it starts to hurt the person and myself for keeping it on the DL.

The College Life

     What's that? a bird? a plane? How about none of the above. It's JUST College. What exactly is college? To everyone that simple yet complicated word has a different meaning but to me, it means time to fly. Fly away from home that is. Someone once said that knowledge is power but how do we obtain knowledge? Well that's just it, we have to get out there and find it or experience it at least. That's just what college means to me, a stepping-stone to obtain the power to recklessly tackle life at full charge. Accomplishing going to college is just like giving you tools to build your own house, both are very similar in a way because both help you go that extra-mile to grasp your own personal design. Building your own house makes you live that dream house, well going to college assists you into grasping your dream life.

    In my own personal view being a full time college student is something to be proud of since none of my family members have ever gone to college in the U.S or ever experienced the intensity that the schools in the U.S.A provide. I have changed throughout my life on the view of my academics, I use to be the kind of person who really didn't care but as I got older it hit me that I need to straighten up and put my two feet on the ground, so becoming a college student excites me as far as education goes. All the experience from all the professors is valuable to me since it's all like a library where I can see what's out  on the real world and since they're taking up their time to help me succeed in life and providing the assistance to figure out what kind of person I'm going to become in the near future.