If you just can’t find
Someone to trust
When you give your heart
But you don’t get much
Don’t you worry
Your time is gonna come
Ohh yeah
Well the world’s a school
So much to learn
So learn it well young man
Well the world’s a stage some act to fool
-Roll with it by the Backstreet Boys
The first day of school. Sometimes, it’s like getting ready to go to war and other times it’s like getting to take a stroll in the park and sometimes it’s a little of both. Well, yesterday I had a little of both because over the well deserved winter break I slept quite a bit to the point that I got my usual 8 hours instead of 6. It was back to 6 yesterday because I had a hard time falling asleep after catching up on some episodes of Weeds and I just kept thinking of what new adventures awaited me at De Anza College. I tried to listen to some calming music but it didn’t work but I finally went to sleep at around 2 that morning. I got up around 8:15 that morning to take my dog on her walk which give or take can go from 15 or 20 minutes on a usual morning. After I had finished her walk I got ready for school and I tried getting there early so I can take a walk around campus to find my classes to make sure I didn’t get lost. The most difficult one to find is one in a trailer that is by the tennis courts which wasn’t easy to find but it wasn’t hard either. After that I went to my first class which was Colonial Latin American History which is taught by a professor that I respect for the sharing of his personal life and he also puts a real life emphasis on how history connects to life and what is happening around us. I was amazed at the vast amount of stuff he told us about how he stole this lady’s phone number yet he didn’t know he did as there was some sort of mix up with the phone company and what not. He also happened to take a phone call in the middle of class due to his insurance company calling to ask about how his liability problem is being handled by the DMV which is just weird and dumb according to him. I realized days before sitting in that classroom that I don’t know everything in the world nor should it be my intention to do so. Some people say it is “experience” that educates you but in my honest opinion I believe that reading a book and hearing other’s stories helps you constantly learn and it helps to build you up. Hearing this professor speak about Latin American history and what we are going to cover in the course helped me realize that just because I’m Mexican and I hear Mexican music, that doesn’t give me the right to automatically say that I know my people and I stand by what they are. I want to know more and if I keep learning at my young age, I’ll be able to understand who I am as a person and as apart of my culture. It’s interesting to note that while I was sitting there that my next class, Cultural Anthropology, is kind of along the same lines but along a different context. Our professor, this time a woman introduced us to the course and went over what it was that our culture taught us about ourselves and how we function as human beings. I liked her talking about her own culture in that she was born in Korea and her parents found it very hard to keep her because where she grew up the value of a son was seen as a good thing. She gave me the impression that she enjoys talking about the study of Anthropology and she doesn’t sugarcoat it so that she is really not into it. She told us how she went to live with a tribe in Chile called Mapuche and hearing talk about them made us realize as a class that there is so much to be discovered out there and we as people are unaware as we carry on in our busy schedules. After that was said and done, I took a break till 1:30 which is when my Regional Geography class started. This is where it got interesting as both good thoughts came into my head and weird ones as well. I realized that the professor teaching the class was very keen on the point that Geography is something that is put under the section “Social Studies” in Elementary school and I thought she is right. I hardly remember ever taking map tests or having to memorize the 50 states of the U.S.A. except for in Middle school or high school which wasn’t so good the first time around in middle school but in high school I could have told you where Virginia was located exactly or even Maine. I also found it funny that one of the students was trying to make smart ass comments on the first day of class. Usually, you study these ones that make these comments and you think to yourself that they are trying to prove a point that is a lost cause or they are just trying to be funny. I usually just think they are trying to get noticed by the professor but all it takes is that and they’ll notice you. I also found it funny that her jokes weren’t funny yet she jokes that her jokes were only found funny by old people and that she enjoys the occasional geography student that always raises their hands. I liked that she went over how the idea of Geography actually may work as this makes it seem like a less complicated process as this is a class that I’m taking for requirement but I’m also interested in finding out about the locations I live in and what they are embedded in. I then noticed a classmate that looked really, and when I mean familiar, I mean I felt like I would never see this guy again. It was this guy that I went to high school with and I couldn’t fathom seeing him again because even though we were back to back classes for a year and that was the only year I ever saw him, I hoped I would never see him again. He just seemed like he had to be right about everything and he just seemed righteous in the abilities he had about proving people wrong and he also seemed disrespectful to our history teacher that year. Once I heard his name read for roll call, I couldn’t believe it was him and I was just kind of shocked but I will try my best to avoid the guy because he’ll probably not remember me but I’ll remember him. Speaking of roll call, it was interesting because she called our names and she wanted to know places we would have liked to have gone to. I heard Greece, Toronto, Moscow, Chile, Fiji, and even the very estranged Cuba. I thought wow, all those places sound awesome to go to one day and I hope one day I’ll be able to afford to go to some of these places. I ended up saying Calgary, Canada simply because I want to visit the famous Hart House of the wrestling family the Harts, if not just for some picture taking if they ever make it an attraction. After that was over, I waited a few hours before work and I realized that I should probably order my books and I did and this time I got them at a good baragin which was just under 100 dollars which is way better than previous year where I’ve spent 90 dollars just on one book. I watched the amazing Miz/ John Morrison match on Monday Night Raw and I felt satisfied enough to go to work after a good meal and some wrestling. As I was rolling up, I saw a co-worker that I hadn’t seen in some time. It had been about two weeks and it feels strange seeing him even now. He decided a few weeks ago that he was going to quit and I feel proud of him as he and I were did a lot of things together but sometimes friendships end up being like relationships in that you hold up your end of the bargain but the other person only cares about putting their interests first instead of their own. I don’t know what his goal would be if he is moving to Fairfield as he is entering a personal fitness trainer program there and I feel that he can offer other people so much more than he has in the past. I stated to him that he was going to miss me and I told him that I wasn’t. I told him that it was time to move on and branch off but he wasn’t buying it which I found strange and perplexing. I thought to myself, I’ve done pretty well for myself in stages of my life where I had to start over in a way. I remember when I moved or when I found my first job I thought it would be difficult to find new friends but I put my trust in some of them and we had our share of laughs and we joked around but we were still friends in the end. I do truly miss having not to work and hang with friends from high school as I found it easy to communicate with him and we were both very level headed. I sometimes say to myself that I have to keep at least one friend from each era of my life and I can honestly say I have and I will always have that mentality. From the big red machine, I can say that maybe at the most, I have kept two, one of whom no longer works there and one I consider to me more of a “Yoda” figure as he has fun with everybody but with me he treats me like his own and we always try to have a great time when we work together. Back when I lived in San Jose, I made two great friends and even though we don’t talk on a regular basis, I can say that if either of those two guys ever needs a friend I’ll be there for them as I remember seeing one of them a few months ago at De Anza and we chatted for a bit about life and what not, although I was kind of inconsiderate due to my “time” running low. I also kept some old buddies from my old apartments so that always works out as well. I just kept thinking to myself as this co-worker spoke to me that I couldn’t take someone like that seriously anymore. I think after this day that I am in a position to succeed in anything I want, it’s just i have to position myself in order to do so. I hope to accomplish many things this year as everything has a solution… Thank you and have a good evening.
Just Another Day... 