Tag: 300

Writing Prompt #5 Imagine you are planning a trip across the continent on which you live: Assuming you have unlimited time, resources and energy, what will be your mode of transportation?

Posted on by anele25

I was digging through the 300 writing prompts last night and came across this prompt which got me thinking: What would be the easiest mode of transportation? What would be the hardest? I narrowed it down to an airplane being the easiest and the car being the hardest. In the middle I would put a train. The continent I live on is North America which consists of 23 countries and I would imagine several dozen states. The continent itself consists of 9 million miles and I would first start out with the local United States and eventually head down south. Afterwards, I would head back up north to Canada. Out of these three options that being the “planes, trains, and automobile” options I would take a car because I would get to see some interesting places that I would not see on an airplane. I get the sense when I am on a plane that I get to see the clouds, the scenery of the mountains, and the rain if the weather permits. On a train, you get the option of seeing the scenery as you go along and you can also tune up some of your music as you go along on the trip. For a car though, you get all the stories of traveling around the continent and not necessarily limiting yourself to one place. The unlimited resources and time would also be a plus because I would not have to worry about spending money. I would be quite fond of also getting to get that unlimited resource perk because you never know when you might need something for the trip such as food and gas. I would also want to go with people that I have in my life so that the trip will be entertaining and I would get to experience many other things with them. There is something fun and exciting about getting to spend hours and hours in a car with the ones you care about. For the most part, I have been in cars with my family on trips. However, I remember a few years ago when I took a trip with a friend of mine to Hawaii and the experiences we had were unforgettable. I can just imagine what it would have been like had we had a car and some other unlimited resources such as money. Another nice thing about traveling with others and having these unlimited resources would be the discussions that people would have. I know friends I have would discuss some interesting topics as well.  I’ve also been on a few trips by myself and it is peaceful but experiencing these things with others would be worth it. I still remember what it was like driving from Tampa Bay to Miami and just remembering how peaceful it was. It rained afterwards but I still remember just thinking, this is a nice life to have and want for the future.

Another example I can think of is if I were traveling across the country and I happened to hit a state like South Dakota it would be nice to stop by some national parks such as Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, and the other wonderful scenery. I’ve always wanted to explore some states that I may not know so much about that you hear so much about. There may be nothing there (or so I think) but I feel we are so used to going and going but sometimes we forget that there are other states out there. A few states that come to mind in this case may be South Carolina, Iowa, and Montana. South Carolina is one of those states that also plays host to the coastal resorts and this is something I would also want to explore. Iowa is also host to the Bridges of Madison County. From what I have seen, there are a total of six bridges and these too would be something on my list of must see. The bridges are Cutler-Donohoe, Cedar, Hogback, Holliwell, Imes, and Roseman. These bridges all look like something that would be quite the experience. There is also something about bridges that gets me thinking and also the construction that may have gone into them is also something that is interesting. Another example that I can think of when I pass these states would be to visit the national parks there as well. The two national parks that are famous there are Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. I’ve also seen someone that was in the wrestling business who now lives in Montana. He lives on a ranch and the more I think about, the more I think that this would not be the worst idea because you would be away from the hassle of the world. I also think having unlimited energy is also something that can be important towards traveling across the continent. We live and care for our houses, work our jobs, and take care of our loved ones. The one thing we forget sometimes is that having energy to even travel is there. We do our routine of getting up, doing our regular grind, and then we go off. The traveling aspect of seeing these new locations can give one the idea that it is such a small world around us and the continent that is around us can be so much bigger. For someone’s job who it is travel, it may get boring and routine but it would be something different because I would actually get to stop and see these destinations.

Sometimes, when people travel all they do is their business and they are just out of the area. For example, one of my friends who was recently here for work said his co-workers just wanted to see San Francisco. I can vouch for one that the Bay Area is much bigger than that and there are many more cool destinations to see around the area. The same thing can be said for the Space Needle in Seattle possibly. I remember going up the hill for Kerry Park in Seattle and thinking the average person most likely not see these places when they travel. These words that I have written are just of the few reasons I would want to drive instead of flying because the accomplishment of actually getting there and seeing it is something for the human eye to see. The car itself would probably the car I have right now because having that wonderful Dodge Challenger traveling across the continent would be awesome with engine revving across and experiencing it along the way. I would also make sure to stay at least one night in every state in the United States portion. As for the other parts of North America, I would definitely be open to exploring the other countries as well however for now I would stick with going here in the United States first and then going to other places as well. This was definitely an interesting piece of writing to write because it got me thinking of the possibilities that would be possible with all the places to explore with unlimited time and resources which is something we can never get enough of! Until next time, I’m really enjoying these writing prompts! Your author Jose.

Writing Prompts #4: Do You have anyone in your life that has acted as a mentor to you? Have you ever helped someone out in this Way?

Posted on by anele25

The next writing prompt which is outlined above is something that I have never thought about until I saw the prompt over the weekend. Seeing as how today is President’s Day, I thought I would sit down and write a little about someone who served as a mentor for me when I started working at Target almost 10 years ago. How the timeline is doesn’t matter for context of this story because these are just a few of the things I appreciated about this gentleman. I remember meeting this older guy, who for identity purposes, we’ll call Jacob. I remember first meeting him when I was working in the grocery department and some customers were looking for somebody by his name. The catch was that they had to find someone by his name and take a picture with him. I then realized this guy must be really cool for them to ask him that and he takes the picture with them. From there, Jacob started acting as a mentor to me. I remember one particular instance where I got called by a customer and someone had (in a joking fashion) said that their name was Jose and I was freaking out because I had never even spoken to this customer over the phone. I then started asking around and asking if anyone knew who had used my name. Little did I know, Jacob told this person who had used my name to tell me that it was him because I had been freaking out. This person who had used my name then apologized and after that I said, ‘wow that was really nice of Jacob to go up to this other person and stick up for me’. I then realized that I can learn so much from Jacob and his life experiences. He had worked various jobs and he knew what it was like to interact with people. I wasn’t the most social or outgoing person and he taught to just be natural and not act awkward towards customers. I also learned that you can take things personally or not because we were dealing with people all day whether it was with managers, team members, and customers. His advice was helpful because he gave me confidence to advance in life and he also taught me one of the many important lessons in life: work hard and eventually you’ll get your due.  I also started taking a less serious approach over the months as I was working there and I remember in my review for the first year working there, I got told that I was unapproachable and didn’t seem friendly. Jacob gave me the advice that you just need to relax and not take it so seriously.

 

I started smiling a little more at work and giving good customer service as opposed to before because I was not used to being in such an environment. As the years went by, myself and Jacob started working a lot more together and we bonded over the amount of work we would have to do, life advice, and sports. The one thing Jacob helped me with was realizing how much I helped myself out by separating myself from certain people. I remember him telling me that a certain friend of mine seemed different and one piece of evidence was when this friend of mine was switching teams because his team the Broncos had lost to the Raiders (best Football team out there!). I then started realizing my friend was just trying to be trendy by being with winners. He told me specifically ‘you’re in it for the teams and sports he isn’t’. It was one of the few moments I made the analogy between folks switching teams and the friendships they build. The way you drop friends and then decide to switch teams was apparent right there. These moments that I have mentioned above are why this Jacob fellow was one of my first mentors in life. He made you feel appreciated, he listened to you when it mattered, and we also shared some details about our own lives. I appreciated another time me and Jacob had a long discussion about me transferring stores. I had done the decision because I wanted to be closer to home and I was finishing up my final year at San Jose State. He supported me in this choice and I remember feeling pretty sad because I knew that I would not be able to talk to Jacob as much as I used to. I lasted at my new Target store 6 months but I remember stopping by to make a payment to a friend of mine. I saw Jacob there and we started talking about old times. I realized that I missed his advice and I remember I would have situations where I was just stuck whether it was at home, at work, or in life.

 

Almost a year ago, I saw one of my old co-workers and she gave me the news that Jacob had recently been diagnosed with Cancer and I was extremely sad that I never got to connect with him over that. It’s funny because I asked her to give me his number so I could contact him and ask him if I could help out in any way. I never got that opportunity but I would imagine it was hard on him. I would say the second part of that prompt is something I’ve always been interested in doing but it is not something that has come up in life. I would say Jacob taught me to be me most of all and also break out of my shell when it was necessary. I remember some of his classic sayings were ‘I just work here’ and ‘two highs ok with me’. These were some of those moments that just make me smile and think he knew how to have a good time and he wouldn’t seem upset about too many things. He would just keep on trucking without any hesitation. I wonder about getting old sometimes and the wisdom that I would be able to spread to others as well. I would certainly use my old friend and mentor Jacob’s will and humor to work my way through any situation. He didn’t seem like he was angry at the world either as I mentioned earlier which is something I’ve learned to take on as an everyday motto. I also learned from him that no matter how many people you deal with in life, the ones that matter will always be closest by you when it matters. He even mentioned in passing that ‘wouldn’t you like to be my son’. He knew very well that he was sort of a father figure towards me and he would protect me. He would talk about how much his family meant to him and he would speak with glee whenever he speak about his kids as well. He’s one of the main people I think about whenever I have a problem at hand and I take his many words of advice to heart. I miss the guy and I know where ever he may he also remembers what he taught me. Thank you buddy, thanks for the memories and the laughs! Till next Time!

300 Writing Prompts: What was the first thing you ever saved up your money to purchase?

Posted on by anele25
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My TA Challenger (aka Dino)!

Per my last blog, I want to write about topic number 2 from 300 writing prompts. This time the topic is something that has been on my mind the past few days which is “what is the first thing you ever saved up your money for”? People save up for little things such as books, toy cars, toys, and crafting materials. In my case, I want to talk about my first ever big purchase that I have made. I have never had the inkling to say “I’m going to save my money to buy X item…” and I think still to this day that I am not that type of person. I do however have the inkling to say that I would save up money to buy two things: a car and a house. A car is needed for going to and from a location and I said to myself this is my dream car. The house is something I would love to own one day and like I tell myself sometimes it is a process. I also said to myself it would be really nice to have something I would be proud to call my own. I saved up my money almost a year ago and purchased (almost a year ago actually) a new Dodge Challenger.

A few months before the actual purchase, I started going over in my head what I needed to do to purchase my car. I said I needed to get rid of certain expenses such as cutting out eating out so much and only focus on saving up money for that final end goal. I also said in order to do this I needed to look at what I was spending my money on. Like any young adult, I usually pay for internet, rent, streaming services, gas, and food. I decided the two most important were gas and food. The gas was simple because of how much gas my car would guzzle throughout the week. I also figured that not eating out as much saved me so much money. As I went along in my process, I started thinking I really want this car because of how cool and niche the product was. As the months started progressing, I started seeing that I was getting close to my original goal of putting down a 7,000 dollar down payment. However, as I was getting close to my goal I realized that something was off. I had a weird feeling the weekend of March 5th as my brother asked me if he could borrow my older Toyota Corolla. I remember him, his wife, and his 3 kids were hauling off in my car as he needed it the next morning to go to work. I clearly remember walking towards Lowe’s as my brother called me and said he was sorry. I started thinking in my head what could have happened? He said he had crashed the car and he wasn’t sure what had happened. The first thing I asked him if he was ok and that’s all I cared about. Once again, he apologized and I said well time to get a new car. I saw what my account looked like and it was enough to cover the down payment (at least for what I wanted). As I started looking through the cars on the Dodge website from Fremont, I said I really wanted a car that will stand out. I remember driving a Yellow Mustang, in Florida and I said let’s go for Yellow. I also enjoy Yellow because it is the color of my favorite Baseball team the Oakland A’s and the color of some of the coolest things is Yellow (bees, leaves, zucchini, flowers, etc.). I saw it and headed down two weeks after to check it out with my family because I knew I wanted them there for that experiences .

I was determined to pick out this car and there were several other options. I also enjoyed this basic model they had of the challenger which was green and SXT but the one I wanted was a Challenger TA which was one of those special edition Challengers. After taking a few test drives, I realized this was the car that I wanted to settle on. Besides the usual paperwork and the talk between all the payments, I started thinking in my head about how much cooler and nicer this car would add to my everyday life. I always wanted to roll around in a sports car and now my life would be this. After a while of thinking about this, I also pictured what my life would be like if I didn’t have this car. I guess in a way I wondered about how the more expensive luxuries in my life would be exempt for a few years. I remember the conclusion to this argument in my head was that this is something I wanted and I worked hard to get the car. I also thought about the times I heard about parents buying their kids cars and how my parents had never sacrificed that kind of money on cars that were given to me. I always find a way to tie this back to my parents but in a sort of humbling way I’m glad I didn’t grow up with a car in the family. We would ask our neighbors or family for rides. If we didn’t have this luxury, we would take the bus to local places. Those experiences of never having to be indebted to a car was something I was very thankful as I grew up and I’ll never forget all those times we rode the bus.

Anyway, the two cars that were given to me as hand me downs were so great that I never forget the moments, memories, and the times I had in those cars. I also won’t forget that those kind of cars made me humble and thankful for what I had in my life. The last thought in my head during the whole purchasing process was that sometimes it’s ok to give yourself a little treat for the blood, sweat, and tears that you had sacrificed. Once I drove off the lot, I said this is new and exciting for you and enjoy this opportunity now. For the last year, that car and myself have taken quite the journey. We have been to Salinas, Watsonville, San Jose, Fresno, and Oakland. I’ve also noted how nice it is not to have to worry about my car breaking down in the middle of the road. The lesson here for me is that saving your money is not the easiest thing to do in the world but if it means that much to you to save up and buy that nice thing you’ve been itching for I feel you should go for it and be patient. I know that now with myself this car (appropriately named Dino), that we will continue to wreck the mean streets of the Bay Area and we still have many more adventures to take throughout the bay area. Till next time to see what I write about on ‘300 writing prompts’.