Tag: De Anza

Top ten series: Part 2 of 3 2008-2010…

Posted on by anele25

Here is the second part of 3 installments of the top ten things learned from 2003-2012 and it is going to be rocky, polished, and some feelings will be hurt. The funny thing is that in the span of these three years I learned so much about myself, others, and just how political friendships can become. So, here goes nothing…

2008- Good things come in small doses

At the beginning of the year, I ended up getting my first job and my only job that I have had since then. I remember going through the interview, thinking that if they didn’t hire me I was going to quit job searching and hope that a low end job somewhere else would hire me. The interview, for what it was, went quite well and I answered the questions as honestly as I could and I really couldn’t do much else. The way the interview was constructed made me think that the people at the company were gracious and nice enough to hire someone like me. Once the words were said, “you’re hired”, I was excited and I did my best to contain my feelings towards the opportunity. Starting off, I didn’t know what I was getting into and little did I know, it would be the beginning of many great things to come. My family was very proud of my getting a job because I had been getting my school paid for and they were happy that I would now be able to pay for it on my own. Unfortunately, I also decided to take 4 classes this quarter at De Anza in the winter and one of them ended up being an afternoon class (Intermediate Algebra). The problem was that one of my first shifts was from 2-11 and I had my first test on one of these days. I had to end up dropping the class and this would have a big impact on my future. The quarter went well in terms of what I learned and also what came about in terms of what I wanted to do in terms of a career. I had taken the second level of English and I realized I was a pretty decent writer. I saw that I was able to relate real life situations to literature and this was very important in terms of my development. For example, if I was to write a paper about some short stories I was able to see how one character’s dilemma may translate in real life or how one character’s trust of someone could garner discussion whether it was right or wrong. This was one choice but I also came across some very interesting fields as well. I ended up taking a creative thinking class which helped expand my knowledge and “distinguish bullshit from the real arguments”(according to my teacher). I also saw that business really wasn’t what was for me because it seemed boring and you had take a bunch of math classes which wasn’t fit for what interested me. Later in the spring, I saw what I wanted to do and for good reason. I also got social in terms of meeting tons of new people and understanding how other people work. I saw that making friends with others takes time and talking through more so than ever. For example, when I started getting to know everyone I saw what interested them and I would get into the conversation somehow. The term “be yourself” was something that I would hear later on in life and it really mattered here. I would inquire about certain topics because for one they sounded cool and you wanted to not seem out of the loop. I would also start talking about things that interested me because you never knew if they liked something similar. I can remember meeting two of my good friends at my job and one of them happened to have an Oakland A’s lanyard on their piece. It was so awesome to finally meet another A’s fan and just talking about the team made me realize that sports bond people together. The year I met my friend set the stage for how he and I would become best friends for the next year and a half. We would begin slowly with after work dinners and I must say they put a heavy dent on my wallet. After that, I saw that we were becoming actual friends instead of co-workers. I shared a lot of things with him, including my first crush at the workplace. I would share with him how shy I was and I really wasn’t experienced in approaching girls. He taught little by little that it takes time and fine tuning in order to get that first girl. I must say in that first year we became best buddies and there was more to come. One of my good buddies that I still talk to is an A’s fan and this is where we met. I started realizing that just by talking to both of them raised my confidence a little because they listened to what I had to say. We and a handful of other co-workers were really the core of the place where we worked because we all got along and there was hardly any bad mouthing. I have to say that first year at my job is a run I will never forget because we were a cohesive unit. Learning little by little, you see that hanging outside of your job after work is really good bonding time. You see how the politics work and who is good people in the building. An experience like that kind of set me on my way because I changed my attitude a bit towards how I became approachable and whether I could get along with people or not. In the spring quarter, I took 3 classes and one of them was a personality of psychology which really had me changing my gears in terms of what I wanted to do with my life. It gave the notion that people are so interesting and studies can prove one thing but they can really mean another. I saw how the human mind can work and whether or not we like it, we’re a little crazy and simple minded. I put the wheels in motion of what I wanted to do and it was a while before I really finished what I started. The other two classes (one I dropped due to the class being too early and my stubborness), were fun but the environmental history one with my brother really had me bonding with my brother because we were much older and wiser than we were before. He had helped me a bunch when I was younger so I really got to know him in this period and we would always watch wrestling together or we would just sit down and eat during most afternoons after school. I can remember doing a school project with my brother where we picked up cigarette butts off the school grounds and it was a little pointless but it was for a better cause and a grade. That was seemingly something that I enjoyed and an experience with my brother that I’ll never forget. That summer I took my very first vacation from work and I felt horrible doing it but it was for the better due to my being a month away from school. I realized after that taking time off isn’t necessarily a bad thing because your brain needs a break once in a while. The fall was sort of a blur due to me not being engaged as much as I used to in school and I don’t know whether it was being dragged down by work or by personal needs. Work had taken over at this point and school was just shuffled off into the background. I kept shoving off intermediate algebra because I knew I sucked at it and this would prolong my stay at the community college level. In the fall, I realized that if I had taken all my math in my first year I would have been done with it but I kept holding it off. That left me with 2 classes once again, one in which I did poorly and the other I did great in, and once again I dropped Algebra because I was too afraid to ask for help. This would be something that would play a very important part in my progression as I believe this happened for a reason. The Christmas break was the first time I had received a dog for free and she was so adorable to my family. I was reluctant to have a dog at first but I saw that she gave our family laughter and she even started liking us after a while. I grew to like her too as she would love to play outside and provide us with entertainment. The year 2008 was one I’ll never forget and hopefully one I’ll look back on wondering what lessons it has taught me in the long run. Now, the year 2009 provided us with hilarity and some questionable feuds…

2009- Have fun but don’t assume anything

The first thing I remember about 2009 is sitting outside a IHOP with my good friend. We talked about what it meant to not be lonely and to be able to pursue a love that mattered. I agreed with him all the way because I was searching for that special someone that could bring me peace and happiness. That was one of the first of many crazy adventures I had. These did not include all the wal mart trips, the gym trips, the eating out, the movies I went to see, the conversations I would have outside of Starbucks, and the other random places I would head to. One of the crazier trips I can recall was July 14th 2009 and this day really holds a special place in my heart. It was the first day of my gym membership and it was also the day the MLB all star game took place. Me and my two buddies happened to go everywhere that day. One of my buddies and I hit up Chevy’s after he signed me up for the gym and I was just having so much that day thinking “I finally am being accepted for who I am”. That was one of the main factors that really drew me to these two individuals. It is true now that I am writing this because if anybody is your friend they will accept you for who you are and for not being anybody else. We also happened to go to a pet store which had all kinds of cool stuff and it was the discovery for the awesome pet store Pet Club which has a few locations around the bay area. After this, we met up near my friend’s house and we headed out to Wal Mart where we had a real deep conversation due to some issues that we had between this other friend and myself. This issue had been a result of my being left out of the guy’s life due to him getting a girlfriend and I was really down in  the dumps because I felt I wasn’t as important. I realized that I had been a real jerk to this friend of mine and he also happened to see that he was wrong on his end for having flaked on me so many times when he said he would hang out with his guy friends. We talked it out a bit and from that point we have seen each other on a regular basis (at least once a month if not once every two months). I can say that was one of the more memorable trips and adventures because it meant something and it also felt authentic as well. I also got into it with another friend of mine that was just as strange as I was. We got along but we had differences in terms of how we saw things. I believed he saw me as an annoying person and I saw him as a nobody. This is where cultures and personal differences are hard to settle because sometimes you never know what you’re fighting about. I tried my best to be cool about it but we never seemed to work it out because I was in the wrong. I couldn’t admit some of my mistakes because sometimes when I say that I’m sorry it is difficult to make it sound sincere without the other person being defensive about what I’m being sorry about. We would get into arguments about the dumbest stuff and I learned a few things from it. Some people just never get over the fact that you matter less to them than you think and it’s best to just let things be the way they are. If you stay friends, then great if not then things just didn’t work. I would head everywhere that year from eating at random places such as chinese food, diners, and little treasures in San Jose. It served as a reminder that life is meant to be a ball and you also have to keep in mind that it may not be around forever. I also started becoming a little less paranoid and more positive when it came to completing tasks. I would say that before that some things were impossible. These situations are impossible because I the person made it seem like an unachievable goal. For example, me signing up for a bunch of random classes and doing well in them was something that I saw as impossible at first. I took developmental psychology, humanities, and sociology made me a student that was capable of taking on challenges and thinking it was ok to fail sometimes. I still had a little bit to go in terms of transferring to a university but these classes in that frame of time served as a reminder that the skills you acquire from them can help you see a broader view. These classes counted and what mattered was that they all counted towards getting credit at the college level. In the spring quarter, I once again attempted to take algebra but I knew I was doomed once the professor said he couldn’t read my writing on the problems. I realized that taking fewer classes while taking math would work but I found out that taking it at another community college was  the answer (I wouldn’t come to this realization until much later down the road). I did fairly well in my two other classes which counted for credit and I told myself that as long as you take classes that count you’ll be fine. The fall quarter was probably the most fun I’ve had the community college level because I got to see the many different intricacies of the world through psychology, english, and history. The English and History classes were fun because the professors would really not care how you handled your business as long as you got the work done and the best part was that there was hardly any homework as there were just tests and papers. The psychology class tested my knowledge because I really couldn’t understand adjustments of it until I got to this class. I saw how the mind operated and how different things in our lives were wrapped not just one idea but many different ideas. As the year winded down, I realized how proud I was of what I had accomplished as I became much more well rounded and I had changed my perspective on a lot of different things. I finally had become a much better version of myself and even to this day I strive to become better in many aspects of my life. The one thing I have to constantly remind myself of is that some people come into your life for short periods because your life is defined by eras. You may have a certain time in your life where you were really high on a band or a certain hobby that you may have had. At that time, me and my friend were always hanging out going to the most out of the blue places just to have fun. My wallet wouldn’t agree with period but I learned about time management as well as how to save your money. At one point, I would look at my bank account and realize that I have x amount of dollars and I have to spend this amount in order to hang out with this person. I saw that as being careful as well as seeing what takes priority over your life. If it is hanging out with that friend, then that’s what it has to be but I also saw myself as being slowly immersed into my friend’s world instead of the other way around. He would help me with certain aspects of my life but I spending time with him so much that I forgot about other people in my life. I would be neglecting my family as they really didn’t matter as much as they did before. I would also get into more arguments with my mom about how dirty and unclean I had become. Taking the blame is one thing, but the responsibility that I took was none as I had little to show for it. Looking at it now, taking my friend places and driving him around everywhere was a little bit of my fault as I had the choice to choose between hanging out with my friend or disappointing him at the same time. Usually when people guilt trip me, I have a hard time giving in because I know what I should do but do I really want to hurt that other person’s feelings? I learned after this that sometimes it’s ok to say no to certain requests because you can’t let others control and manipulate your frame of mind. 2009, what a year, and I’ll never forget it…

2010- The end of an era doesn’t mean the end of everything

The beginning of the of the end was 2010 as I started experiencing new things and my niece had come into the world. I also saw that school was becoming more about taking classes for fun than it was about finishing up and the problem was that I had no way of knowing how to do that. I wound up taking Biology, Speech, and Philosophy. The three classes were fun because I had help in all three classes whether it was from classmates or from friends outside of class. The classes that year were so interesting because we looked at cells and molecules in Biology. It was something we had studied in high school but it hadn’t been as deep and decisive as it would be at the community college level. Doing a project on organic food, I saw how weird and open our world had become in this field. The speech class allowed me to be immersed in group work and I saw how well I could work with a group because you have to lead but you also have to be apart of success as well. Writing a speech paper one night, the friend that I mentioned earlier rolled up at my house to convince to hang out with him which I found to be particularly strange. I saw it as someone trying to convince me to do something I didn’t want to do.The funny part was that my friend that I mentioned in the previous year had become a bigger part of my life and I tagged along in his adventures. I started realizing that I would follow whatever he would say and I would do it. For example, I remember him telling me that same year that I was a raw version of him. It was more about him than it was for me and there were some writing done here about him early in the beginnings of this very blog.  The next day I learned that Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc was truly something that rang true sometimes. I had written a good paper about health care and I had a good time after with my buddies at wingstop. It might have been that  because I had written this paper I had a right to hang out with my friends. It became apparent that hanging out with friends should be seen as somewhat as a reward for the work you have done. Later on, it was almost like going to school was just to hang out with friends. But, I started seeing that doing this could hinder my academic performance. Philosophy was the one class that kept my ethical mind afloat and I saw how crazy the world in ethics is pretty crazy. The one prime example that sticks out in my mind is giving up one’s person’s happiness for everyone’s happiness was one that made me cringe and be happy at the same time. Another one was using science to create humans and also the idea of psychological egoism. I saw how awesome the class as it related to my life and there was little I could do in terms of how unmoral or how moral I may be. This blog was something else that was started in 2010 as on July,20 2010 I started this blog and ever since then it’s been rolling along. I have gotten my thoughts out there since then and I am less quiet than I used to be. It used to be that my thoughts would be jammed up inside of my head and it would be hard to get them out there. It was almost as if there was a problem that I had with speaking out because people would call me dumb or stupid. But, seeing the error of my ways, I have been more open and less prone to letting anger ruin my life. For some odd reason, the big theme of the year seemed to be the truth hurts. I saw that little by little I was letting my life be run by people that I didn’t need to listen to. My friend was largely the reason for this and I would take classes or go somewhere because he told me to. The truth was finally told to me on that July day and I don’t know why my other friend that hung out with me told me this but he may have had a need to help. I had signed up for the gym a year earlier and I hadn’t made that much progress in losing weight or feeling any better about myself. Feeling better about yourself is something that I really wanted because I was so moody at the time. I would be really happy one minute and sad the next which I had no idea why that was happening. I saw exercise as one option but the gym was only fun if someone went with me which was the excuse that I would use over and over. Time is so fascinating and there was that need to find time to work out which could be during any time of the day. It could be at night or it could be during the day but I said to myself that I really needed to crunch down and find that time. My friend told me after he had revoked his gym membership that I wouldn’t go now because he didn’t go. In the back of my head, I was out to prove him wrong. Once again the truth hurt and it would be six months or so before I really sat down and pondered my future at the gym. Towards the middle of the year, my friend and I took some classes together which were sort of helpful in transferring but I didn’t realize it at the time. He would tell me constantly that I needed him but I was getting better at seeing that wasn’t true all the time. If I wanted, I could make friends and acquaintances in a setting but it takes me a while to get going because I usually just like to observe. The truth hurt in this instance because I thought he was my only friend that would be there for me in any situation but I knew better. One instance where the truth really hurt was when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. It took a while for that thought to settle in but it really happened when it was all said and done. They had tremendous pitching that year and they played when it mattered. I remember my friend asking me if them winning the world series would cause less A’s fans to support the team and this hurt because my team technically (Oakland A’s) is the inferior team when it came to attendance and popularity. Watching the world series made me see that baseball is unlike any sport where you can go and sweep a team just like that. Hockey or basketball is hard to sweep a four game series because those teams that have gotten to the conference finals or the championship really have a chip on their shoulder to perform well and those athletes are primed for those kind of games. I was also struggling to understand how my money was going to waste because I was constantly living from paycheck to paycheck and I figured out that I needed to start saving money. The truth hurt here because for one I couldn’t spend money on what I really needed (gas, food, family needs) and my brother had just left our household. Our family couldn’t depend that much longer on our brother anymore and we had less one person to help us out with rent. I remember one case where my cheapness about spending money really hit a peak. My mom and I had been shopping at a local retailer when she asked me if I would pay which kind of came out of nowhere. I did end up paying but it hurt me because the truth wasn’t being told me in this case. My mom told me later that she didn’t have money and I was livid afterwards which I really had no right to do. I told myself afterwards that I should become better at saving money and I should appreciate my mom for what she has done for me in the past. The truth hurt and that seemed to be the lingering theme throughout other cases as well. One last instance where the truth hurt is me having one of the most memorable nights with a couple of co-workers at a local bar. We had just opened up a new workcenter at work and some of the people were new. We happened to say that we should all get together and we did just that. The bar talk was fun and everyone was having a great time. It occurred to me that some of these people may not be around forever and these memories that we preserve are for the better. I remember walking across Campbell and wanting this experience not to end because we were in the moment and not worrying about the next day or the next night. My friend and I also had a fantasy football draft coming up so we didn’t want to miss that either. The truth hurt here because I didn’t want the moment to slip away from me. Rainy days also seem to be the theme here as well because every time I would see the rain in the fall or in the winter I wanted it to keep going as it was peaceful and humbling at the same time. It was almost as if that rain was calling to me to be one with it and get lost in that moment. The weather has always seemed interesting to me as the summer weather and the winter weather both called for something different. The summer was one where I saw the warm and blue sky as the changing of the guard and I needed something else in my life. At the time, I didn’t what it was but I would begin searching for it soon after this. The winter months of hot and cold told me that staying at one place can bring about great memories with friends in far away places. It can also make you become complacent. The spring weather told me that you’re on your way to a warm setting but you still need time. The fall brought about the leaves and dry spells of just being in that time. I can say that the year 2010 was the end of one era and it was the baby stage that set it up for the next two years. School had finally started to make sense that fall because it was more about the expansion of my field than it was about taking silly classes that didn’t matter (although 2011 was much different as I was lost, more on that later). My motivation each morning for that year was to do something good or at least learn something that could stick out in my head for that period. The important thing that kept me going was someone or somebody telling me in year’s past that I couldn’t do it and this wasn’t the first time this would happen. Life is split into eras and each one has a different theme which helps you a better person and each has a learning experience as well. 2010 will be the year that I had arguments, laughs, adventures, side talks, loafing, learning, and sometimes an occasional heart to heart. 2011 would be the year that somehow I saw as the breathing in stage and the break that I needed to reinvent myself a bit because I needed a change and this change would be positive. As the year ended, I remember one good friend and I hanging out at Mcdonald’s and running into an older gentleman. This gentleman happened to teach at a university or a local college and I saw how old and happy he was. I told myself that if I really wanted to get out of community college, I needed to look at what I really needed and so it began with that older gentleman because he was ordinary. That’s all I needed was to be ordinary and be the best person I could be. So, with that person’s kindness I set 2011 as the year that I needed to get the ball rolling on a few things and though I failed in some aspects I knew what I needed to do….

Next time, 2011, 2012, and a little bit of 2013. Stay Tuned!

Day#5 6/13/11: That one last rush of blood…

Posted on by anele25

You’d think that the last real week of school before summer hits that kids would be stressing out and guess what? It’s as true as it ever was. I know that through my several years at De Anza College I have seen the parking lots be full the first two weeks of classes before the adds, drops, no shows, and just plain “I’ll just show up for the tests and paper deadlines” start to pile on. This parking lot holds a lot of good memories for me because of all the time spent taking naps, studying for tests, reading for a class, listening to music, talking on the phone, and heck even running into an old friend of mine and catching up on old times for a good ten minutes or so. I know for those that just dash out of here at noon or even earlier that they might not think much of what community college has provided for them but for me I’ve learned to become a much more knowledgeable person. It seems as if being in a community college allows you to speak up for yourself instead of being stuck in a lecture hall all day. I enjoy classes that hold depth, structure, respect, and also ones that serve a purpose to us as a society. It may be that you may not need geography one day but for me taking two geography courses has made me see that California is just a small part of what is a big world. We may not realize it but being in an environment like this allows us to see that there are many opportunities out there and interacting with everyone else is a plus. I realize that my time here is winding down and I just need two or three more courses to finish community college but for now I will just say thanks for the memories De Anza!

Epic De-ba-tes,cute girls ride the bus too, a mother’s day special, and “yeah I think she likes me man”

Posted on by anele25

What a crazy 48 hours it has been for me and I can’t say that it hasn’t been worth it. The other day, I ran into some problems with my car over at the bank, and I had to get it towed unfortunately which led me to think, now how am I supposed to get around? The next few days I took my dad’s jeep to work and school but then Tuesday came around and I realized then that it would be unfair for my dad to take the bus so we both came to an agreement that I should take the bus. As I walked towards the bus that morning, I realized we had a debate that morning in science class and I still had no clue what to say or even if my group would be willing to stick to our position. As I sat there, I realized that waiting for a bus can be tedious. I thought about my life, the weird things that would be happening or had happened in my life in the year that has gone by, and I then I wondered that you can’t make up some of these things. As the bus approached, I was amazed that for the first time in almost four years I was on a bus. I got on the bus and saw that there was maybe 3 people on there. As it got closer to the downtown area, I saw a guy getting handcuffed with 3 cop cars surrounding him near Fair Oaks and I then thought to myself  “This day is getting off to a fantastic start”.  I saw a somewhat attractive girl getting on the bus and it occurred to me that you can look “cute” and still ride the bus no matter how the circumstances may be. I was blaring the music through my headphones, thinking about this long journey that this bus takes, all the different people on it, everybody had or almost everybody had headphones on, and I was happy to be on that bus. It seemed that me getting on that bus for the next 2, 3, or maybe even 4 days gave me the lesson that you should never take anything for granted. Me having a car is and was still fun but there were times I didn’t appreciate how lucky I was. My dad and brother are trying there hardest to get it fixed and it should be ready within the next few days but transportation in any form really isn’t that bad. I would drive around to these far away places and I never once stopped to realize how horrible it was that I was living for that moment to be excited just to go somewhere. Taking a bus, I looked forward to school and this debate as well. It prepared me mentally to be prepared for school instead of just driving in a hurry. I got to school and I didn’t realize how big of a debate this was going to be until I saw the dividing groups and what there positions were. The debate was focused on whether we should drill in Alaska for oil or not. Some were pro ANWR drilling and others were not. We had the politicians, environmentalists, the natives, the fisherman, and the oil companies. For all intents and purposes, this debate seemed to be split down the middle as we had the argument of this is bad for the environment because of how much drilling is done to provide for America, it’s bad for the ocean, future generations will miss out on further opportunities, and the negative side mostly was all about money and what it could do for the United States. I felt sitting there that this was pretty epic because of the fact that I felt my team (Public) did present some very strong cases but seeing as how this is an environmental science class the good guy has to come out on top. It was amazing hearing the natives present there case as well because not many get to present there case such as they did. They did live on the land for quite a bit of time and the fact that they did get shafted shows how much people may actually care in the end. I was happy that the oil companies presented the argument of bringing in more jobs but what I found compelling is that this group only had two people and they still managed to get there point across. In the end of all this, the environmentalists were the ones that were voted as having the best argument due to how much of a case they made for America being able to drill elsewhere instead of just sticking to Alaska territory. I left promptly to catch the next bus available and waited gracefully as the next one came. This one felt like the old days when I would come home from middle school and the bus would be packed but in this case I had a place to sit. I sat there wondering, if the bus ever gets packed do people still keep there one open seat next to them? In my two days taking the bus, I have yet to see the case where even if the bus is packed would people still sit next to each other. A few hours passed and my brother had come to a decision to let me decide if he and I should take my mom out to eat for Mother’s day. I told him yes finally and I waited for my mom to come home so we could go out but then she told me aunt was coming over which was actually a surprise because I hadn’t seen my aunt in a while. But then I realized that my brother was going to bring his daughter and she can be a handful as she keeps growing up. I played with her a while while she tried to chase my dog out of the backyard but she keeps getting smarter everyday as she has that keen sense of intelligence. She is also growing up pretty fast and seeing her trying to put her two baby dolls to sleep is pretty funny because she believes they’re real. Having my Aunt there was pretty cool as I feel whenever she is there my mom seems like a much more positive person and her two daughters that were there are always willing to talk about anything when it comes to what is going with them. I had fun with that and it was nice to get to spend some quality time with some family members. As the day ended, I felt really tired and I asked myself this next day is going to be even more epic. Yesterday, I got onto the bus again and to pass the time I started doing some reading I had for POLI sci and the time went by much faster this time with me focusing on doing my reading. I got to school and went straight to the weight room and I did eventually tire myself out from so much exhaustion with the weights so I just called it a day at 12:10  and headed out to change and grab something to eat which I rarely do when I’m at school. I grabbed some food from whole foods and I was thinking if the A’s were playing thinking they might be ahead of the Rangers but turns out they got rained out! I just heard Chris Townsend blast the A’s for their lack of commitment to players and their ineptitude. I just kinda shrugged it because the A’s offense has to and will get better but then the most interesting part of my day started when I went to school to do a survey for my class. I headed off to school to do a survey that our professor had instructed for us to make up. I found my partner rather quickly the Monday before and she was rather attractive for my taste and plus add in the fact that she was very shy so I wanted to see if what one of my bosses at Big Red said was true. He told me last week about how he goes about hiring people and I remembered something he said and that was that “if you hire someone who is shy and who is to themselves they will eventually start to slowly break in and come out of there shell”. I saw her and I quietly observed that she is too herself but I enjoy talking to someone like that. We had a difficult time communicating the first day but yesterday was nice because I was able to reserve my judgments and I was able to have a decent conversation with her. We made our questions monday and they had to do with injustices, news, media, community, and also technology. We went around asking our questions and at first my partner and I felt our questions would fall flat. But, to our surprise most people were very open with their responses. My funniest moment was when we found my working buddy Walt and his girlfriend. I asked the questions and him and his girlfriend were very willing to answer the questions which more often than not led to some giggles. I then found this military guy who had a little bit to say and also my partner interviewed this middle eastern girl that had a lot about to say how she had been treated unfairly throughout her life and I could see that she didn’t complain about it but she would rather not have it happen like it does. As we were doing this, my partner was quite in fact talking a lot about what was going on in her life, her family, her up coming birthday which is pretty close to mine, and school as well. I was surprised that she had more to say than I did and right there I had this feeling that I might have been right about this shy girl thing. She talked about many different aspects of her life and I had quite a bit to say too and for some reason I didn’t want it to end but she had to go and take a test for her math class. With me having no car I caught the bus and I called my always trusting buddy Rick. Lately, Rick and I have been doing this weird voice that one of his friends from high school did and in this case we used it too. We combine it with the fact that some of our friends in life have used the phrase or some usage of “yeah man I think she likes me man”. We had a good chat and it is always good to catch up with him because we can get so busy but we forget that there are those people that have been there when it is good and bad. We caught up about our favorite baseball team the Oakland A’s but of course there wasn’t much to talk about because at the moment we know what we are getting with them anyway. They can only get better and I hope my friend shares the same thought as well. We caught up quite a bit and who knows maybe in the next week we’ll see each other once again. The rest of the evening was filled with taking my mom and the family out to eat for the special occasion of mother’s day. We stopped by the old stop El Amigo Burrito and we brought along our crowned jewel Jaz with us. She once again was a handful as she just wants to walk around and look at herself in the mirror which is a site to see because she doesn’t know that the magic of doing some of the things she is doing at that moment in her life is going to last her for that period. She didn’t want to eat and she just wanted to walk around. It was a good occasion for the family and it was one of the few times in the last few years that we have all gone out to eat. It was special because it made me optimistic that family will never go away and after a few tumultuous days I settled down to relax with my family and have a good two days with them. I hope I can have as good day or even two days like I did the past 2. Till next time and remember apparently the world is ending next week so stay safe!

On the 3rd of Janurary 2011…

Posted on by anele25

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.

Taking classes with friends… most of them are anyway

Posted on by anele25

It’s been about 4 years since I’ve become a student at De Anza College and it amazes me how much we as students have the power to be able to dictate which we want to take. I remember my first quarter I didn’t get the classes I wanted because I was in Mexico and I couldn’t register for classes in time yet my brother was nice enough to register for Chicano Arts and History 17A both of which were fun classes as well as being able to take an English class online which was my writing class which was fun and exciting. Fall quarter was going along nicely until one day my friend Freddy(who attended De Anza for one year before he left for Texas) handed me a flyer when I was exiting my Chicano Arts class and he asked me to take this mind control class with himself, me, and our other friend Adrian. I thought, why not, two of my best friends from  my childhood have asked me to learn Psychology and Speech with them and I obliged and I didn’t regret it one bit. The first day I sat in class with them I couldn’t believe how surreal it was to be in class with these guys because I had lost touch with them yet we were not missing a beat as we always had a great time in the class. I remember one day when we were sitting in groups and all three of us were separated yet me, being sort of an immature idiot, decided to throw a pen at Freddy who was sitting across from our group and it was just to have fun with him, because I always messed with him due to his quirky personality and he was always easy going at least when it came to discussing life and school. I always messed with Adrian as well because I remember one time in the class we had to do a group project on a video game and it was called “Who Done It” and I remember these guys loved soccer and they came to watch the game as we were doing the project and I remember being a little frustrated that they were not taking the project as seriously as I was yet we ended up doing very well on the project because we were gracious when it came to how we dealt when we actually presented the project itself. Anyway, all in all I remember meeting this girl named Amanda in that class and I wish I would have talked to her more because I only knew her for that period of time and she was hot was all I was thinking when I met her. The best part of the class was having to dress up for doing speeches about being hired for a company that wanted my expertise and my insight on how to market video games. It was a great experience and I wish I could do it again with another group of friends. The next quarter, Spring 2007, I took a class with two of my friends, one of which was my brother and the other was my friend Ananad. I took Nutrition with Ananad and I took intro to Political Science with my brother Jesus. I have to say taking a class with my brother was something that was awesome because we took three take home tests together and I remember when we would do them at night we would always mess around with each other about sports, wrestling, movies, and music. I also remember talking to my brother in class about what he was texting his friend because at the time I didn’t have a cell phone yet I was curious as to why he was always texting his friend Enrique. Not to add to the fact, but I remember the professor, Scott Hefner, made the class hilarious by adding political humor and also showing that by looking at his lesson plan he knew what he was teaching and he acted like a real political geek. I just remember being in class with Jesus and knowing that we were in the class to earn credits but also we were there to learn together as brothers who had no real problems with each other and it is something I hold dear to my heart till this day because I would give everything I own to once again learn side by side with my brother. The class with Ananand was also fun but I felt I didn’t learn as much because I felt kind of weird learning about Nutrition and  I wasn’t fully prepared for the tests that were given. The only problem I had with taking the class with Ananand was that he would always be harder on himself than he should have been because a 40 out of 50 on a test yet he would point out that he should have gotten those 10 more right. He felt he was letting down himself if he got a bad grade on his diet assignment yet a bad grade for him was a B but I felt proud when I got mine back and got an A-. It seemed as if it was necessary for him to have to ge the grade he wanted or else the world was ending. Good times I had with him because we shared a lot in those times and I remember giving him rides to school in those times and actually enjoying it because I had nothing going on at that time. Flash Foward to Fall 2007 and I end up taking English 1A with Adrian and Arts 2A with Ananand. Boy those were fun times, I would have my long days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my short days on Mondays and wednesday and I would look foward to both days because I enjoyed talking with Adrian about his new job at Macy’s and his problems he was having at home. I remember talking with him about projects he was working on in other classes and I remember when on the last day of class there was a paper due yet Adrian didn’t do it! We also did a project on a collection of short stories and we also had to read The Kite Runner, Fast Food Nation, and short stories all of which interested me especially Fast Food Nation as I remember having to not need fast food for two weeks and we would get 15 extra credit points. However, Ms. Hren was interesting because she let us do a paper on anything we wanted to was dragging down society and I did mine on Fantasy Football which was fun and exciting because I got to do research on something I loved. As Adrian didn’t do his last paper he claimed he was fooling around with a girl from Macy’s who was having problems at home, and that’s when I realized that Adrian was being one of the guys by telling me this and I felt shocked how he described in detail what had happened the night before with him and this girl. The one memory I do have with Ananand was when he and  for he art class went to the Stanford Art museum and we looked at very elegant pieces of art and I wondered what had inspired these artists to work on art like this? All in all I had a great time in this class and in Adrian’s class because we got to be a lot more closer and more honest with each other because we had never had the privilege of actually being in school with each other as adults. I had the opportunity one more time to take a class with Adrian and my brother once in the winter quarter and once in the spring, respectively in 2008. I had a hard time adjusting taking a 7:50 class on Mondays because I wasn’t used to it and with Adrian we always talked about life and all it’s consequences. This was around the time I got hired by Target and I found it hard to work and go to school but I learned it’s better that way because you keep yourselfbusy without really hurting anybody in the process. That was English 1B and I found that class to be much easier than English 1A because it was a little more hands off in terms of what was allowed and what wasn’t. In the spring I took History with my brother and I had a great time once again with him in this class because this one was taught by Ben Kline and he always had us laughing in terms of how he described history and he also downgraded anything that really happened so me and my brother always had a great time in this class discussing everything he talked about and the way he discussed his life was entertaining and humorous. So, throughout this I didn’t take a class with any of those guys after that because we either separated or they ended up leaving De Anza all together to pursue bigger and better things. Flash foward to 2010, what happens you ask? My buddy JB ends up going through a life changing experience and he decides he wants to go back to school and he wants to take classes with me. I was thrilled, of course if you’ve been reading the blog you can tell I saw JB as someone who could do no wrong and a self-righteous human being but taking classes with him kind of made me see what he was like. I always considered JB special, so special that I saw him as sort of like a family member but when I took Sociology 35 and Arts 2F with him I saw that school didn’t really matter to him. He felt he already knew everything there was to know in Sociology 35 so he didn’t exactly care what there was to learn as he didn’t end up buying the books themselves. In Arts 2F as well, since he had this “experience” he felt he had knowledge about the Arts yet I found out as the quarter went on he didn’t really care about taking classes with me. Hence, if I took classes with him he wouldn’t have to pay for books and he wouldn’t have to drive most of the time as I ended up driving him home 70% of the time on Mondays and Wednesday as I found it wrong to say anything at the time because he was still someone I actually did consider my best friend. The classes were well taught and stimulating but I wish JB had been more active in actually learning instead of just going because he wants to have fun and not be bored. The difference between taking classes with Ananand, Adrian, Freddy, and Jesus than it was with JB was that these guys actually cared about learning and had deep minds instead of someone who just thought he already knew everything there was to the class. Let’s face it, not everyone knows everything as when I entered History and Political Science with my brother I didn’t know all the stuff I learned and at least I know a little bit more now than I did before. The same goes for when I took Mind Control and 2 English classes with Adrian, I was learning all I could and the saying is true that you learn something new everyday at school. One day I hope to gather with Freddy once again and discuss all the mischeive we caused in Mind Control because I know that if we end up talking it’ll never stop at that point. Anyway, this quarter JB ended up dropping our Women Studies class which wasn’t surprising since I felt he had no  real interest to actually learn something new that was a surprise for both of us. I’m glad it happened that way because I feel more engaged in that class and one word of advice I have for people that take classes with friends: Make sure they want to take the class for the same reasons you do, not just to to mess around and believe they know everything already. Have a good thursday everyone and here’s a song that’s been stuck in my head: