Tag: High School

300 Writing prompts Number 7: What is one of your greatest blessings?

Posted on by anele25

7 prompts into the 300 writing prompts and this one popped up for me and I would say that the greatest blessing is having family in your life. It’s funny you’re born, your parents have this thing called a child and they somehow have to dress it up. My family has been there for me to give me many things and you just wonder if sometimes it is luck of the draw. I know of friends and family where they struggled early on to gain any sort of familial support in their journey. I can say in my recent years that my family has supported with my decisions. The two things that I wanted to accomplish in the last ten years was to buy a car and finish school. I ended up accomplishing both in the last year and I could have done both without their support. I also recently noticed that no matter things may get or if you end up upset at each other at the end of the day, they will be there for you to welcome you with open arms. One example I can think of where they were there for me was when I had been going through my transition of going from community college to upper division at San Jose State.

 

I mentioned this earlier but I think what happened along the way was that they gave me the motivation to be better than I was. I needed the extra push from my family to do well because I saw them struggle when I was younger. I saw sometimes how my mom would come home sometimes at 6 at night from work taking the bus or my dad who would come sometimes at midnight from work. I would see the little sacrifices made here and there so we can enjoy a better life one day. Every year we would save up and go to Mexico to enjoy the family we had over there. This is before everyone had kids and had obligations and before the world started moving so fast. I felt that back then that my parents wanted to give their own blessings a little taste of who and what their families were like. I can remember every summer we would spend at Grandma’s and everyone was just free and on their own.

 

To me, this was a blessing behind a blessing because every summer we would see the same cousins and people we knew. I could see that my family wanted us to bond with our family so they can see that expanded family was also a part of us as well. My fondest memory of us all being together was back in 2004 as our time was winding down and me and my cousins were bonding over random conversations. You can see from the beginning that our family wanted nothing but the best for us. I’m grateful for these memories and many others. The human body is susceptible to certain illnesses and one that comes to mind was when my dad was going through a skin disorder and I had to take him and back and forth to appointments. The hardest part was knowing that this person was in your life and now you had to care for them. I bonded with my dad at that point because this was the period in his life when he was still going through his restaurant job as well. We would stay up and watch wrestling together on Mondays and now in some ways that was being taken away from me. He would ask me how and why these wrestlers were fighting and I would need to explain it to him. I was so happy about this whenever we would get the chance to do this but like I said now it was being taken away from me. The moments when I would see him struggle reminded me of the times when I would see him come home late after work and he would still be there to go along with his kids and enjoy their time together. Recently, I also remember my dad would say that he had nowhere as time has gone on, my mom has also started to show some signs of slowing down and this is the impending kidney dialysis that she has with her. I can see her struggling little more now and as time goes on I want to learn as much as possible within the next few years. My brother has given me one of his best blessings which his ability to guide me about various topics. I can remember growing up and the one line that always sticks with me is when I had gotten upset because I was unable to pass my DMV test and he gave me encouragement that day to continue forward. I’m sometimes grateful for him becoming my friend because I learned about how to talk and speak up to people.

 

Before, I was shy and didn’t know how to take things with people. I often credit my brother for helloing me finish my schooling as well because he didn’t finish school and often we look to our brothers for advice as well. As I go through my older years, I eventually want to be that blessing to my sons as well because the greatest gift you can give to a child is a life full of adventure, warmth, love and understanding of living. Blessings give us the ability to see that life works in a funny way. You’re stuck with your family and you learn to function with them every day. I can see as I get older that I am going to stare at whoever, somebody that I have next to me and see my own family growing right before my very eyes. These are the reasons I think we have blessings: To be able to show us that life can be a fun and exciting time as we grow and learn from each other. I also think the experiences we can provide each other as time goes on to talk about and laugh at these times are the wonderful times we can have. Till next time everyone.

Imagining you are with your old school friends….

Posted on by anele25

“Where do you see yourself in ten years?” is something I would hear often during my high school years and tonight I wanted to sit down and write about a topic that I have hardly thought about. I have had some changes in the past twelve years since High School and I want to reference high school because that was the time when we all transitioned from childhood to High School. A great friend of mine recently gave me a book for Christmas that has 300 writing prompts and I intend to write as many as I can before I die or perhaps before the one day comes that I will lose my passion to write anything (I highly doubt this). One of the topics in the book asks this “Imagine you are at your next high school reunion. How do you think your old school friends would react to the person you are today?” I don’t think anybody is the same person they were five or ten years ago. Experiences, goals, and relationships change us all. High school for me ended on June 8th 2006 and on that day I remember not really waving at anybody or seeming excited that high school was over.

I just looked it at as another phase of life that had ended for me and I was ready to move on with my life. I wasn’t the most popular person or most outgoing person. I wouldn’t go to parties or hang out with the in crowd. I would say if I were to meet my old school friends they would treat me exactly the same but we would be different in our lives. I remember hanging out with one of my friends from high school in 2015 and we did what guys usually do: go hang out and talk about life. One thing I remember noticing about my friend is how much he had changed from being super funny and outgoing to being a former shell of who he is. No longer was he the fun loving guy people would gravitate towards but he had become more serious in the way he acted, the way he thought, and the way he approached people. I felt that when we hung out we had almost reversed roles. I was now in a position where I had gone through certain experiences and was now in control of my emotions. Before I would be irritable, angry, and somewhat moody. Now, I saw my friend in this position and there was no way I could change him because you can’t change anybody’s perspective in life on where he was. However, going back to the original question I would say if my old school friends saw me they would ask how things changed, what do I think was the best way to do this, and would start asking me about my career and where I was. One other thing that has never been steady in my life as well would be my diet and exercise.

Recently, I have started watching my diet because of the surgery that I have undergone (more of this information available in an earlier blog post). I would say they would be shocked because my diet in high school wasn’t particularly great as I would eat like crazy in high school. I also remember I took a strength training class in college and this is when my life was in flux on whether I should continue to work out or not. One of my classmates commented on how good my stamina was because we would take weekly runs on stairs or outside on a track. This is something I would point out to my friends because of how much a statement I like to make with this. I would also say my friends would be surprised because I was never the most athletic in high school and I never played sports either. I also would dare say that people would start asking about the type of motivation I have behind this. I have believed that in the past few years that my motivation is to live as long as possible and the experiences and memories we make are based off of this. I can wake up tomorrow and not be motivated but one thing that gets me is the ability to know that every day is a new opportunity, a new challenge, a new hello, a new morning, a new something to look forward to.

Sure, we all sit in traffic on the way to and from work but this is a part of what life is. I would think if I were to tell this to my friends they would start laughing at me but I truly do believe that this does motivate me to achieve something greater every day. I also sometimes wonder if they would even recognize me because in High School you have your one or two friends that you stick close by with. I remember sitting in a row full of strangers that I had never met in my life. This is something I fear because of how diverse and far the field has gone in terms of how big of a class we were. But, I know I would have my friends that would be there to support me in how I am doing and how I have changed. I also have documented in how I think having a pet of some sorts has made me a nicer person. The dog I had before, Paloma, really made me appreciate life and the many intricacies of how to care for someone that is your own. Before, I didn’t have that somebody or something I could care for. Now, I have Zorro to care for and I also would say people would be surprised that I became a dog owner. Overall, I would say there would be some process for me to let it out because I don’t tell many people about my love for my dog. Once again, I think having a dog is like having a child because you have to make sure he or she is cared for and that he has his regular checkups at the vet or what have you. So there you have it, overall I would say that others would have kids, maybe other people have moved out of the area, and me I’m still the same person in mind but I have made a few adjustments. Change is good for all of us and time tells who will come out in front. To me, I would say I have been pretty successful with my life and where I am financially. I hope it is the same for everyone else and if it’s not hopefully I can have some profound impact on people.Till next time….