Blog #4: Thinking About Social Justice.

Why do you think it is important to value Social Justice?
It is important to value social justice because more people can come together as a community and talk about the problems that are happening. We got socialize with everyone for a better community and to have better justice to understand the real problems. Once something bad happens people turn against people and think that violence would solve anything.

What do you think are some prevalent issues today?
Some prevalent issues today are violence in schools, homicides, cops pointing guns at people in unnecessary situations and physical, emotional, sexual abuse. These are big issues. The society I live in is very messed up and heartless. Another issue today I forgot to mention is people drunk driving. No one should be under the influence of alcohol. Almost two months there was a car crash. In a car there was a family inside a 19 year old young lady , a 13 year old boy and a 8 year old little girl and 2 dogs and in the other vehicle there was man drunk. The drunk driver ran a red light and hit the family car with in minutes the people inside the car were announced dead. I'm not sure what happened to the drunk driver but they announced him that he was under the influence of alcohol. It's not right for any one to be in drugs and driving. Life goes by fast in a blink of a eye it would end. No one's life should be taken away like this.

Which among these do you find to be of special concern to you personally?
My special concern personally is sexual harassment and sexual abuse towards girls like children, teenagers, young adults, and full grown adults. Everyday ladies around the world are sold for sex pleasure or are raped by a stranger, drugged or even rapped by a family member. I hate it so much. Just recently about a month ago, I was scrolling through my news feed and came across an article that talked about how a girl teenager was telling her dad that she's lesbian and he didn't agree with it. He had her to have sex with him to show how "having sex with a man is better than to be lesbian" and he was later on arrested. I felt so disgusted while reading it. How can a father touch his own daughter just to prove her wrong. I have a friend that was touched by her uncle and growing up she was afraid of men. Her uncle would tell her she looks beautiful and then later on started to get to sexual comments like "you look so sexy you should wear mini skirts around me often." No women should be seen as a sex object or anything that a man can call "easy."

Blog #3: Want to be happy? Be grateful

In the ted talk " Want to be happy? Be grateful" by David Stenidal-Rast, he mentions very important information and facts. Everyone and everywhere around the world people want to be happy. Stendial-Rast mentions " there's a quite number of people who have everything but still aren't happy because either they want something else or want more." People nowadays they have so much things that other people don't have or are dying to have but yet those people that have everything still aren't satisfied. Having gratefulness is an important part for us humans. To feel gratefulness, you got to combine happiness and something that is valuable to you as a free gift without earning it and gratefulness spontaneously rises in your heart. Homeless people are good example for gratefulness. Yes they ask for money to buy things but we don't know if that money can save that persons life. People are heartless to them and some people well even give them more than $100 and that homeless person immediately feels happiness and gratefulness. Stendial-Rast states facts during his speech. He talked about how every moment is a given moment. Many people wouldn't even give the chance to have that new given moment. " This moment, with all the opportunity that it contains because we're not sure that there will be another given moment." We rush through life, we don't stop and we miss the opportunities cause of it. His quote to everyone was " Stop, Listen and Go and really do something. "

Blog #2: Gilbert's Talk " The surprising science of Happiness"

In the ted talk " The surprising science of Happiness " by Dan Gilbert talks about how how we synthesis happiness but we think happiness is a thing to be found. In his speech he mentioned how " people have experience in their heads before they try them out in real life." He means that before we try something new we think on how we are going to do it before we do it. For example, when my coach wants me to do a back hand spring I think on how i'm going to do it. I pretty much over think it before trying because I don't want to mess up. Gilbert talks about two types of happiness. Natural Happiness and Synthetic Happiness. Natural happiness is what we get, when we get and what wanted. Synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted. Gilbert also describes two types of controls that what we have. Normal control and Amnesics control. Normal Control- The one I own is better than i thought and the one I didn't own/left behind is not as good as I thought and Amnesics Control is the same thing as Normal Control but they don't know they own it. At the end of his speech he mentioned " find a way to be happy when things happen."

Blog #1 : Happiness

What makes me happy? I'm happy that I woke up this morning and get to see another day. Not behind bars, not in a hospital bed and not dead. What is happiness? There's a lot of reasons or things that can describe happiness. Happiness is a combination of how you're satisfied with your life, the things you accomplish, the work you done and they way you feel when having a positive vibe. Happiness is not feeling good all the time, there is going to be times when things can go down hill. Not being rich and affording everything you want. Happiness is important too me because things can go good for me and I feel good about myself. Nothing worries me when i'm happy if I know i'm doing good in the moment. The secret to getting it is by having a positive mood and a good vibe. Not letting things bother you or get to you that easily. Avoiding drama, fights, people bad attitudes and mood. Many people are unhappy and it can be by many reasons. The main reason that people are unhappy is because of depression or anxiety. People who were once happy tend to get hurt so much that when they try to be happy bad things happen to them.

Blog #10: Grit

Grit is always on my mind day and night. We all got to be wrong or do wrong in order to learn from that lesson and know what to do next. Grit means a lot whether you believe it or not or if you don't know what having grit means. It matters in our everyday lives. I can demonstrate this quality sort of good. I love cheering so much and it takes time and effort to accomplish the goals I want to do. It took me 5 months  on how to do a back kick over, splits, and become more flexible. All day I will think in mind on how can I improve this goal. The 3 things that popped up in mind was practice, take time, and focus/relax. I started doing that and I would start to get the hang of it. It was on my mind everyday even my studies for school but cheer was life  for me when I was younger. Now that i'm 16 doing High School cheer i'm starting learn and accomplish more goals.

 

Blog #9: Self-Control

Do you ever question yourself "do I have self-control?" because I know I do everyday. Having self-control takes effort,confidence and at times it can be really hard for some people. I have some self-control just depends on what it is. I had an experience last year in 2015 and it was very serious. I was going through a rough break up. I was hurt and completely heart broken. I did a really bad decision till this very day I really regret but what can I say I just didn't had the self-control that I have now. On December 7th, 2015 I was going that rough break up. I started losing control and started to harm myself really bad. I ended up going to the e.r because of the wombs I had and pills I took to also overdose. I didn't leave the hospital till 2 weeks after that happened. In that hospital they put me in a CAPS unit. The nurses well talk to me and therapy people well also come to speak to me to see how i'm doing. I was still broken whenever they checked up on me and I still had suicidal thoughts. When I left the hospital my friends were glad that I came back home. I lost my parents trust so I couldn't do things I wanted to do and they never left me home alone. I couldn't go bathroom or shower alone unless my mom was in the bathroom with me. I couldn't eat with metal spoons and forks nor plastic ones. I was eating my food with my hands. Months past since that accident happened. My parents started to give me their trust back. I started to gain more and more self-control. I'm no longer broken, no longer suffering and no longer having suicidal thoughts. Even though the guy that broke up with me keeps disrespecting me but I don't let that offend me because he already damaged me in the past and i'm not going to keep on letting him do that to me. The self-control I have now made into a better person. I can now tell my friends my experience with out breaking down because now I have confidence to myself. It took a very long time for me to accomplish this goal.

Blog #8 : Stereotypes/ Misperceptions

Stereotypes/Misperceptions

A week ago, I went to a camp called Camp Lead. It was mainly about how we could become good leaders and we learned new things about other people. The topic that we spent talking about in Camp for those 3 days was about Stereotypes/Misperceptions. There's many ways that people can judge other peoples without even knowing that their judgments are Stereotypes. Some examples of stereotypes is judging people by their skin color, the way people dress , the way some people talk and act. I've seen a situation at school where a girl judged another girl just because of the way she dressed at school. The girl would say " Why is she wearing that ? she looks like she doesn't got any money to buy new expensive clothes like the trends nowadays". In reality the girl that looks "poor" doesn't go to school to impress anyone she's more focus on her work/studies than to be following trends. She also has a lot of money and lives in a big 2 story house she just doesn't like spending money just to fit in. I respect her for that! I've been in a situation like that during my freshman year and it didn't stop till 2 months into sophomore year. I was judged because of the way I looked, dressed,act and the color of my skin. People would come up to me saying " Are you a chola ?!" " Why you dress like that ?" " Wannabe chola " " I don't like Asains you're not my type".  I was shocked that people would think differently of me. I did my makeup and it looked like a chola look. The way I dressed looked like if I was a "chola". I wore black cortez's and baggy clothes. My attitude was different around people it just depend on the way people would talk to me and who I would hang out with at school. I'm not just Asian i'm mixed with other races i'm Mexican, Russian, Native and Filipino. My friends would just think of me as a normal Xicana but others would look at me as mexican/asian. Sophomore year the people that judged me got to know me better. I don't dress the way I dressed back in 9th grade. I still do my makeup, my attitude still depends on the way people talk to me and who I surround myself with and more of friends know what 4 razas I am.  

                               Sophomore Year                                Freshman Year 

      My 4 race (flags)

          Makeup I did back in Freshman Year And Still do In Sophomore year.