A Time for Reflection

This year in AP Lang has been one like no other. This class has changed the way many of us will look at everything in the future. It has also forced us to think about our futures. To look forward. To think about where you want to be in 5, 10, 15, even 50 years. I've no doubt that we're a mixed group: some may end up as doctors, or politicians, or mechanics, or in the military, or teaching, or running a small business, or researchers and scientists, or even selling cars. We'll see some of us travel overseas and explore the world, while others may choose to stay close to home. We all have our different paths, and we all must go our separate ways.

We've got one year left before the huge proverbial fork in the road. And for me, that's a bit overwhelming. We're just about three-quarters done with high school. Three quarters. It's gone by really fast.

Just remember, in 5 or 10 or 15 or even 50 years, remember this class. Remember each other. What we choose to do now, and how we act, will affect our memories of Westmont forever. 

Remember the ones who were always prepared for everything. Who read everything, and I mean everything. The ones who you could count on to do any extra credit opportunity offered. Those who ate up the words like they were free samples at Costco.

Don't ever forget those who were unprepared. I for one was 'unprepared' on numerous occasions, and it's safe to say that a lot of my classmates were, too. 

In the beginning, I was uncertain as to whether or not this class would be right for me, or for anyone, really.

I can honestly say that this class is right for anyone. The material is not too difficult, once you understand it. And Pinza was excellent at making it interesting enough to make me want to understand. Unfortunately, those teachers that make the students actually want to learn if they didn't already are few and far between. 

Take AP Lang. You won't regret it. 

Spring Break

It's almost 11:00 on the first Friday night of Spring Break, and a blog is due within the hour. I have absolutely no idea what to write about. All I have right now is a headache, a chili dog, and an extra large glass of milk. Here goes.

Last weekend, my beloved mother crashed her brand new bike the second time riding it. She managed to fracture her collarbone. While most people who break this bone snap it in the middle, not her: She somehow broke it towards the very end of the bone. As such, it was not healing naturally: One part of her shoulder was pulling the broken piece down, while another ligament or tendon or something was pulling the other piece up. 

She left the hospital after surgery at about 5:00 and has been just kind of sitting in the living room watching TV since. I mean, what else is there for her to do? She got two pins and a screw put in to keep it in place. 

This whole ordeal has served to remind me that I am not invincible. Nobody is. People who treat their bodies as if they are tend to be on the more severe side of the idiot/asshat spectrum. (I see that a lot riding my bike to school every day - idiots darting in and out of traffic on their 'fixies'. If the cars don't harm them, their knees will sure regret all of this in another thirty years. Fixed gear bikes are just terrible for knees.)

Anyways, mortality.

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever." -Carl Sagan, 'Cosmos'

We each only have a limited amount of time on this planet. That's kind of been an underlying theme of this blog for the past few weeks. People often forget this, so spend your time wisely. Have a good time. Go for a walk in the rain. Stop and smell the roses. Jump off of the high dive. Enjoy yourself and be yourself, because you are literally the only one in the universe that can do that. 

And don't forget to smile at anyone who tells you these things are not as equally important as a career. I find it interesting that we have a career project, yet few teachers ever tell us to smile and enjoy ourselves. 

Westmont Swimming and Diving 2013

I've been swimming for most of my life, and for the past two years I worked over the summer at Westgate Cabana Club as a lifeguard and swim instructor. In a perfect world, I would be able to support myself entirely in the future on just this simple pair of jobs. But the world is not perfect: We find our values in how much we earn. We are told to get a degree that will pay well. Unfortunately, these fields that make a lot of money are, naturally, very competitive.

What I want is a line of study that I honestly enjoy - one that I can apply to the real world. People always say "Get a business degree!", but that does not interest me. What interests me is language. Communication is the basis of conscious; it is what makes humans so unique. I want to be able to communicate with as many people as possible, and to travel to foreign homelands just so that I may understand what it means to be a human, and not just the Californian Gringo I was raised as. I want to learn as many languages as possible. I've made a promise to myself: I want to be able to speak five more languages besides English by the time I'm 30. I've started on Spanish. This leads to the other Latin-based French and Italian. Additionally, I would love to hold a conversation in both Russian and German.

I have to go to a school that emphasizes communication. Without communication we are alone.

Sans Title

Swim season has begun, which has put quite a limit on my amount of free time. I come home from school at around 5:15 and am left with no inclination to do anything. Perhaps that is why I missed last blog cycle.

Regardless, this post is supposed to make up for it.

Last week, I was chosen to be the captain of the swim team, along with a fellow swimmer I've known and swam with for the greater majority of my life.

Looking at my history involved in endurance and performance sports, it only seems logical to do some thinking about sports in my future. Another subject I've taken an interest in is exercise physiology and kinesiology (that is, the study of motion in the body, as well as chemical processes that are necessary for motion.). I was lucky enough to visit San Jose State University's Exercise Physiology department with a number of other students from Westmont as part of our AP Biology class.

One of our students put on numerous sensors and ran as hard and as fast as she could in accordance to the protocol used for a VO2 Max test, or Volume of Oxygen gas in the lungs. Essentially, it is a precise way to measure lung capacity and to evaluate how efficient the body is at absorbing the oxygen.

I wish to develop a further understanding of how the body works from day to day. Because hey, that's what life is: motion.

What is valuable to me?

Last post, I talked about uncertainty. I still have much of this uncertainty: from simple uncertainties, such as what to eat for dinner (an argument that is a nightly occurrence in my household), to more significant uncertainties, such as how to best save/use the money I earned working over the summer.

For those of you who do not know, I've worked as a lifeguard for the past two years at Westgate Cabana Club in Campbell. I took the certification classes in April of 2010 (which reminds me, I'm going to have to recertify, or recert, before next season). So far, I've put the money earned from this towards two bicycles (collectively, a quadsicle?). as well as funds for food and fun with friends. That's a bit of a tongue twister. Bonus points for alliteration?

Working as a lifeguard has taught me to be responsible, and it has given me experience dealing with patrons (no, sir, I'm sorry but you may not drink your beer in the deep end, and that glass bottle needs to be rid of). Additionally, working for my own pay check has taught me the value of my own work and the work of others, such as my parents. For a while, I was thinking about meals and other purchased items in terms of hours spent at the pool. It really shows what a simple $50 bill at the grocery store means - It equates to just over 5.42 hours working at the pool, after taxes. That's about a full day of my work just to put the food on the table; a full day of time is valuable.

So yeah, short - term time like that is important to me, as it equates to money and money equates to, well, itself. While wealth may not be necessary to life, it certainly increases ease of it.

But what's also important to me, also time related, is my youth. In AP Bio the other day, I saw two pictures. One was a scan of the fat, muscle, and bone content of an 80 year old man's leg. The other was the same scan of a triathlete of the same age. The leg of the triathlete was considerably thicker than that of the regular man. He had two to three times the amount of muscle content in his quadriceps, and his bones were thicker and healthier.

My health is important to me. What would be the point of having all the wealth in the world, yet be extremely unhealthy and bound to die soon?

They say life is short: The sad thing is that life is literally the longest thing that any of us will ever know. I believe that we must make the most out of every second. Go out of your way to make someone smile. Hell, go out of your way to make yourself smile. When's the last time you've regretted being happy?

I guess the way that this relates to the topic of this blog, is that whatever I do with my life, must be fiscally smart, but I also must have the ability to take care of myself and enjoy what I do. It brings to mind a Dalai Lama quote: when asked about what surprised him most in humanity he responded,

"Man.
Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;
the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

I want to really live. I want to experience life as much as I can, and while I am still able to. I want to....

Live a little!

(okay, someone had to have seen that coming...)

That's great, but what if?

But what if?

But what if that's not what I want to do with my life? Many people go to college and then come back after a year because it's just not right for them. That happened to a friend of mine: he went to ASU but he just could not stay away from his home, Campbell, so he came back to study at De Anza. Real great guy. It's not that he is stupid or anything- a state university was not the right fit for him. But that's OK. Many successful people didn't graduate college. In fact, some companies are paying students to not go to college and to get on the job in service training. Often times experience outweighs a degree.

So what does this mean for me? Already I have some experience lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons, both for pay or community service hours. The point is, that qualification of working as a "first responder" looks good on all kinds of applications. It demonstrates responsibility, maturity, and accountability on my behalf.




Even this field of work gets me on track to do something elsewhere: I would love to serve my country, in the ocean as well as on land, by protecting the people. I am considering the Coast Guard, as well as military divisions, specifically the Marines. But who knows? My first choice at this time(CSUMB) is built on the old Fort Ord complex. They also, coincidentally, have a strong beach lifeguard/coast guard volunteer program, which satisfies my desire to serve. It is a great country we live in, is it not?

This will put me on the pipeline to study emergency first aid as an actual class, and work as an EMT (emergency medical technician).

There are really so many things I can do with my life. In my interest in marine bio, I have learned: "The world is your oyster, be careful not to scratch the pearl." Don't ruin something nice in your life. What if my life becomes about saving other peoples' lives? I have thinking to do. Junior year is so heavy, as Marty McFly would say.

Well, I guess this is where I should start. With an introduction. Yeah, that'll work. Our assignment is to 'maintain a blog that centers on an area of interest- something that can either be studied in college or pursued as a career'. Well, it is my belief that in this day and age, not many 'careers' are available without college. College seems like the logical first step.

There are a few things that are key when picking a college- What do you want to study? For me, that answer is the interesting field of marine sciences - from oceanography, to marine biology, to studying breeding, feeding, and migratory habits. You know, fishy business. There's something about the ocean that makes me feel human - as if I'm connecting with the seaweed, the plants, the sand, the fish; I become an earthling, and not just a person.

Marine science is great for a major, but I also believe that communication, specifically across language barriers, is vital.

Another two possibilities lie in either computer science or engineering, but I'd rather watch the sunset on the beach at work than look at a blank computer screen.

With that being said, I'd like to look at schools that are likely to have a strong language program - not necessarily as a major, but certainly as a possible minor. The ideal school would also have a great marine studies or biology programs, with the option of computer science in case marine science doesn't work out for me.

In addition to the criteria above, I would like a school that is near the coast, because coastal weather rocks, specifically the West coast. The East coast is too far. I'd like a campus that is preferably not in the middle of a large city, such as our San Jose State University. Large crowds and major traffic is not my forte.

And the final specification is cost- How much will it cost to attend the school, and more importantly, does the school have a transfer program from community/junior colleges such as West Valley College or De Anza College.

Now, to begin the research.

The current, incomplete schools I've got on the list to research is as follows:

California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB)
University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC)
Oregon State University at Corvalis (Go Beavers!) (OSU)
University of Oregon at Eugene (UoO)

And of course, West Valley College as well as De Anza College.

We'll see how this goes.