Late Night Thoughts

I have always felt that my life has been nothing short of uneventful. I went day by day thinking that nothing was ever going to change. I felt so small and insignificant. I was only doing what seemed to be expected of me but nothing more in order to avoid problems. And I remember starting high school, it made me feel that feeling with fervid intensity. I remember walking down the halls and feeling invisible. People could see right past me, never giving me a second glance. I was so angry and fussy back then. Ha ha.

Of course, I don’t feel this way anymore. I have long since realized that no one is really putting me down on purpose and that my life isn’t as meaningless as I had once thought. I think that sometimes a big obstacle of ours is only seeing what we have left to do instead of seeing how much we have done. Stepping back and reflecting on what you’ve done can change a lot about your attitude towards things. I wasn’t stepping back to see my accomplishments, no matter how small they were. Sometimes our greatest accomplishment could be getting up from bed one morning. Sometimes our greatest accomplishment is to start the day.

Looking back at this year, I realize a lot of things have happened to me. I’ve earned a scholarship to study under amazing, respected artists who encourage us to pursue our goals. I've talked to important, talented artists who took the time to look at my drawings and demonstrate for us how they work themselves. And I've talked to one of my favorite voice actors from my favorite childhood cartoon because she had recognized some of my fanart. I'm just so grateful and happy that my hard work has brought me so much happiness. And I just can’t say my life is uneventful anymore. I mean, I would have never guessed that any of it would ever happen to me. And what makes me happier is that if it happened to me, then it could certainly happen to someone else. Someone else can have the chance of being just as happy.

Sometimes we should just step back and see how many great things have happened to us. How many obstacles we have overcome. How we have all accomplished something. How the world would have never been exactly the same without you.

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Gerome & Lily

Gerome: Tis it a fair day

Lily: Tis it fine

Gerome: I wonder how the sky is on the other side

Lily: Where?

Gerome: To where the lake falls beneath the sea. To where the sun awakes and sings. To where the flowers cascade through the open basin.

Lily: The words of which you speak what do they try to convey.

Gerome: My dearest Lily now that I have return from my long treacherous journey, from which danger lurks on thee grandest of scale. I have seen the stars across foreign skies. Now I have come to the lands of which brought my birth. I remember the day of which I first laid eyes on you.

Lily: Gerome. Of what message are you trying to let out.

Gerome: The sky was overcast..

Lily: Gerome no. Do not bring about these memories that long been in our past.Thy know of my engagement to Fredrick. I most honor it or my father will disown me of my family. Art thou know of this. The times between us should be left in its abyss.

Gerome: Lily please listen to me. When I peer into your sky I see all those things. The blue sapphires glisten amongst the moon. They reveal to me the world of which light constructs the realms. I long to come to stand before your presence to melt in your sweet delight. The infinite words I could speak of thy soul. The melodies the angels may sing for your graceful movements. Now Lily, thy soul has me at its mercy. Feel my heart. My heart that has beat in joy from the moment it saw thee that fair day in our youth. The vicious course of time has wounded me so. I present you with my entire possession. My love that holds me still. But please fairest Lily if thy were to reject my request take thy cleanest sword and drive it to my demise.

Lily: Gerome. Thee speaks of the most gracious words, but how can I leave my duties? How can I live with such dishonor?

Gerome: How can you allow me to burn before your presence? You once told me of the one true virtue: Love. Have you forgotten of such words?

Lily: Gerome......I..

Gerome: Lily. Now look deep into my eyes as I do to yours......What mystic beauty. Now tell me you don't love me as I do. Tell me your heart doesn't say my name with every beat.

Lily: ......Gerome...I..I do...I do love-

[Morning arose and the flames burst along the walls. The ground shattered open and consume them whole.]

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A Certain Type Of Stupidity

Have you ever had a crippling embarrassment over being incapable of possessing the same skills as others? Recently, I went to a college day that my art program was holding. Everyone seemed so much more experienced than I was. I felt embarrassed to even say that I had work to show. I had never experienced anything like it, and it made me wonder what made me feel this way and if others felt the same way at times. 
I realized that it happens a lot more frequently than we would like to admit. Truth is, in an ordinary school, the same thing is happening all the time. The school is constantly ranking us on our ability to follow their system of judgement. Follow instructions, do your work, get good grades, don’t do anything else. If you have a high gpa or if you have advanced classes, people often assume that you are a very intellectual person. I would try to stay away from that type of thinking since that means that those who don’t do the same aren’t very smart. Which is absolutely not the case. The people who are considered very smart are just able to follow or cheat the system into working in their favour. The others just aren’t interested or capable of this type of intellect. Which isn’t very fair since there’s many types of intellect, I think. Someone in a lower level class might possess a skill someone from a higher level class doesn’t. If we judge them solely by this skill, then we could say that the person from the higher level class is “stupid” in the area. We don’t often see it this way though, since we’re so used to a sole type of intellect, the one forced upon us by the educational system. We hold certain skills to have more value than others. But I leave you with one of my favorite quotes: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

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Time....

 Time. We see it through the actions that flow behind. It is curious how in one instance you are in the present and the other in the past. With this realization it is important that we cherish every moment of our lives. I am a high school senior and I know in just a few months all my friends will be going their separate ways. I've try to image being in the future and remembering this moment. I want to be able to recall a moment well spent.

It seems as though I slept one day as a fragile infant and awoke a grotesque beast. Its strange I see my hand everyday at it feel the same but I see the mirror and see it has changed. In a couple of waves my horns will extent and I will be dead.

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present"

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The Unkown

What makes this story so eery; why does this small package of words evoke such disturbing emotions. The answer is quite simple the unknown, what we don't know is what we are most terrified of. This concept could explain our obsession as a human race to explore and expand our knowledge; to reduce the dark regions of the unknown. It is quite funny that all our strives and achievements could all be motivated by fear. Does this devalue our inventions and discoveries; I don't think so. However it does provide us with fresh perspective on ourselves. What else is motivated by subtle entities like fear, the possibilities our beyond my ken, the horror they evoke.

-Pride&Ownership

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A Sea In A Turtle

The breeze of the open ocean caresses his face as he drives the boat. The boat is pulling a banana shaped floating device with tourists, or as he would call them “gringos”, on top of it. It was the middle of the day and he was weirdly tired. The sun burned in the horizon; making it uncomfortably hot, but this is what he expected living in Acapulco. He cut the trip short and headed back to the beach with the tourist.

He loved the beach, it was the only life he knew. He walked around the pier looking out into the ocean. He was scared; he had everything he wanted, but he was putting everything in jeopardy. He roamed around a bit more heading towards the aquarium; his aquarium.

This love of aquatic life was a hidden gem; uncovered by the opportunities brought forth by his unexpected successes. There was a whole variety of fishes and other aquatic mammals in the aquarium. He liked to just wander around and observe the animals. However one that really caught his attention was the turtle. He stared at the turtle; its size astonished him, Its movements so graceful. I stood there touching the glass with my face, eyes closed I was able to feel it move. He opened his eyes confronted with the eyes of the majestic beast from the sea. The turtle’s eyes looked into him, almost with compassion. That is when he saw it, the light of the ocean.

-Pride&Ownership

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A letter...

 Dear Enigma,

Time is short; I know this trite statement seems laughable to you because of its obvious truth. However these three simple words have never been more eminent before. Your death felt like an emotional band-aid being ripped away; leaving me with a scar. Time has only been a pacifier; I have yet to cope.

I' am yet to fully understand you. Your premature departure did not give us enough time. However through those short five years together we still connected rather powerfully, but yet I am left feeling dubious. You were always an enigma, so there is a possibility you purposely left me with such questions; why?  

-Pride&Ownership

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Spirit Week

 Once again spirits spirit enthralled the very being called the students of Firebaugh High School. This mass of spirit is concentrated into one week which is nicely named spirit week. This is where everyone, as minimal as it might be, shows their falcon spirit. I personally did not participate on the festivities due to my forgetful nature. However that did not stop me from enjoying and vicariously sharing in the spirit of the week.

Now the first day of this pep riddled week was named sports day aimed at letting fellow students, mostly males, to advocate their loyalty to whichever sports team they follow. During that day I saw a whole range of sports jersey. Every region of sport was represented; from basketball to baseball everything was there. The one predominant sport was soccer however. I blame this on the high concentration of Latinos; I mean I wanted to bring my sport jersey too, GO CHELSEA FC!!!

The next day, that I was able to remember, was dedicated to comic book heroes. Due to the fact that a blockbuster movie called "The Avengers" was barely released this year. The overall theme was heroes associated with that exact franchise. Some people even brought costumes, which was rather neat and sort of redundant considering that Halloween was the very next day.

Which leads me right into Halloween; which fell right in the middle of our spirit week. A lot of people came in costumes and all dressed up. There was some good ones and bad ones, but an overall good vibe was had. We even got a Halloween theme cookie for lunch, neato no?

The main day was scrabble day; which gave students a chance to express ridiculous and fun messages through shirts with letters on them. This is usually the most popular day due to the fact that anyone can pick a phrase or word, photograph themselves and their friends representing the word through their shirts and have a rad picture to share on their Twitter or Facebook. I personally liked when the word "seniors" was spelled out, Go Seniors!!

-Pride&Ownership  
 

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Two Shades Of Homecoming

Homecoming was both a disappoint and an actual treat; why this contradiction you might ask. Well homecoming is split into two events: the football game and the dance. In my opinion, the football game was a disappointment and the dance was a treat (for most of the time). To fully understand my position I think I'll explain why the game was a disappointment first.

The first thing that was really disappointing was that the game was held at the stadium of our arch rivals Lynwood High School. Now I am aware that this was something that is beyond the schools control because our school doesn't have a stadium and is too small to get one. However the feeling of not having this game at our campus still takes hold. Next came a real disappoint; which was that the school our team was suppose to take on did not show up. This resulted in the game being forfeited and that was essentially the end of the night. No not really, but that was the whole purpose of going to this event; to see my school's team play and win. After this misfortune the cheerleaders and drill team performed making something out of a disappointing night. I did not even get a refund!!

Next came the dance; which was really fun and enjoyable. It started off rather slowly however, due to a miscommunication by ASB. However as people arrived and the music started going the event came to life, people started dancing and enjoying themselves; I even broke through my shell and danced with the rest of my friends. However one thing that was not at the standard of the dancing was the food. The food was literally two pieces of bland strips of chicken with a supposed salad on the side. Let me just tell you that I don't like salad at the best of days, but that salad looked like it came straight out the garden; there was an enormous raw mushroom in it.

However in the whole scheme of things; the dance was a great success in my eyes. Hope the next one remains at the same standards.

-Pride&Ownership       

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San Diego

I recently went on a trip to the sub-Californian city of San Diego; the purpose of the trip was to visit the universities of San Diego State and UC San Diego. Before I talk about the universities themselves, I would like to talk about the way to San Diego. There is only one word that describes the journey to San Diego; tedious. The trip going there took a whopping 3 hours; a quarter of the trip was spent on that bus.

However not all was bad, the view of the ocean was brilliant, especially as we approached the universities. As the hours seem to prolong themselves, I was able to rest for the first time in these fatigue rigged weeks. It was a torturous blessing you could say. However the main attraction was finally reached around 11 o'clock. We first went to SDSU, which is known to be a "party" school; that was the exact impression I received from visiting the university throughout the tour. In an overall sense the school appeared lively; with alumni roaming around happy to answer our questions and showing there jubilant natures.

One item that really stood out for me was the gym; which was an enormous establishment. The exercise equipments were renewed at a reasonable rate, even a climbing wall was in there; awesome. The academics were not touched on much and we were mostly shown the facilities and great student life. However some tidbit I was able to absorb was the surprising 100% job outlook for their criminal justice major.

Next came UC San Diego; the environment looked somber, but maybe that was just the clouds that blocked out the sun and sent a chill breeze to refresh us from the heat from hours past. However this negative ambiance was shaken off and the tour began. We were told about the opportunities to study abroad at the school; which was an exciting prospect for my classmates, but a sad limitation for me. Then we saw the library which looked like a space ship and had a Dr. Suess statue in front of it. We then talked to some alumni about student life in UC San Diego and ended the escapade by talking to a admission representatives.

However the real highlight of the trip came afterwards; where we went to the beach. Now the beach was relatively close to the university, but the real strain came in the form of steep hill leading to the beach. The way down was not so bad; with the constant threat of losing balance and rolling down to our inevitable death. Midway down we stopped to see a spectacular view. In which there was two ridges of two mountains left a strip in the middle filled with the beach and horizon; the sun almost setting giving it an orange glow. Once we reached the bottom, we had a good time running around, but never touching the water. The last part of the trip was the least enjoyable since going back up would be a mission. It was a very extraneous ordeal, but one that I enjoyed because of the excessive exercise.

Leaving I was very tired, but happy to have experienced this. I now could see where I would like to go for college and made fantastic memories as a senior. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and am happy to be a part of the Avid Class Of 2013!!!

-Pride&Ownership                      

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