travel journal :)

I haven't really done much this winter break, that's why I havent posted anything. I'm sort of waiting for something to happen. Guessed it wouldn't so here I am.

I went to a basketball camp the first week of break with Natalia, it was really great and we had lots of fun!! We learned a LOT of things :D


After that boring days came, same old, same old movies and popcorn and late night texts. Then, I received the best Christmas present I could've ever gotten... my dear Natalia read my last post about being forever alone and decided to give me the best t-shirt ever!

this was the best Christmas present I could've ever gotten.... thanks Nat
oh by the way, I also got an iPhone that was cool too Santa, thanks, but it's not that cool you know, I don't have anybody to talk to but Siri

CLICK ON THE PICTURE!

Confession Tuesday: Ding-Dong-Ditch

           There are so many things to do in a cruise. You can climb the rock wall, go in the pool, there’s an arcade, a spa, a gym, a zip line, an ice skating rink, a flowrider, and those are only some of the most popular activities, but I confess my mother and me would spend our time in the highest decks where the suits and royal suits were! We would be just casually strolling along the endless hallway when we’d see a wooden doorframe, its uniqueness stood out from all the other cabins, it was very luxurious with an inviting doorbell, every time you see something like this, its almost inevitable to prevent the urge to press the button.

            It all started when I had the urge to touch that little doorbell, it looked so tempting. Why would you even need a doorbell in a cruise anyways? Slowly I thought about it about two minutes, every time I was almost touching it I'd back up, I was scared but my mom soon noticed I had stayed behind. So finally, once and for all I signaled my mom to be ready to run and I rung the doorbell.

It was a race through the endless corridor, doors and doors. I must confess, it was a very childish thing to do and my mom knew it, but we enjoyed it so much we laughed when we got to our own cabin finally safe. I have to confess, i didn't feel guilty at all.

            I have to admit, this experience I had with my mom showed me what a connection we have, even though later on my dad was not very happy with me or her, I would never have done anything different.

for more great tuesday confessions click here

Memoir Monday: Forever Alone?

     Being a teenager: Beautiful, yet you're extremely stereotyped and misunderstood. Being a teenager: everybody treating you as a child but expecting you to act and think like an adult. Being a teenager:  Sitting in my bed in the middle of the night wondering if the food in my fridge will fill the emptiness of being socially awkward or maybe just cure my boredom for a little bit. Being a teenager: stalking your crush regularly, because somehow, in a parallel world, you imagine you might me together if only he knew how much you really have in common.

     Since I turned 10, the double digit (wohoo), I've always looked forward to having the "teen" at the end of my age number. For me, it meant respect and being different from the "little ones." It meant being part of a select group of incredibly potential young adults living the life the way they want to. Little by little more and more freedom, begininng with a laptop, a blackberry, then a house key, a longer curfew, more allowence, a driver's liscence, a first car, and even a credit card if you're lucky. To be honest, I had so many expectations about how I would feel, how I would change to be suddenly "cool," but I'm 13, almost 14 and I still feel the same way I did when I was 12 years old. Don't get me wrong though, the parties are cool and all but there's so much homework and stuff its not even fun anymore, only more stress and pimples. 

     My life as a teenager, I guess it was going pretty chill and everything until everybody started having these "relationships" and something called "dating" and I'm just sitting here like what is going on!? Its like I'm starting to feel weird and all because I don't have a so-called boyfriend. Then there was more school work, more stress, more lies, more drama, more tears, less hang-outs, less movies, less social life altogether. I thought it would get easier or a little less stressing but it only got worse and worse. 

      There comes a point when you realize you need a social life. This is when you're sitting in your bed facing the laptop screen on a saturday night, food just doesn't seem interesting anymore, and you're on your blog reblogging cute couples' pictures. One hour. Two hours. Three hours. 3AM. "Oh God, I'm forever alone!!!"

      Because of my experience, I learned to be patient. I stopped worrying about boyfriends and shit, he'll come one day!!! Sometimes school can be extremely overwhelming, so unsatisfying it makes you emotionally unstable because of the pressure to be "all that" but the truth is, as far as growing old and growing up I've learned if you make an effort to be better it'll definately pay off when you finally get the newest blackberry or the laptop that you wanted. Effort = rewards. Finding a motivation is crucial in your daily life, find an inspiration, set goals, work hard and always be thankful. 

Catcher In the Rye: Good or Evil?

Should J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye be taught in school? 60 years ago the first copy of this polemic book was published and it was soon in the “banned lists” of most states for its use of profanity and sexuality, but what people don’t know is that Catcher in the Rye contains much more than meets the eye and I believe this book is sure to be taught in schools.

People like me often wonder why this book, being so old, is still causing uneasiness and feelings of rejection when usually most books written more than have a century ago are no longer relevant to our time and age. The truth is, everything this book evokes in our generation is very much relevant even though it was written such a while ago. I believe this is so, because it projects the real picture of a teenager even more today when profanity and sexuality are much, much more common.

The themes of this book and Holden’s journey contain coming-of-age issues the ALL teenagers can relate to. Holden achieves maturity gradually and with difficulty, he breaks the rules, uses unnecessary profanity, defies authority, is confused about his future, he’s learning to be responsible, and he’s looking for answers and experience. Isn’t this how most teenagers feel and go through in this day and age? Isn’t this what we can actually relate to?

Should we really stop reading a book based on a few people’s opinion and decision to put it in a “banned” list? According to Daniel Jack Chasen in his article ”why J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye still provokes bans” This book is still banned in many states because of the language, sexual references, and obscenities, but I believe books should be judged based on their literal content, what the author is really trying to convey, and if they did a good job doing so. Another one of the reasons this book is not accepted in many places is because it goes against the picture perfect American family with apple-pie and Sunday Church, when in reality it shows the imperfect yet true picture of a coming-of-age teenager.

The teaching of Catcher in the Rye in schools is something I definitely agree with. Apart from its humongous teachings about that transition between teenage and adulthood, it definitely taught me to be much more open minded about books, taking what the author is saying and really reading between the lines, because J.D. Salinger’s not much accepted way of writing has much more to say than just profanity.

Book Review: Mama's Girl

Veronica Chambers is the author of the memoir Mama’s Girl. She narrates her own story starting at a very young age when she lived in New York with her mom, dad and brother Malcolm. At this time she is trying really hard to make her mom proud but she doesn’t seem to be paying attention to her accomplishments in school or anything that has to do with her. She is more worried about her brother who has not applied himself in school. On the other hand, he dad has a lousy job, another woman, and on top of that he beats her mother.

Veronica’s dad and Malcolm move out shortly afterwards. Veronica then has a stepfather who treats her mother fairly but who doesn’t have a good relationship with her. At this time, Veronica is pursuing her dreams of going to college and one thing she realizes is that her mother never pushed herself to be greater because she was afraid of the dominant white race even though she lived through the civil rights movement. Veronica, she wants to be successful like any other white person and she knows she has the potential.

Veronica left her mother who fed her during 14 long years and gave he shelter to move in with her dad because of the awful relationship with her stepfather. Veronica has to fight for her rights in this new house; her dad’s new wife is extremely cruel to her and mean to the point she’s not allowed to have her groceries in the same refrigerator or eat in the same table. She gets beat up for no reason and her dad is ashamed of her appearance, because he never took her shopping for new clothes or to the beauty salon for a day. Neither did her mom.

Her desire to succeed is even greater than the pain she has and the little voice that tells her to give up. One day, she gets the worst beating because her guy friend took her shopping for her birthday. Her dad thought she was doing a sexual favor and beats her, leaving her bleeding in the street. She threatens to press charges but instead of doing that she made him pay for her tuition for early college so she could leave.

Now that she is in college she feels more independent, free, and safe. She talks to her mom everyday and realizes she is the only person that has really given her what she’s needed and even though she wanted more attention, she knows really how much her mom has done and how she’s the only thing she has left.

Veronica is pushing herself harder everyday doing internships in magazines during the summer and working her way up to success alone. During the whole book she is making reference to the big gap and difference between the white ruling class and the black lower class. Her mom is an example of a person who lived all her life with her head down as a secretary for white people.

After college Veronica starts living with her aunt and with all her work she finally breaks down to her mother about how she always wished she noticed how hard she studied to be good and successful in life and she never seemed to notice. But her mom tells her how she’s always been proud.

After this, Veronica has a new way of seeing life, she has infinite possibilities and thanks to her vision she becomes editor in the New York Times. She never let her dad stop her, her stepmother, her skin tone, or even her mom. She realizes how different she is from her brother, now he is living in the streets doing drugs and lost his path. They both had the same mother but they made completely different choices in life.

She is the woman she always dreamed of being, but overall she expresses the way she feels like she has to make up to her mom for her brother’s failures and her father’s beating. She tries to do this by giving her the things she never had before. The reader can really feel how thankful she is to her mom for being so strong. She could’ve left the moment Veronica’s dad started beating her but she didn’t for her children.

This memoir is a coming of age novel. Veronica has a very rough childhood where she is looking for answers and experience away from her broken home. She has to be responsible almost by force and she starts to take her own risks by working and studying to buy her own food since 14. She has a low self-esteem but her knowledge and studies help her realize how much she is really worth. Even though this book takes place in the 1980’s and 90’s mostly, she still feels that pressure to fit in, especially during college where there are only five black kids in her class.
I believe that the title Mama’s Girl has of course a lot to do with the story but mostly the illustration of a little black girl conveys more than the eye meets. My interpretation of this is that even though Veronica had a very rough childhood and teenage years, without her mother’s way of being and her sacrifices she wouldn’t be who she is now, but that it doesn’t mean she’ll ever stop being her Mama’s Girl. Even though she changed a lot from when she was a naive little girl, she tries to stay true, throughout the whole story, to her mother and herself thanking her mother for making her who she is today.

This memoir is about Veronica Chambers, a former editor of The New York Times Magazine and Premiere. She wants the reader to know through the novel that it wasn’t easy to become the person she is now, but with hard work and perseveration your dreams will soon become reality.

From the moment Veronica started being physically abused at home and ignored by her mother she started to focus more and more in school, one of the first things she realized is that if she does really good in school she can move out faster. Later she realizes that staying strong is important because giving up for her was not an option. While growing up she wonders why her mother never pushed herself to be promoted in her job and she realizes a lot of people in the black community including her mother still feel different or that they don’t have the same chances to succeed as the white community. Veronica proves this to be wrong when she excels as a young black woman with a privileged job as an editor that many white people yearn for.

I think the life of Veronica really made me appreciate my life and my privileges. She never gave up and I realize sometimes I feel like the world is just crumbling down at my feet and I want to stop and just not do it anymore but the truth is my problems seem insignificant compared to what Veronica had to face. I think that she is an excellent example of overcoming the difficulties in life anyone might face, and for her they were cruel and harsh but the reward was gratifying.

“In my mother’s arms that night, I found a safe space. I was a child again and being a child didn’t make me feel weak or afraid like it did when I was a girl, helpless to protect my mother or myself. In mother’s arms, I found healing” (page 168) I think this line shows how she finally feels safe in her mom’s arms something she hadn’t felt when she was a little girl because she saw her mother get beat up and she felt helpless because she couldn’t protect her. She also says she finds healing in her mother’s arms because she never felt she loved her until that moment and now that she knows it she feels safe and fearless. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Momma,

The Smith Magazine came up with the “Six-Word Memoir.” It is a very concise way of sharing your life or a very important moment in your life. When Mrs. Meadows asked us to write a six-word memoir about you, I thought of how beautiful you looked the day of your birthday, and I remember especially when we analyzed all the pictures taken that day; you looked beautiful in every single one of them. You never have to make and effort to look flawless; you just are. 

I chose beautiful smile, because I love it when you smile and share your happiness with the world. Seldom tears, you barely cry, but when you do, your tears break my heart. I never want to see you cry, and I’m glad I’ve only seen you a handful of times. Outgoing soul, this is chose for your outgoingness in general, against all adversity you succeed and move forward in life, always striving to be better.

I have no words to describe the perfect example that you are to me, Happy Mother’s Day!

I love you!

Angelica 

Legendary Glove

          What would you say if I told you my most valued possession is a baseball glove? It came to my hands the day that Brad died. I only remember sleeping in the garage the night he died. After breaking all the windows with my right fist. I could feel Bradley with me that night and in the morning; I took possession of his baseball glove then.
           Bradley was a left-handed kid with the most warm smile you'll ever see. He had red bright hair that appeared to stand out as much as the sun. He was a brilliant kid and the nicest one. His worn out, brown  fielder's glove is one of the things that capture his original personality. He had taken the time to write all over it. Poems and writings between the fingers, inside the pockets, behind, in the front, under the thumb... All in green ink. I believe this is why he did everything so good, he made every situation his own, it was unique.
           Every time I found myself examining the glove, I could almost picture the skinny boy with his light-up hair out in the field reading his favorite lines in the short gaps of time between batters. I always enjoyed the most the memory of him smiling to the lines he had written; his smile is something I really miss.
           Even when the memories of him start to blur and his smile becomes a little hazy in my head, I know the glove will bring him back to me. His pure and innocent essence is embodied in the old glove, afterall. His thoughts, his favorite poems, his personality.

Finally Free.

  My dearest Jack,

     My family and myself have been persecuted for as long as I can remember. King James 1 has been harassing us because of our religious views, so I have decided to make a voyage to the new world. The idea of modifying my lifestyle derived from the numerous comments about the wonderful place it is to live, "you'll be finally free" they said. I had been pondering about this matter for months, it wasn't a spontaneous decision, I might add. It broke my fragile heart to leave my old life behind, but with the hopes that we would finally be together after so many years, I envision myself crossing the vast ocean to the west in an endeavor to search for your company ones more.

      We finally arrived after a journey that lasted a long time. We had to cope with the scarce resources. Even less luxuries than what we had in England, considering we were broke. I had a feeling our captain was acting in a guile manner when he spoke to us about the days we'd been sailing and that worried me.  Taking in account the exhausting voyage and the hardness of the path ahead of us, the adventurous settlers, me among them, decided to sign the Mayflower Compact. We all believed it was and imperative document in order to get the settlement going.

        I must be honest with you, my disposition for the first weeks was very gloomy, there was not much food and winter was coming fast. My body, in terms of health, needed to be resilient upon facing the many diseases. I couldn’t succumb to the menacing weather. Jack, oh Jack, how I miss you to this day, your face recurs in my thoughts every single day. I wish we could be together again. If it was my decision I'd take some food and visit you in Jamestown but our leaders here in Plymouth considered this decision despicable and selfish, certainly not for the general good of the colony.

         Even with all of this, and the menacing winter ahead of us, I'm happy to be finally free to love God the way I want to. I shall communicate with you more often. In these times of despair I need your word to brighten my days and give me strength. I hope the love pervades our hearts because I’m not ready to give up. Thank you for the support you've given me, even when you weren't by my side, you've proven how much you love me.

                                                                             Forever Yours,

                                                                                          Abigail                   

Haunting Blue Eye

     I have been working for the old man for years, but it was only a couple of weeks ago that the idea of killing him derived from looking at his haunting blue eye. Pardon my honesty, please don't fancy me mad, I don't think a madmen would come up with such a brilliant plan.

     Every day, I grew impatient and did my work in a cursory manner every time the old man look upon me. I finally succumbed to my need of corroborating the old man was asleep by going into his room every night ever so gingerly, ever so quietly.

     Every night, for seven nights I came into his bedroom, I saw every detail that concerned the old man, and endeavored to be silent so he would not wake up, never in an abrasive manner. I examined him closely every single night only to find him clad in his white sheets sound asleep. What could I do? I had strong feelings for that man, but his haunting eye, oh that eye, it chased my worst nightmares and my daily life how could I kill the old man when he slept, his eye was closed and the thought of harming him like this made a grimace cross my face. 

     The eighth night I was ready to go into his room when I surmised he was asleep. I went in very quietly as if to simulate a sly cat, only to realize his vulture eye was wide open. I was electrified and in shock. Suddenly the room started spinning around me but I kept very still as the old man demanded to know who was there, but I could feel my throat dehydrate and I grew only slightly nervous. Before proceeding I ran a quick inventory of the things that I had with me, my flashlight alright and some extra batteries.     
      Everything was set, the time to get rid of the vulture eye had come. With a quick movement, I took the mattress and heard a shriek, only one. The heart beat. His heart beat. Then, nothing. There was no blood, no mess, nothing gruesome. I let the realization of what had just happened sink in. It was gone, oh yes, it was gone for good, that deep blue eye would never again chase my thoughts day by day. 

DAY ONE!

Hey bloggers! It's 8:42p.m. I'm very tired to be honest, I had to leave early sadly, because I totally adore school! It's my first post and I'm glad to have a blog, special thanks to all my table buddies Alexandra, Edgar, and Ana Gabriela who totally helped me with my blog! I love them!


I'm kinda liking this blog thing I think I'll keep it! I hope it looks nice in my home page.