I'm on a College Budget

 Five pajamas, two flip flops, and a some sweats are now the necessities.

 I used to spend one hundred dollars on a pair of J's, but now I can only afford to pay for some PJ's. 

I always wondered how do one begin budgeting, but now I am here living the reality.

I used to have prestigious wine, and fine rice but now Ramen Noodles and Capri Suns are my only refuge from going broke. I am on a college budget not because I choose to, but the budget chooses me. I used to get a shapeup hairline almost every other week, but this college budget makes me want to grow some dreadlocks. I never liked writing, nor did I used to record daily activities and stories but this college budget inspires me to write a plethora of top ramen noodles narratives.

I'm on a college budget and yet I do not plan to major in money management. 

I'm from

I am from a place where most people wants to escape.

Escape the misery, tribulation, and the poverty.

It’s not the richest place in the Western Hemisphere,

But it has helped me with cultivating so much.

So much that money cannot afford.

I do not have anything to complain about,

Because where I am from teaches me to be strong.

I am from a place where gratis is with a price.

A place where the government does not subsidize nor care about assisting its people.

I am from a place where do it myself and all by myself is obligated.

I am from a place where our wherewithal is our stoicism.

It cannot be taught, but somehow I learn to cultivate fortitude.

I am from a place where most people wants to escape;

And like everyone else I escape with my family multiple times,

Even though I am forced to live under the multicultural shade

Where I am from will always be coded in my DNA.

FYI, I am originally from Haiti.

The Role of Art in Communities

             In my opinion "Art" does not have a role in a culture, but plays every role because of the fact that art is ubiquitous. It can be found anywhere within a particular culture; although people have different interpretation of the art. A couple of common roles of art in cultures are symbolism and memory, but if digging deeper into one piece of art it might reveal more than two memories and demonstrate more than one role in a culture. I watched a documentary titles "Waste Land"  by a Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, from which he reunited a very disgustingly dirty community, which is one of the most populated cities in the World and has the world's  largest garbage dump. In this documentary Vik did not only demonstrate and challenge the familiar notions of art in this community, but he brought hope back to the people of that community.

 Art is like the oxygen that we are constantly breathing in; it's omnipresent, except that it's in different forms, different interpretation and representations. 

National Petition To The President And Congress: Invest In Jobs, Not Cuts

National Petition To The President And Congress: Invest In Jobs, Not Cuts

Love can sometimes turn into hate

Girl I thought you understood me;
me telling you how much I love you.
I try to make time for you,
plan to spend time with you but you avoid my reasons for missing you.
You've certainly asked me once "why do I love?" and my response was, because my heart tells me.
It's indeed that we haven't spent too much time together, but I'll give the credit for making me knowing you through your stupid actions.
I blame myself for wasting seconds, minutes, hours, and days of my faculty of thinking on you; I guess sometimes one who's not used to be love doesn't deserve to be loved.
This is just my perspective, and whatever you think of me as being a traitor or a liar, I surely do love you but I hate the fact that you are wasting my time, and the love that I am trying to share with you.
I am mad, but not sad. I don't hate you, nor will I ever do; but I hate the way you act towards me. Love can sometimes turn into hate, and I would hate to say that I hate you because I will never hate the same facade that you attracted my with when I first met you. I will always love you but I am sorry to tell you that I hate how you treat me.

Youth United for the Environmental Turnaround 2012

Usually young people like us teenagers, we need to have adults and mentors in our lives in order to help us remain on the right track and comport ourselves well; but sometimes young children like us can make big differences in our community, and even challenge adults to change their ways in order to protect their own future like Severn Suzuki spoke her mind at the UN Earth Summit in 1992. Earlier this summer at the Upward Bound preparatory program, my English teacher introduces Human Rights as one of the major complements of the class; and she focuses a lot on domestic oppression as well as the implication of the United States on other countries’ soil. 
This conference will help a lot with understanding the content of my English class, due to the fact that it will accentuate on many important issues such as environmental justice, sustainable transportation, anti-racism/anti-oppression, and many more which englobe the definition and the violation of human rights. And also having young children as the vehicle to circulate the message will strongly and positively affect the audience for whom the message is being delivered since older individuals do not usually expect young children to think about those matters. Nowadays, even though a lot of people are striving to efface the image of racism in many others’ heads but it is still a doctrine that is hard for many to get detach from. As an optimist I surely believe that with the help of teens and hearing their stories that will certainly exemplify and enhance the fact that racism is bad and it pollutes interracial amities. Not only that, but it creates turmoils in many communities.

I am Deeply Sorry!

Sometimes things happen for a reason. I know this might sounds corny and repetitious, but after what happens today. I certainly noticed I got you mad to the extreme. But yeah, I kept it to myself because I don't like sharing some personal stuff with people; I know for some it helps to let out some of what is hurting them. I surely know what I had you generating today, and there is no way I would have had the courage to disappoint you with those same lips that pronounced "agree" and "absolutely" to our rendezvous. On my way to school today, I lost my wallet with my debit card, my school I.D. and a bunch of other identification cards. Well, I can cancel my debit account to prevent people from using it, and retrieve the other I.Ds. But the cash, my last check, and most importantly my godson’s picture can never be retrieved.                                                           

I tried to play it like everything was fine earlier, but I was just lying to myself and trying to protect you from feeling bad for me. I appreciate sympathy, but sometimes I just detest having friends and close ones enduring my pain. I try to keep rolling in order to protect my situation, and not sharing this with you. Now I realize I should have told you the truth, and not having you thinking that I did not want to be in your company today.                                                            

I don’t want to say sorry for what I did, and how my situation made me treat you today but I wish I had never thought of it that way.                                                                                                       

I am certainly willing to make it up for you. I have been thinking about you all day, and how to make it up for you. 

Influential Person in my life

            It is not always easy to find someone who can impact your life positively, and in a radical in nature. I sometimes find myself totally bewildered and perplexed when people ask questions, such as; “Who’s your hero? Who has influenced your life?” and many more questions that trigger how my life is changing. I was not raised by any of my parents, and so not any of them really has an influence in my life, and that certainly puts me in a situation where I do not admire a particular individual for his/her grandiosity. If I could chose one person who has influenced my life, that particular individual would have been one of my teachers from middle school, Mr. Garza. When I emigrated from Haiti to the United States, I surely thought things would have been very easy, and the word struggle would not be part of my vocabulary anymore; this how I pictured things before I moved here. But I certainly see things differently comparing to how I pictured life in the U.S.; specifically life at school.
        When I first came to the U.S. of course I struggled with the foreign language, and with adaptation but I always had teachers at my school who were there to help me with things, and many of them have talked me through things that I should do in order to learn English fast. Ms. Garza was one of the teachers who suggested that I listen to NPR (WBUR), and it was the first thing I did when I got home that same day she suggested it. Ever since that day WBUR has been part of my hobbies; I know this might sound weird, but I consider this radio station as a well-mannered and sophisticated friend due to the fact that it talks to me constantly, and provides me with accurate, and multicultural informations. Besides of intensive reading and help from many of my teachers, WBUR, which Ms. Garza has suggested me to listen to has contributed a lot to the enhancement of my English. Before I came to the United States medicine has always been the path that I wanted to strive and chose to have a career in, but after those years listening to WBUR, I come to have a penchant for journalism, and developed a passion for writing. All of these go back to Ms. Garza’s influential suggestion that I listen to NPR.
       My second year at my first school, which was the year of my graduation; at this time of the year around May, Ms. Garza approached me with this huge magazine titled Summer Stuff and I can vividly remember her actually words till today, “Guy, I found you something interesting. I think you are going to like it, it’s a summer program.” She talked me through everything, and finally said this program was a good fit for me. coming from a country where there is not that many opportunities, I could not resist not being part of Upward Bound that summer. Ms. Garza certainly introduced me to this program ever since the summer of 2008, and today I am still part of this program. Through Upward Bound I make so many friends, nationally and internationally. Lately I have been thinking of Special Education as a way to give back everything that Ms. Garza has done for me when I first came to the United States, and attended school here without knowing a word of English.
          I would really like to see her today, and thank her for everything she has done for me, and for being an influential person in my life.

I Love You, and I really do

Why it is that often the one and only person that you Love doesn't really care about you nor love you back? Some people say that it's hard, and impossible to have a click with the one that you meet for the first time. I usually rebut what some people have to say. Ever since the first time I met you I felt the rapport between you and me even though we haven't spoken a word. I know that seems kind of weird and incomprehensible but, having you as a friend would certainly complement my life. 

          I want you to love me and I need you in my life. My love for you is a thirst, and you are the one and only who can quench it. If you were to ask me why I love? My answer would probably be "everything;" not because that sounds better but because you are. I don't normally shake nor have my lips numb before any women, but your magic works on me from distance. I don't know what it is, but it does. 

           I remember the first time you hugged me, and I suddenly became feeble with the way your body grabs and seizes my little soul. Of course you left the shape of your body in my arms, and never think about how indispensable you are to me. I sometimes wish that I have never met you, not because I hate you, but due to the fact that my soul habituates to a stimulant that only you can generate. I don't really know any other ways to tell you how much I love you, nor beg for your love; but all I know is that I love you and you are the one that I think about every day ever since I laid eyes on you. Now it comes to a point where your image fully occupies my faculty of thinking. I think about you constantly, even though sometimes I try not to give in strength in order to maintain a male perception.

          I don’t really have too much to say, because just thinking about you suppresses my ability to think and expressing how I feel about you. I write every day, not because I am an excellent writer but only because it’s the easiest way for me to express how I feel about you; and how much you mean to me. I love you so much, Elle.

Teachers

" I am a student, and I have once held a math tutoring job; everything went perfectly fine but not as I predicted it. Prior to the job I ALWAYS thought teaching was one of the easiest job, but after I finished my job I certainly realized teachers are soldiers. I appreciate every single one of my teachers, and many ones who owns the title of [Teacher]."
             They impart knowledge and skills to our faculty of intelligence. And yet some of us don’t know how to show appreciation to them. It's indeed that one cannot put a price tag on education, and so does teaching. If there is a category of people who knows how to shape, and furnish young children with useful information without showing any sign of fatigue, and unwillingness; surely teachers belong to that category because of the fact that they know how to push us students, and direct us through the lightning path of success. It is true that they earn a monthly salary for “teaching;” but I think they deserve more than just a salary. A little bit of appreciation could vitalize them, and encourage them to help us more. I am certainly not a teacher and neither are many other young children, but it is understandable to know how much they work to direct us, and making sure that we students learn the skills that we need to go out in the challenging world. Their job is one of the toughest to take on, and they still manage to do it happily without any apparent dissatisfaction.
                Most of us know how difficult it is to get an acceptance to college, and for many of us a decent job might be the ultimate target. Teachers are the ones who always make sure that, us students we are organized, prepared, equipped, and ready to strive through our targeted path; and many of them certainly make sure that we are properly expectant of the obstacles that lie on the journey ahead, and with that perception they help us cultivate tactics, and strategies to resist those obstacles. These are some words that I chose on behalf of many students around the world, in order to acknowledge your hard work, dedication, and everything that you [teachers] teach us from academic to real life lessons. Your hard work makes a grandiose impact on our lives as students, and for that I, and many other students would like to express our gratitude in between these quotations; “Us student, we could not have left this day passed without wishing you a joyous Teachers’ appreciation week. We certainly think that everyday should be a day to celebrate teachers' hard work. It's indisputable how hard you [teachers] work to deliver the materials to us, and on top of that you still strive to help us during your free time. How much of a price can one put on that quality? None of us thinks that quality worth a financial value.”
              We sincerely thank you for your hard work.