Final Essay/ My Grown up World

Dalia Gamez
December 8, 2009
Final Essay
Puente
Susie Huerta




My Grown up World



What I did and did not have
As a little kid I dreamed about being the princess in the fairytale books. Being a famous Artist where I get to sing and dance and express myself. All eyes on me. I would say that I had a “different” childhood. My mom was my eyes, I lived and breathed through her. I love her touch her kisses her caress, she worked all the time so I didn’t get much of her. When I had her around all I wanted to do is be with her. My mom was never the type who told me how to act or what to be in school. I never had that fear of “my mom’s going to kill me if I don’t get a good grade.” My motivation was always up to me. She wasn’t really involved in my schoolwork or in my activities. It’s not that she didn’t care about what I was doing but she taught me that my motivation should be genuinely moved by just me. She always educated me at a young age that whatever I want out of this life I have to do it on my own, because no one will want it the way that I will. If dancing was really my passion I would decide to stay in an after school program, my support and motivation was me. I ask myself why I didn’t end up becoming lazy or unmotivated to do anything without the fear of mother. It’s odd to me as a young adult…
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”
-Winston Churchill
It really changed my view when I started high school. By then, my older sister had graduated and decided not to go to college. Like I said earlier, I was my own support because everyone in the house pretty much did their own thing. No one was really inspiring me or pushing me to pursue something. Again it was my choice, always. I decided that I wanted to earn some money so I wanted to start working at the age of fourteen. I begged my mother to please let me work because I was bored at home. She finally accepted my proposal and I started working part time. Then I really wanted to try out for my high school dance team and I made it in. I would come home around seven and see my older sister at home. She was either watching television, talking on the phone, napping, or eating. I would come home really tired from practice and with a ton of homework. Sometimes I would be mad at the fact that I had so much to do and my sister had it so “easy.” Day after day senior year I’d see that repetition, that life that my sister was living and I didn’t like it. What a boring life… I live on the go and she was moving slower than a snail. I thought to myself I don’t want to become that person, I don’t want life to be that easy, I need a challenge. My mom had a decent job where she got paid well and didn’t need to slave herself to hard work. She did on the other hand spent a lot of hours at her job, but it wasn’t dreadful. My mother worked herself up from nothing to having everything that she wanted now and that’s the best lesson my mom could have taught me without words. Having two different kinds of role models shaped me into the young lady that I am today. With my mother working so hard to be the best that she can and my older sister having life so “easy” I had the best of both worlds. Now I just have to create mine.
Inequality
As I get older I start to see the world in different eyes. That saying that people always say, is actually true…. “Life’s not fair.” I started thinking about that when my best friend first got her license and started driving to school. Before that we used to take the bus every morning. Having extra sleeping time was the best; a car is so much handier. In the street I would see my raza, men as old as my dad’s age riding the bike in the morning, most likely to get to work. Here I am in a warm comfortable car getting to places quicker than my raza; men or women who need it more than my friend or I do. When I go on vacations and stay at hotels I see women and men as old as my grandparents cleaning dirty rooms to get paid minimum wage. Here I am in a job where I sit in a call center and answer phones. I do work hard but not nearly as much physical work as other people do. I think to myself I can’t let unfairness catch me. I have to work hard so that I don’t let those hands grasp me and pull me back so that I stay behind. The world of unfairness can’t catch me if I don’t let it. I hope that when I get older I don’t have to regret anything in my life that I didn’t get to do. Not taking advantage of all the opportunities were given, sometimes once in our life is very unfair to me. Our society also works in many unfair ways. Since anyone can remember men are viewed superior than a women. Even today in surveys and statistics men get paid on average higher than women do. It’s so unfair how women have to fight in order to be “equal to men” and men don’t worry about defending themselves at all. Our society is so fixed on one perspective in life that it’s hard to go out of that “traditional bubble.” Men are the providers and the women are the housewives.
“If you had a husband, I would give him your money but since you haven’t got a husband I can’t give you any more money that I’ve already given you.”
-Victor Villasenor
It’s hard to defend ourselves as women but sometimes we do have the advantage in other aspects. We’ve learned how to fight it with our master minds. That’s what keeps us going, that’s what makes us stronger.
Only one life
No one knows what will be the last day that we live on this earth. I want to live life to the fullest. I want the best life possible for myself. I believe in people “getting lucky” in life but I can’t just rely on that. I know education will provide that for me and lead me to where I’m supposed to do during my existence. My purpose here on this earth. Going to college opens up so many doors for me. New people to meet, new subjects to learn about. It’s a whole new life and world to experience out there. I think to myself what would I be doing if I weren’t in school? Working a full time job? Going out all the time with my friends? To gain what at the end? Being in school doesn’t only open new horizons for me but it also keeps me busy and motivated to know that I’m working towards a goal. I know I might be missing out on some experiences now, but I know that if I sacrifice at least six or seven years of my life, I will be successful in the future and I’ll enjoy what I have made on my own. I’m very curious about my future. I know I’ll make mistakes along the way and I’m not perfect so I won’t do everything just right, but it’s better to have done and failed than never have tried.
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow”
-Unknown
We humans have the power to choose our paths, struggles, and how happy we want to be or become. My time starts now, and I’m ready. Bring it on world.

Rain of Gold Last Summary/ Turned it in on time reminding you Susie

Dona Margarita was desperate to find her son Domingo and she was positive she was going to find him. She wrote multiple letters to him daily and to the whole neighborhood because she figured that someone had to know Domingo and the word would eventually get out. She went to church to demand to the Virgin Mary that she should do her part and talk to God and Jesus to get Domingo back safe to her. While talking to The Virgin she also meets a new priest whose name is Ryan and thinks that she’s weird. Switching it to Lupe, her sisters and herself are in the fields digging out dry apricots and its really hot and tough working sun up to sun down. She gets really sick because her body can’t take the hard labor and Carlota thinks it’s all an act. While hallucinating she thought of Salvador and his dream of getting rich and she liked it. After a few days she gets better and goes back to work, Salvador shows up with flowers and wants to take her for a drive on the moon in the fields. She was a little surprised but excited so she starts driving all over the place. When they go back to the house Isabel asked if they were going to get married and Lupe was really embarrassed. Salvador stayed for dinner and when he went to the car to leave they had their first kiss and they both loved it. He is really happy and goes home to tell his mom all about his day with Lupe. Dona Margarita say’s he has to act quick and her hook her before it’s too late. The rumors started piling up, saying that Salvador was a bootlegger. Salvador was really excited and started looking for wedding rings he thought of going to a whorehouse and seeing if those girls had any pretty rings he could buy for Lupe. He was so happy that he ended up sleeping with them. Dona Margarita talks to her husband’s enemy to get information about Domingo because that’s what Virgin Mary advised her. She made Don Ernesto get cool with her and that led her to finding Domingo. Domingo returns home with his new girlfriend Nellie and she’s pregnant. At dinner they finally start talking about why Domingo left and what happened of their father and Salvador gets into an argument with Domingo and he hit him. They both resent each other very much. Mark goes and visits Lupe upset and asking her what happened after being so close to him proposing. Lupe tells him it’s another guy and he gets really upset. Salvador asks Lupe hand in marriage with the priest the family finally says yes and Dona Guadalupe gives Salvador a white flower from back en La Lluvia to take care and nurture just as he would with Lupe. Some cop that doesn’t like Mexicans found out about the bootlegging Domingo and Juan had been doing, they destroy the business and beat them. Don Victor finds out Salvador is a bootlegger but he doesn’t cared because he heard he is a macho de Corazon. They get everything ready and they get married. They are very happy and made for one another.

Three Questions:

1. What is the risk of going against family traditions?

2. What can Salvador do to help make leaders of his people?

3. What is the price to pay for being a women?

Critical Thinking, News item

Recently a week ago I was sitting down eating breakfast when a breaking story came on t.v. A high school girl had gone to her homecoming dance and that night changed her life forever. Apparently she was in her dance and her friend suggested they would go outside and hang out with some guys. They started drinking and ended up getting really drunk. They said in the news that she was raped by about ten teenagers while she was unconscious. While the girl was being raped (identity withheld) the other men where taking pictures and recording video of the whole incident. The cops arrived too late and she was put in the hospital in emergency. She is stable but she was furiously beat and raped by several men. At the time she might have that it was cool to go outside and start drinking with a bunch of boys. The reality was that its dangerous to drink period and more so with a crowd of ten men who will most likely not take care of a young girl intoxicated. I'm sure the girl had no idea that leaving her dance and drinking would create this amount of chaos in her life. The sad reality though is that young teens are at risk of many things and we should never put ourselves in a dangerous position.

Self Evaluation

I wasn't very satisfied with the grade that I recieved. I feel that I work hard in everything that I do so I expect to get a good grade. I do know that I need more help in my writting, and thats probably what got me the grade that I recieved.From the responses that I recieved I feel that I paraphrase well but I don't organize my thoughts well in the summary. I still have the problem of writting the way that I speak and I need to change that. For the next assignment I'm going to meet with Susie so that she explains in greater depth the areas that I'm having trouble in. I want her to help me and break down my writting. The comments were really good and and I see where I'm messing up.

Most Valuable Technique Ch. 8

Chapter eight talks about the three different R's that can help a student retain information. I think if we apply those three R's to our studying habits, no matter what the subject is in school, it can help a lot. A method that helps me a lot to remember information I'm learning would be talking about it with another person or relating it to myself. Talking about it with another person helps me retain information better because I put it in a format of a conversation or little story. Words I might say later remind me of what the conversation was all about. When I relate information to me, its easier to keep it in my brain because its natural for me to remember because it has to do with me. Everyone is interested in themselves one way or another so its easy to remember. I also have a tendency of cramming a lot of information into one day because I have "homework days" where I get all my work done. In those days I get a lot done so its only natural for me to cram a lot of information at once. That's is a tendency I have to try and stop, and hopefully find another method that is more helpful and convenient for my learning.

Discussing Main Point and Meaning Blog

1. The survey that Libby conducted with college students didn't necessarily reveal that the word "Feminist" was a dirty bad word, but it did reveal that most people had a negative outlook on the word. Others didn't really care about the subject or the meaning. I know this because in her essay she tells us what the results of her survey came up as.

2. Libby says that most people don't identify themselves as feminists because "feminists" are viewed as "man haters" in most movies and the media. That definitely is viewed as negative to a lot of the public.

3. Libby thinks most people should identify themselves as feminists because feminists means simply the right to a choice, for both men and women.

Puente Conference

My thoughts weren't all that exciting going to the Puente Conference this Saturday. When we finally went inside the room and I saw so many Puente classes and everyone seemed to have a lot of energy and pride in their school. I started getting pumped up as well as all my friends did. We had a good breakfast and I enjoyed meeting new people and recieving tips on college information thats very valuable right now. I would say that the workshops were also informative and the people were really nice. During the tour we got familiar with the campus in general. I learned that psychology was one of the top majors in Sacramento State, it was really interesting to me considering that I want to major n psychology. Everyone was really nice and accomadating. I also felt that during this field trip I bonded way more with my Puente class. I talked to more of my classmates and we all shared the same experience that afternoon. I wish we could of stayed for the performances but I did understand that it would of cost a lot more to stay an extra hour. I was just happy with the simple fact that we all got to bond more, even though we all had to show up so early. Videotaping the afternoon too was very smart of you Voltaire because those are the memories we can see and share later. Thank you Voltaire and Susie for taking us to the conference I had a lot of fun and I hope we do a lot more trips like these so that we bond a lot more.