A Piece of My Puzzle

"The things we did, the things we said, keep coming back to me and make me smile again." Senior sing, an event which at first seemed like a nuisance, but after over a month of it, I feel like this is one of the last times I will get to be with my class. It just hit me that I will be graduating in ten days, and I am full of mixed emotions. The good ones are of the fun times, yet the bad ones are because I am leaving a place that I have grown up in since I was a 4th grader. So after Senior Sing, I decided to take the long route up to my car and just look around the campus. I hope to do this again with people I know, but today I went by myself. I walked at a very slow pace and snaked around the lily pond and chapel, then by my Winnie Units classroom, then through Barwick playground where I used to climb the tree which at the time seemed like a giant hanging over me. I walked past spots that brought back fond memories, like the window that I had to help pay for after I broke it playing handball with this year's quarterback and others in the 5th grade. I also walked around the "sacred shaka" which I have yet to step on since the first day of school when someone said that you got a (my school name) curse if you stepped on it. I want to continue writing, but the more I think about the reality of graduating, the more it hits me. This post ties the knot on my Composition class because I really feel (my school name) has made the biggest impact on my life, and has definitely been the guiding factor in who I am today.

What Will Define Him at 21?

Just the other day while doing hours of community service at Jefferson Head Start, even though it is almost my last day, I heard some startling news that confused me a lot. One of the kids whose name is (can't say it) is moving to Pakistan for who knows what reason. He was born in San Francisco and his family moved to Hawaii a couple years ago before his birth. He is currently 4 years old. These are the golden years of his life where everything is fun, but he will probably never remember them. I have no idea what type of person I was, or what I did with my life before the age of 5. I guess as you get older, your younger years and the memories you accumulated over the years start to diminish. So this kid is always happy, and I enjoy his company, and he enjoys mine. He will probably not even remember me when he is like the age of 10, but I will remember him and all of the other kids at the head start program. The reason I brought up this issue is for one just the fact that it doesn't make much sense to move to a war torn country especially at this time. The family doesn't seem to have a purpose for their actions, so I don't know why they would want to jeopardize their kids lives by immersing them in a completely different culture and style of living. Pakistan is a 3rd world country and moving from Hawaii, one of the best states when it comes to tourism, to Pakistan just doesn't seem right for him. Them main reason why I wanted to comment on this was that the boy will probably define himself by the way he grows up in Pakistan rather than Hawaii. I have lived in Hawaii all of my life so I feel I have been influenced in the way I was raised to live and act a certain way. If I had moved at the age of 5 to Japan for instance, I would probably know life and all I had the way I was taught in Japan. I just want to know what he will call home when he is at the age of 21. Will he call the U.S. his home and that he is a foreigner in Pakistan, or will Pakistan be his place of origin, and his past experiences of Hawaii be lost?

Please learn how to drive...or get off the road.

Ever since I started driving with my mother in getting my permit, I found myself to be the most cautious driver in the world. I would take my time and always let people change lanes, etc. Even to this day after driving for around 16 months, I find myself to drive carefully yet efficiently. Even with this layed back, safe driving, I find myself to be constantly agitated by drivers who don't signal. I have come into some near to collision crashes, mostly because other people infringed on my lane, and I refused to give in. Most times its cause I am in their blind spot and they decide not to look when changing lanes. It bugs the heck out of me when people don't signal because its a pure matter of being considerate to others. Is it not something to get mad about? Should I just shake it off every time and accept drivers for being idiots? Anyway, I find most of the people on the road who drive poorly to be women. I used to hear jokes about women in general being horrible drivers, but quickly brushed away this stereotype and figured out I would see for myself. Being out on the road for this long, whenever I see something that annoys me, I check to see who is driving. Most of the time, it is a woman, I know that most women are good drivers, and there are also a lot of bad male drivers, yet it bugs me that the stereotype is sort of true. Anyway, I should stop ranting, mainly because this could get ugly and I don't want to offend anyone out there, even though I probably have.

Murderball

I watched a snip it of this movie back when it came out and I thought, this looked ridiculous, I never even knew that they were actually quadriplegics. I thought it was a group of guys from jackass that played a made up sport in wheelchairs, mocking and making fun of them. I chose not to keep watching the movie because I thought it would get down on the handicapped, therefore I stopped watching immediately. When we were told at the beginning of class that we were watching "Murderball," I thought that it would be a mockery and not even worth my time. I realized that this movie was in an informal manner mixed with interviews and short clips. I found myself immediately attached to this movie because the people in the wheelchairs were actually handicapped for life, and I felt sorry for them. When I picture a handicapped person, I think that they probably can't even help themselves, and are weak. Breaking away from the stereotype, the men in this movie showed that they were not going to give up on life after being paralyzed. I looked up to the men in the movie because despite there disability, they appeared to have great lives and did everything any walking person could do. I felt quite sympathetic for the men in the movie, as well as gained a deeper respect for the handicapped. This movie worked through their struggles and how they persevered through the workouts. They are normal human beings like anyone else, and should be treated that way. I hate it when people discriminate against other races because they feel that they are incapable of performing certain tasks. I saw the men in this movie as normal, or on an even higher level, seeing the pain they had to endure each day.

You Oh Pee

I've finally decided what college I am going to next year, and I know the school is good for pharmacy and physical therapy, but I am a little worried about the surrounding atmosphere. Basically from the many people I have heard from, UOP is in the middle of nowhere in Stockton, California. I am hoping that there is enough to do on weekends that I will not be stuck in my dorm room studying 24/7. I never actually visited the campus, which college counselors advised before picking the right college. I am soley basing my decision on a bunch of souped up pictures which the university took for recruitment purposes. I am sure not all colleges are actually portrayed in ways that show their campus exactly. During college guidance last year, they said that the pamphlets that the various colleges send out always have an African American, an Asian, a white girl, and some other races. This makes every race feel that they will be accepted in their new college. Hopefully the campus will actually have this type of student interaction as well as a beautiful campus as portrayed in the brochures. I have no idea what to expect, and just need to keep my eyes peeled and mind open to new and different opportunities.

Head wig

In Identity and Culture class we watched a movie called "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" which was as musical movie about a transvestite who made it big singing, and took on a different identity so that he could marry this other guy. I find the concept of what to call Hedwig to be veryh confusing because he was born as a man, but through operations he basically became a woman, yet he is still a man. I don't want to call Hedwig an "it" because that sounds so derogatory and mean. It was his choice to make the switch and I don't have a problem with that. The actual character of Hedwig in the movie was played by a man, but his lover was played by a woman. The kissing scene seemed a bit awkward in the movie because it was two guys but in actuality it was a man and a woman. So what made the scene weird? the hair? the makeup? Anyway, I am quite confused as to what to think about this movie, because the theme was so different, but I found the movie to be quite humorous at times, and the singing was really good. Did the wig and the mustache make the woman who played his lover manly therefore making the scenario weird? I just felt really confused after watching this movie.

Graduation...

I've realized that I always want what you don't have, and that I have never really appreciated what I have at the moment. Back in freshman year I was thinking that school was going by really slowly and that each day was a chore. After each semester went by, I figured out in my head the fraction of highschool I had left. ex. 7/8, 3/4, etc. This process went of for two years until I finally reached the halfway point, and felt a sense of completion. Only in the end of junior year did reality hit me that I would only have a summer and one more year before I graduated from high school. Back in freshman year I wanted to be a high and mighty senior and get out of the house and go to college. Now in the present day, I am a high and mighty (not really) senior who has less than two weeks of high school. I would love the chance to go back to freshman year and start the process all over again because I am more knowledgeable and willing to take more chances. Actually I feel high school started to be fun during junior year because we were given more opportunities such as going off campus without getting demerits, and the senior dining room. If I would give one phrase of knowledge to the freshman, it would be, "Enjoy your time in highschool because it really goes by fast." I remember seniors during the time that I was a freshman told me this and I thought nothing of it. I wish I had accepted this knowledge for what it was and enjoyed every day of school.