Experience of a Lifetime

(written May 14, 2010)

Hello my friends,

It’s Friday, and I’m done with the day. These weeks are passing so by fast, and even the weeks feel like days to me.  It’s almost the end of the year, and I’m very excited. Today, the weather was so nice, and it was just like a perfect day as my friend Mauricio would say. These days are so nice like to do many things outside; such as taking a walk, going out to the parks, going out with friends and having so much fun. But, unfortunately we have to measure our times wisely, and put first things first. Sometimes we have to say no to things and doing what’s most important, even if we don’t like it. For example, today I had to say no to my performance with my church band. This is really important for me, but since I have too many midterms next week, I had to say no for this time only. But well, I need to get ready for those midterms so can do well on them.

Today, many things happened to me. One of those things was that I realized that there is too much stress going on around campus. I’ve seen people who look stressed, tired etc.  I imagine that it’s because of midterms, projects, work, having a lot of things to do etc.  Especially, today when I went downstairs of my hall I found a friend of mine and I started to talk to her. I asked her about how things were going, and she said “good”, like all people would say. As I engaged more with the conversation I realized that she was stressed and she had many things to do, and big projects to get done. She even told me about how bad she felt from her last midterms which one of them she failed. In addition, she even had to drop out her math class for some reason. She says that she even cried for what she was going through. She looked sad, but I told her not worry too much and start to do what need to do.  I felt sorry for her, and I even imagine all the stress that she went through because I’ve being there too many times. I even thought that I was the only one who was too stressed, but I wasn’t the only one.

That’s why I say that here around campus there is a lot of stress going on. You know, I think that’s the true reality about studying here at college, “nothing will be easy”, but in some way we have to resist and keep moving forward, and the result will be even better. Therefore, we need patience, hard work and dedication on everything that we do.

We always will be learning new things as we go through life, and now I learning how different is to live away from home, and have to take care of myself by my own. I’m learning to put myself in other people shoes, and understanding them better. Sometimes I ask myself about “why, why do we have to go through hard stuff, in order to accomplish something.” Even though I haven’t live enough but I realized that the answer to this is that the hard stuff makes you wise every day, and we learn from our mistakes, and as a result it makes us stronger as a person. So my message today for everyone is to never give up and keep going. Remember that “your greatest weakness becomes your greatest strength.” In addition, Like Rocky Balboa says, “it doesn’t matter how hard you can hit, what matters is how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward.” So, I motivate everyone who is reading this blog to keep working hard and do the best you can on your classes. Good luck!

Roberto

Hey everyone,

I imagine everyone is having hard days, and that reasonable because midterms and exams are coming up. I can only imagine the stress that students can be going through.  I say that because right now I’m facing stress.  I feel very overwhelmed for I have many things to get done. But nothing is easy in this college life; the harder the obstacle is, the greater the accomplishment will be.

Anyways, leaving all these preoccupations aside, I want to tell you about the great weekend I had, and all of the fun things I did. First on Saturday, I had the privilege to play with my band at the”festivalito” event. Me and a group of CAMP students played at this event, and some of the members of the band were Samuel Aguirre, Agustin, and Kennedy, etc. I played the keyboard; Samuel played the drums, Kennedy the electric guitar and Agustin the Electro acoustic. In addition, the day was very nice, and it couldn’t be a better day to be outside having a good time. We in the band played some Mexican songs, and little bit or rock and jazz music.  We played for about an hour, and after that we got Mexican food which was the best part of this event.  After we were done playing, the next number was an Aztec dance which was a tradition from the Aztecs and there were little kids, and adult dress with very traditional clothes which represented that beautiful culture, and they danced for about an hour or so. It was so amazing.  Attending this event was such a great experience, and it was just a perfect day to relax and learn about my culture.

After the “Festivalito” event I and the band went to return the instruments at home. First we went to Luis’s house, a friend from church, and we gave him back his brother’s drums because he let it borrow to us. Then, I don’t know how come, but we decide to stay there and just jam for a little. That was the best part of the day. We took out my favorite song, “breathe into me” by RED, and that was so amazing because I never imagined that we could take that song out, but we did. We played that song 4 or 5 times and we enjoyed jamming. Crazy but fun!

Next day on Sunday, I had the opportunity to play at church and celebrate Mother’s day.  The youth group organized a special event for the mothers, and that included a play about the how God created the woman, little kids read a poem while I played a lullaby song on the piano, me a two girls sang a special song of the mothers, and I played the keyboard and sing at the same time.

I had a lot of fun, and most importantly enjoy celebrating our moms and letting know how important they are and will be to us, and that we really care about them. That same day I called my mom and my grandma and I told them how much I loved them, and they were just really happy. I think it’s very important to tell our moms how important they are to us because they took care of us when we were little kids, and so they deserve to be loved.

This weekend wasn’t just about having fun but also about having the opportunity to learn something. Each day will be a new day with new things to learn.  Well, one last thing, I just want to motivate all the OSU students–Don’t give up this term which is almost over, it will be fine. Good luck on midterms and finals.

Sincerely,

Roberto

Hello Everyone,

Spring term has being the hardest term in my first year of college.  I think it’s a good thing because that means that I’m working hard and trying new things and improving myself more. I can’t believe spring term is almost over, it feels like yesterday I just started school, and now I’m almost finishing my first year of college. Time is passing by so fast that I haven’t realized.  I’m very excited to finish this year, and start a new one. Also, I’m happy because a friend of mine who is also a student at OSU, he is graduating this year with bachelor’s degree in Civil engineer. He plays the acoustic guitar at church and I play the keyboard. He is a good friend and I’m happy for him, that in few months he will be officially an engineer. I admire him, and I want to graduate too and be an example for my little brothers like him. Me and my friends from my youth band, we will celebrate a party for Mauricio, the guy who is graduating, and celebrate the Mauricio achievements. There will be a lot of things going on, and I’m excited. But now I need to think about my classes and my goals for this spring term. I want to use my time wisely and finish my priorities at school this term. This week is going to be hard for me because I have three midterms, one from chemistry, math and sociology and that means that I need to study a lot for those exams. But I’m sure that I’ll be fine because so far I have got behind in my classes. It is time to work hard, and not procrastinate, and give my best. Like I said I have a lot of studying going on, and I wish everyone a good week. I know everyone is very busy especially because of the midterms, but don’t worry too much, get relax because it all will be fine.

Roberto

(Below is a picture of my church band.  I am on the bottom right.)

Finals week

Hello everyone, I imagine all of you are having their finals this
week. I being trying to study and getting ready for my Finals. I have
two Finals this week, one from Math, and the other one from Chemistry.
After we are done with this week, we are having spring break. That’s a
great thing because I really needed. At last I’m going back to
Hillsboro, and visit my family. I really miss them, especially my
little brother Uriel who is just 8 years old. I used to call him “my
little hommie.”  He likes to play soccer a lot, and now that I’m coming
back we are going to play soccer together. Also, I’m excited because
I’m going to practice with my church band from Hillsboro. We have many
songs undone since I left, and now we are going to finish them.
Last Friday, I did my first blood drive donation at the CAMP blood
drive held by the CAMP program. I remember I was really scared,
especially of the needle. I thought that it was going to hurt a lot,
but it wasn’t. It didn’t hurt at all, and after I donate I didn’t feel
tired or something, instead I felt really normal. Unfortunately, a
couple hours after I started to feel little bit tired, and hungry. The
best thing about the blood drive is that I realized that I did it for
a good cause, for I saved three lives. That same day I went to a church
prayer that started from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am in the morning. I played
the piano that day at the church. I thought that I wasn’t going to be
able to stay the all activity since I donate blood and I felt really
tired, but actually I did stay for all the activity and I really enjoyed it.
The next day on Saturday, I had a practice with the church band here
at Corvallis, and we practice the songs that we are going to play next
Friday in our first youth service at Church, and we hope that a lot of
youth people come to church. I’m really excited about that.
Today is Monday, and I barely woke up. I’m going to
continue studying for those finals and do well on them. I wish
everyone a good luck on their finals, and remember get a good sleep. I
hope all of you have a nice spring break.

Roberto

I had a pretty busy week this time. I had two midterms already, one from chemistry and the other one from Math. I feel like I did well on those midterms, hopefully. You know sometimes we feel like we did 100% well on the exams, and at the end we get lower compared to what we expected. Like I said, I had a pretty busy weekend but it was good because I can say that really did something and not just being bored doing anything.

I want to talk about my experience at the Soul Food Café. My experience can be described in only one word, and that is amazing.  I went to the Soul food Café event after my CAMP class which ended at 6:00 pm. When I got out from the class, I was rushing to get the McNary dining. I was really tired and hungry that day, and I just wanted to get there to grab some food to eat. When I got there I was really surprised. As I was getting inside McNary I got the sense that that environment was so moving. I wanted to walk all around and see what was going on. I heard good music going on, people were walking around, and other people were eating, laughing and having a good time.  As I was getting in, I realized that a jazz band was playing live, and that got even more excited. I got really keyed up when I heard the keyboard solo as the band was playing. You know I love to play the piano, and seeing someone who plays the keyboard made feel really energized. That was one of my favorite parts of such event. Also, the food was great, and I loved those pieces of the meat, and the fried bananas. Many people were walking around McNary, and the environment was perfect as for someone who just wanted to have a good time, and forget about the stress from our classes, midterms, and just to have a good time, and get relaxed.

Roberto

I had a busy week this time, and even overwhelming. But I think it’s good because that means that I’m working and maintaining myself busy.

I had my first midterm on Monday for my chemistry class. The test was pretty intense but I felt confident doing the test.

Even though I felt confident about that test, when the result came out, they were different than my expectations. Because of that I was questioning myself of why did that happen? I felt ready for that test, and I felt that I did well. But it turns out to be the opposite.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a really bad grade but I was expecting a higher grade. When I was eating lunch at McNary dining with a friend of mine she was talking to me about how she was facing the same problem as me.

She got a poor grade on her midterm even though she wasn’t expecting it.  She studied a lot, and at the end it happen all the opposite. In my opinion, it happens, and sometimes the things aren’t always the way we expected; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.

But I think the key is to never stop trying, and that what will help us to prevail here at College.

I remember every time went to bed, I was exhausted, and the good thing was that my bed in Callahan was soft and comfortable to sleep.

That’s the good thing about living in dorms.  I like my room, and I think it’s a good option to live in dorms.

Also, during this week I had to write my first paper which was very frustrating  because I didn’t know how to start my paper, and I was confused. When I realize that I didn’t know what to write about I just start to watch some episodes of Dragon ball GT, my favorite cartoon, on YouTube. That might sound funny but I got kind of relaxed after watching  that program and I then I felt less frustrated when writing my paper.  That’s my way to get relaxed, and everyone has their own ways too.

Its been a tired week like all of them because I have to do my homework, take care of my internship and try to stay on top of everything.   This coming Monday I’m having my first midterm for my chemistry class, and so I have to study a lot, and get ready for that test.  It’s my second term here at Oregon State University as a freshman student, and it has been two weeks since I just started my Winter term. Unfortunately, I didn’t begin the term the way I was expecting; however, I would say that I’ve learned my lesson. I think that even  though everybody makes mistakes; the good thing about it is that we can learn from them. I started to get behind on my math class for I did my math homework on the same day it was due. I didn’t have enough time to do it, and today I got the results which were not that satisfying. I think it happens, and I have to learn from this lesson.

These days, I’m starting to catch up on my homework. This experience totally woke me up and I will try not to procrastinate.

Now that I have a time to think about why I chose to live on campus, I would say that one of those reasons were because I wanted to live in place close to my classes so wouldn’t have to travel that much to get to my classrooms. Back when I lived in Hillsboro, I remember when my older brother Gregorio who goes to Portland Community college in Portland, traveled for about half an hour to get to school.

Traveling took a very huge part of his time. I saw how he struggled to woke up early in the morning to go to school and I realized that the best way to save time was by living on campus.

The first time I move to Corvallis, which was about 6 months ago, I remember I felt nervous, scared and excited at the same time. I didn’t know almost anybody, except my friends from the CAMP program.

Every place I went, I saw orange colors all around, and I realized that Oregon State colors were very popular. Also, I felt so keyed up to begin a new stage of my life, and knowing that I was going to meet a lot of people and take very hard classes. Today I can say that I was right, because in the Hall where I live which is Cahalan Hall, I have met a lot of nice people and especially my floor.  When my parents came to visit me during the second month after I moved, they were so surprised that almost everyone in my floor knew me. Even my mom told, ?Ya te volviste bien famoso?, ?You have become very famous?  Hearing that made me started to laugh, and I was happy to realize that I wasn’t a stranger here at OSU anymore.

I totally like the dining Halls, and my favorite place to eat is McNary Dining because the food there is good and above all, it is right in front of Callahan. That means that don’t have to walk very far to go to eat, because the food is right in front of me. As well, inside McNary I love to go to eat to the Boardwalk place, and my favorite food is Chinese food, especially Teriyaki beef with brown rice.   I love that plate and it makes me happy after eating it for like my grandpa says, “pansa llena, corazon contento”– “stomach full is a contented heart.”  One final thing, have you realized that the time is passing by so fast? The answer is yes, and we can’t waste our time doing nothing. That’s why my goals for this term are to stay on top of homework, and  enjoy life here at college in every way I can, like going to church, and get involved in school and do all the things that will shape my life.