Comment Win of the Day VI

All of this is true of San Bernardino as well.

Grades Fall 2010

It was a hard semester, but I did it in the end.

Tribute to my Scooter

Back in the good old days, my mom used to travel a lot for her job and earned rewards (thus allowing us to take a vacation in New Mexico almost for free). One of the airlines gave her points, and she was able to pick from a catalog of stuff. My brother had received a scooter from my dad the year before (2001) when they were just starting to become popular. I always wanted to use it, but he was a stingy little brother. My mom then used her points to get him for Christmas a new blue Razor with a kick bar from Sharper Image (i.e. it had their logo on and that was it). He ended up getting a goped, which was a motorized scooter. He traded a part for it for my ownership of his new scooter. The blue Razor became mine after that. I used it extensively when I was 15 through 17 (to get to Jon's house and to get to Wyatt's so we could walk to school together). It got so beat up and scratched from me.

Flash forward to when I am 24 and going to UCR. I noticed many people using scooters and bikes to get around our sprawling campus so I decided to use my Razor in the summer to get from the engineering building to my anthro class since the passing period was only 10 minutes (talking about a half mile walk here and the still slightly sprained knee along with the desire to not rush). Then I realized just how well this thing had served me. It saw me through high school and watched as I gave it up for my car. It was left in the garage alone to sit there, waiting for the day I would once again pick it up. I used my bike on more occasions that I used it. That is, until university.

Sure, the foam handlegrips are falling off, and the plastic end caps for the handles are also falling out, tethered only by the old elastic bands. It has more scratches than I can account for, but it is still mine. I find it funny how, as a teenager, it brought me closer to my best friends of the time. Now it brings me closer to my goals (and yes, makes less sweaty and hurried walking between classes). I never took the time to appreciate it so this blog is kind of dedicated to that fact.

Viva la scooter.

"In my heart..."

...there's no doubt of who I want to be."

A few blogs posts ago I talked about my feelings on finally going to UCR. What I failed to articulate was how different this was for me so I will try and rectify that with this entry.

The school system I went through was set up like this:

K-5 is elementary
6-8 is middle school/junior high
9-12 is high school

For me, 6th grade and 9th grade were pivotal years. What I mean is that these were years when I had to do a lot of adjusting as a child and teenager. I repeated the same pattern by not doing my course work and not getting the grades I should have been getting. I was capable, but something made me stray. That same thing made me f'up my first year in community college. This is why I know I could not have handled uni right away (among other things...I am so grateful to community college and my wonderful professors).

But when I transferred to UCR, even under a major that was not my first pick, it was my choice. I did this. I wanted this. I earned this. And guess what? My first quarter I got a 3.67 GPA and made honor roll. I am so enthusiastic about graduating and grad school and teaching that now it is part of who I am more so than anything else has been (at least in public).

Life may not be what I imagined it would at this age, but life rarely works out the way you plan. You learn to adjust, and you take things as they come. It makes you who you are. I mostly like who I am with the occasional discouraging reminder of what I am not happy about at that moment, but I am getting there through the rough spots. And I am learning along the way.

Things to do instead of...your anthro short paper

1. Go the store where you work on a day off and shop

2. Watch TV and half read your education textbook

3. Browse Cracked.com

4. Check Facebook

5. Play with your bokken in the backyard

6. Play with your plastic sword in the backyard

7. Ride your old Razor scooter

8. Write a blog of things you did instead of homework

Success!

Connections

The part circled in red is something we just started talking about in visual anthro. The website I found it on is one I was looking at for my archaeological interpretations class.

Classes Winter 2010