Communications 11-8:00
Professor Kahn
02/14/2013
I am currently 20 years old and living in Echo Park by downtown Los Angeles. I live in a tiny little studio
with high ceilings that I can’t wait to decorate. I live here on my own most of
the time, but lately my grandmother has been staying a few nights. My immediate
family members are my mother Miralba, my stepfather Jose, and my older brother
Alvaro. I also have three other half-siblings, two of which I have only met
once. My mother helps me pay the (fortunately) cheap rent in this studio that
has utilities included in the rent, so it’s not so bad “living on my own” for
now. I was born in Glendale, California, but my mother’s family is from a small
town called Florida near Cali, Colombia. My stepfather isn’t Colombian, he’s
actually Cuban, but he’s a cool guy that grew up in the Valley, used to race
cars, and surf at the beach back in the day.
I’ve moved numerous times (about
more than 10, but less 20) throughout my life, most of them being in different
parts of the San Fernando Valley, the Mojave Desert in Palmdale, and a
short-period in the windy city of Chicago, Illinois. I guess you could say my mother was like a traveling
gypsy while I grew up! I speak a total of two and a half languages: English,
Spanish, and some Japanese. Thanks to my mother I can speak Spanish quite
fluently, but Japanese on the other hand I have to work more intensively on
regardless of the two classes I’ve already taken at SMC.
I used to be an English
Literature major before switching over to Women’s Studies and Creative Writing,
so I love reading literature, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from different
parts of the world. I’ll read, and often times enjoy, anything that isn’t commercial
writing. I’m not actually that picky, though, I just appreciate it when a
writer actually writes to write. A current favorite author would be Haruki
Murakami. I like to consider myself a creative endeavorist with a feminist
rationale, because I enjoy dabbling in creative projects with friends that
either shoot photography, film, write music and everything else possible (I’m a
sucker for the artsy stuff, I guess). I don’t subscribe to any magazines, but occasionally
purchase fashion magazines from Japanese bookstores, because their layouts
cover much more white space than western magazines do. I don’t own a televeision, have cable, or
listen to the radio, but I do have a laptop with internet access and a record
player with a growing vinyl collection. I just got hired at the library on main
campus, so when I’m not at school I’m still
at school, but just working.
Apart from school and work, I usually read, study,
spontaneously start an anime series, write prose poems and short-fiction stories,
run my internet blog, go to shows/concerts/music festivals, and enjoy the
company of close ones. A short term goal I have for myself would be improving
my health by adopting new eating habits and implementing daily exercise to keep
me going throughout the day. My medium range goal would be getting a flexible
part-time job as a mobile phlebotomist once my certification comes in the mail
to earn more income. The long term goal I am working toward is to get published
by a literary magazine or journal, to exist in print one day, and to
ultimately, self-publish my first novel. Nothing is particularly keeping me
from accomplishing these goals, they just require time, patience, and effort
that I’m putting forth.'
I’m generally an outgoing, easily
amused, and free-spirited person, so everything and anything can potentially
make me happy; I lean more toward the optimistic end of the scale. Watching a
father and his son pick out rings and skirts in a shop in Berkeley gives me joy,
but so does being with people I genuinely care for and love doing the things we
love to do. When things aren’t as golden as they should be, I usually take some
time to myself to gather my thoughts and think carefully about what needs to
change in order for me to feel better. Surprisingly, many things make me angry
or upset, but like I said, I’m an optimist and I will always believe in
alternative ways to deal with an issue that upsets me.
Social issues regarding sex, race, and class—society
in general just concerns me, mostly because I’m disillusioned by the standards
we’re practically forced to exist within. I get mad that my appearance and
sexuality are taken for granted as a default setting. I get mad that my family
doesn’t understand me and the issues I am passionate about. I get mad when
people my age act like programmed drones instead of using their minds to
transcend the social propaganda of prevailing relics. If I could do something
to make this unfortunate reality a bit better, I’d try to innovate the
education of future generations to be inclusive of a broad variety of
identities and different historical perspectives, produce new forms of media
that is easily accessible and affordable, and encourage young people to take an
introductory Women’s Studies class in college. If I had a chance to take it all
over again, I would, because that one class alone changed my whole life and I
was finally happy.
My greatest fear in the world
would be not being able to do everything I had wanted with the person I love
the most, Harriet.
I have not done much public
speaking before this class, but in my creative writing class last fall, I had
to read my stories out loud in front of my professor and classmates.
Thankfully, I became comfortable with my fellow writers, so I wasn’t as nervous
as I thought I would be. However, I hope to ease into public speaking with this
class. For the most part, I enjoy discussing literature analysis, human rights,
controversial social issues, feminism, environmental issues, and basically
everything and anything counterculture.
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