Nov
08

Best weekend of my life :)

I have been going through a lot of changes in my life during the last year. As most of you know I got divorced, which was a process that made me learn tons about myself. I also realized that I had not dealt with a lot of pain in my life but rather pushed it under the rug. I have also started blogging which has really changed my life in the sense that now I have an extra outlet for my emotions. Many of the posts here might not seem personal but they are little snippets of my thoughts and feelings. A lot of the quotes I have examined have been directly related to situations in my life.

Recently I posted about new beginnings. Well, I was talking about a lot of stuff inside me but I steered the conversation towards election when in reality I had been talking about someone that I had just reconnected with and had sparked something in my hearth that I thought was not there anymore.

Since I started this blog I have never posted about my significant other, but now I have a reason to. She wants me to be outspoken about how we feel about each other. And even though I will not reveal who she is and specific stuff about her until she establishes her own comfort level with this crazy blog thing I want to say that I am in love. A different kind of love from when I had before, a love that is being shown back to me in the same intensity I want to feel for the other person. I am looking forward to spending more and more time with my new life. I wanted to share with everyone the happiness I feel while we start a new chapter in my life. I never knew why I liked sky pictures so much but now that I found my sky I understand :)

Nov
05

Teachers in our society

My first post about culture had to do with education. One of the most important topics I think needs to be discussed in a society is education. Teachers in our society do not hold the place that they should, they should be one of the most respected better paid jobs in our society but they are not.

I had the chance to grow up in a different country and actually be in their educational system. I pointed some of the differences in a past article if you care to read. In Colombia teachers have a lot more respect than they do here in the United States, but they are still underpaid and not as taken care of as they should be.

To me teachers are the fundamental pillars of our society; they shape what becomes of the future by educating our children. The teachers that we have encountered in our lives have already shaped who we are. Our society sometimes really ignores that little fact about teachers. Our kids spend most of their forming years with teachers and not the parents, especially if both parents work and are not able to dedicate time to their children education. They shape their minds and we need to be thankful for that. Also we need to be involved and make sure that our kids are getting everything they need to become productive members of society.

One of the sayings that really irritates me is; “Those that cannot do, teach.” Or the other variation of it, “Coach.” It really bothers me that in a society like ours there is not a more respectful way to look at teachers. I am not saying this is the norm, but that a saying like this one even exists shows the lack of respect for the profession.

The last thing that I will mention on my list of things that I think are unfair towards teachers is their salary. For the most part in the public school systems teachers are paid so little that someone with the aptitude to be a teacher might not become one just because they desire a higher standard of living. This could also be a positive because I guess a lot of the people that do teach do it because it is their vocation and not a goldmine.

Still I think that teachers need to be more appreciated, respected and remunerated in our society. I know many of my teachers made a positive impact in my life making me the person that I am now. My love for reading, my almost legible handwriting, and my appreciation of classical music are just some examples that can all be attributed to great teachers that left a mark in my hearth beyond just the subject they were teaching. I would like to thank them for all their efforts.

Nov
04

READ Buddy

This past Monday I attended the first session of my READ buddy program. The READ buddy is a volunteer initiative that helps children in the first and second grade practice reading. It is supposed to encourage reading for fun and not just for school. Read more…

Nov
03

New beginings

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings. ”
-Dave Weinbaum
Read more…

Nov
02

First time voting!

Well I have done my duty as a citizen of this country. I accomplished the most important thing I wanted to do this year. Become a citizen and then vote. I have never voted before, I became an adult here so I did not vote in Colombia, and even though I could have voted a couple of times for the Colombian president election I did not. Then this year I felt that I needed to vote.

I got up this morning, made myself some coffee and turned on the radio. Listened to people talk about the local vote for some propositions. It was good because the discussion made up my mind about one that was kind of undecided about. I vote for progress and prosperity. I do not care if people vote one way or another, I care that they exercise their right. That right also includes deciding not to vote.

The voting place was a local school that was walking distance away but since I was going to work right after I just drove. Parked the car and walked inside. As I get in line, I don’t feel any nervousness or hesitation. Then my turn to get my ballot comes and guess what. My name is not there. So I have to wait. They called the precinct and found me :) thank God. It was just that since I register by mail right after I got my citizenship they needed me to sign a card. Got that done and voted.

I got the punch card method. I did not like it at all, for some of the pages it was cool, but the busy pages you have to be very careful or you can almost vote for the wrong person. I can see why people got confused in the past. It bothered me that towards the back there were empty pages where they could have spread the vote a little better. But I voted, I am proud to be an American and exercise my right :)

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