*** Saturday, July 23rd, 3:30 AM ***
I'm exhausted in every imaginable way. Physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. My day was great however! As I write this at 3:30 AM in the morning it seems like what I did yesterday morning (Friday the 22nd) was weeks ago. It's likely that that is because I have 20 hour long days but mostly because of how chock full of activities each day is. Which is why I won't go to sleep until I properly document everything otherwise I'll forget!
After the whole waking up and breakfast shebang (more potatoes btw!) we went on a cycle of different workshops that were all about college. There was one of financial aid, one on writing a good college essay, understanding the SAT and how to score well on it and finally making sure that you apply to college strategically and for the right reasons. My notebook that I brought is bursting with the notes I wrote in it, I'm dead serious. I'm very glad that we attended these workshops because I can later use these notes as actual resources for any time I need to preach about college.
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| I think I posted this already? |
It's such a shame that my memory is so terrible and I really don't remember perfectly but I think that we then went to the auditorium where there was a panel of RAs and we could ask them questions about college life. And then we used what we learned from the college workshops and went to an actual college fair! Well in reality it was a "resource fair" because there were a lot of other nonprofit orgs. as well some career people. I actually picked up A LOT of information that I am certain to share with the Hispanic Leadership Club at school as well as other volunteer type clubs. I also picked up this cool bracket which will forever remind me of my time here at the Hispanic Youth Institute and of my duty to be an active leader in the Hispanic community and to get involved in supporting the DREAM Act. Unfortunately the resource fair was cut short for my familia BUT it's because we had advanced to the Finals of the Issues to Actions competition! I feel that my group did a great job and even if we don't won first place tomorrow I loved the effort that my familia put into it.
Some presentation that wasn't that great was next on the list of our to-do list and then we went to go have dinner. After we hit the potatoes, err, I mean chicken we went back into the auditorium for the Talent Show!! I don't know why but I really love talent shows! Some people are just so creative or really get into it when performing. The talents that performed involved 1 singer, 5 very cool and diverse dancers (cumbia, hip hop, pantomiming while singing, dance/techno and Egyptian), 1 poem recital (by Jonathan Villatoro of course! He won first place btw), one flute player, and two guitar players of which one was my buddy Mauricio! (He sadly did not win =/ )
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| Mauricio |
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| Pantomime girl! |
Next up on our agenda (it was like 9PM, I know, our days seem like they are never-ending, right??) was something called an "alumni reception" which sounds boring but turned out to be a part-ay! It was hot, we were all sweaty, but it was amazing. There was no shyness between boys and girls here, we all immediately sought out any partner who wanted to dance! It was really funny to see people dancing reggeaton one moment to moving their hips to bachata and then fist pumping to techno all in less than 10 minutes. American and Hispanic culture merged into one and even other cultures joined in! I taught Bahram the basic footwork of salsa and I saw the Egyptian kid getting down with a girl during a reggeaton number! Half-way through the dance all of the guys from this one Greek fraternity started doing a type of step-dance in a train formation and circled around the room, it was really cool and spiked (what was) my non-existent interest in joining a frat. Sadly an hour later they shut down the music and we had to move on to familia debriefings and then the boys and girls would split up to go to different lectures.
So they guy's talk was called "Man Up" and was really...emotional I guess. It started out with a lot of hype since we had a push up competition, each familia sent two guys. After we all simmered down the real talk began and Ernie G, Dr. Soto and Daniel Sarmiento (the director of the HYI) each talked about a different aspect of being MACHO (Mature, Ambitious, Caring, Honest and Open I believe was what that stood for). Dr. Soto spoke of being fit in both mind (getting an education, reading) and body (working out, doing sports). Ernie G and Daniel S shared stories of their fathers and about forgiving them because one was a player that ended up impregnating FIVE other different women and the other one accused his son of molesting his cousins and to this day has not called him by his first name. Naturally everyone was either crying or had their head bowed at this point. Like always they opened up the mic to anyone who wanted to share and Jonathan Villatoro again stands up and speaks about his dad. His father is apparently the most cold and unaffectionate person to be around with. He and Jonathan would work in construction for HOURS and all he ever said to his son would be "pass me -insert tool here -". It was really heartbreaking and made me really appreciate the relationship I have with my own dad and mom as well.
We ended at like 12:30 with a little activity where Dr. Soto pushed through us saying that he was our problems. Then he made us link arms to show that when we are united as men he cannot push past us and frazzle us. He made us all chant/yell, "MACHO" several times and I feel that it really made us stronger, I can't quite explain...no one really wanted to leave after that, we each got into little groups and people shared more with each other. My familia though was one of the first to leave but everyone quickly sneaked into my room where sob fest part 2 was held. I'm very happy that we did do that because I learned so much more about the kids that were in my familia and what events/people caused them to be who they are today. At 3AM though I became a party pooper and had to kick 'em out and here I am now, all ready for the 2 hours of sleep I'm about to get, not really looking forward to tomorrow...
Believe it or not, that is all (for today!)
UYL,
Andre
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