Chris McCandless' Parents

When I read the chapter with the interview on Chris McCandless' parents my heart went out to them. They didn't understand the depth of their sons dedication to his ideals, although they themselves probably instilled such conviction in him. He was such a different individual but so intelligent they thought that his roaming heart was a stage. They didn't realize that he idealized the way they grew up and would have rather made his own success. What he didn't have is sympathy for his parents and how hard they worked for him.

My Life in Pictures: My Multi-Media post

My first semester in collage has been a bumpy road. I made mistakes and I learned from them. I appreciate the help I have been given from my friends, family, teachers, mentors, and loved ones. I realized for this multi-media assignment that I wanted to give everyone a piece of what I have been experiencing. First of all are my responsibilities, and my friends who matter dearly to me.

These are my two new roommates, Miranda pictured on top and Alanna on bottom, and our lovely home under them. They are the thing that I come home to every night and who I consider family. For my first few months being out on my own these two girls talked me through it. We helped each other and talked for hours on end. Im so glad that I have them in my life because I consider friendship to be a large component in happiness. We live in this big old house together, freak each other out with scary movies, laugh about life and plan huge road trips. Im so glad I have them.

Secondly I discovered a new passion in my life at the junior college native american museum. I understand now that by looking at centuries old artifacts made me learn more about the culture of the tribe people that once owned them than reading about them in a textbook. I have to thank my professor Mrs. Theresa Molino for taking a chance on a 'freshman' who was eager to learn. Although I am Native American, I also learned about the Latino american tradition of Dia Los Muertos, and helped them set up a large event for the museum. I feel proud of my efforts there and I am happy with my choice of helping out. Below is the display in the museum I took.

My efforts also went into my responsibilities as a worker this semester. My first essay for English 1A was about how hard it was getting a job in Santa Rosa with the rest of the unemployed competition  I have bitten my tongue now because little did I know that less than a month after applying for many different jobs, I had been lucky enough to get two. My job at Chevy's has used and improved my ability to multi-task, and I am proud to say I work for their corporation. This picture below is a picture of me in my uniform. All rights reserved to the Chevy's corporation, except my face.

My second job is a this little candy shop downtown, called Sweet tooth and unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it, but I love it there anyway.

All in all, I feel pretty lucky to have been given what I have. I hope I keep learning and growing at the junior college and in my life.

Class Topic: Success

What is success? In Georffrey James article "What is Success? Here's a Better Definition" he brought up a large problem in the world as we know it. The fact that success is measured by how much money and power you have. I watched a documentary called "Happy" a little while ago and in it they recovered a study that states that money and success have an direct correlation with stress and unhappiness. While money and power may incur a feeling of validation, it has nothing to do with being a successful whole person. I think that because of our media influenced and materialistic culture people are very confused about happiness and success.
I think this is a very good movie and people should watch it also :)

What Happens When Someone Becomes You?

When you out your information online, you are not only letting people into your world, you are giving them access to your information, and identity. This is potentially dangerous for people if they use your information to their own benefit. In High School, there was a lot of drama from social situations, now add a social networking site, and the drama triples. There is a new epidemic going around between the young females, stealing photos and information and creating a fake site with their name and photo. This happened while I was in high school and I knew the girl who did it. She was not malicious, or intending to hurt anyone, she just had low self-esteem and was using the site she had created to feel good about herself… somehow. Needless to say, she did not feel good about herself when the girl whose identity was stolen found out who she was and had the police involved. A year out of high school and I am in the library and I overhear the same exact story in a conversation between two young girls. Photos are property, and so is information, but how can you protect something that you let a lot of people have access to?

The Twixter and My View.

Definition:Twixters are typically young adults who live with their parents or are otherwise not independent by other means, primarily financial. If they are employed, they often have unsteady and low-paying jobs. They may have recently left college or high school, or recently embarked on a career. Living with parents represents a cultural shift in Western households. Historically, whenever a member of the nuclear famity became an adult, he or she was expected to become independent.
Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twixter

             I know a lot of people that are in this category. These people are kids in my generation that decided to go to a four year university right after high school. Whether they graduated or not, one year can cause up to 25,000 dollars in debt. After 4 years? A 100 grand. Right out of college they may realize that not many people hire young adult’s right after college into high paying starting positions. A lot of competitive jobs start with an interning position, which most of the time has no pay at all. With this large debt and little to no money, moving in with your parents is sometimes the only option. Hopefully the twixter will not digress and become financially dependent on the parents and never get a job. These kids are not financially stable to start a family for years, sometimes decades. In my opinion though, that isn’t the worst aspect of being a twixter. The generation with the most Nuclear families, also had the highest divorce rate which suggest that if time were spent choosing the right partner, then maybe they would have ended up with a higher success rate. The twixter generation has more time to weigh and consider their options. Maybe this twixter generation isn’t so horrible after all.

Chris' Fatal Mistakes; Arrogance?

In the 8th chapter of Into the Wild, the author Jon Krakuar, chose to speak about all the people who wrote in to “Outsider” magazine about Alaska. They talk about how common it is for people who are not from the area to come in and try to go explore the places that locals know are dangerous and not bring the right gear. The book also accounts on how many warnings that McCandless had received from people on his way to the site where he was dropped off that he did not have the adequate gear. Why did he go anyway? Why did he think that he was the exception to the rule? He had spent only three months traveling, in southern United States and up the California coast, which is reasonably mild climate compared. His parents even stated in the latter part of the book that he thought he could do anything and most of the time made seemingly impossible things happen. This ultimately was his a large component in his fatal character flaw, which almost every hero has in the hero’s journey, his over-confidence in himself.

Book Review

The “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel is a wonderful novel about self-preservation, bravery, and the gifts that religion can bring to you. It starts out in Pondicherry, India, with a young boy named Piscine who is named after a great pool in France. He lives with his mother and Father and older brother Ravi. His Father is the humble owner of the local zoo; Pi goes into great detail about the nature of the animals throughout the novels and explains the parallels between humans and beasts. Pi is an abnormal young boy because he is born a Hindu, and also practices Christianity and Islam, against his parents’ wishes. He has great spiritual calling which is very admirable in a boy his age. This is during a time of governmental upheaval in India, so Pi’s father decides to move his family to Canada, a foreign land to Pi’s family. Pi’s father sells some of the animals but keeps the most expensive ones. They are sailing a boat to leave India when Pi hears a noise when they are sleeping, he goes out on the deck and sees that the boat is sinking and the stairwell to his family is already filled with water. He sees a life boat that has been already thrown out to see and jumps from the hull about 40 feet onto the life boat. As he watches the ship sink, a zebra jumps from the deck, a hyena and tiger swims up to the boat (the most menacing of the creatures) and a mother orangutan named Orange Juice. Throughout the next few days Pi watches in horror as the hyena eats the zebra alive, and decapitates his friend 0range Juice. The hyena eventually gets killed by the tiger whose name is Richard Parker. Pi knows he will be next because he is the only living creature on the boat so he creates a space between them by using oars and life preservers to float in the water. Over the next couple of days Richard Parker starts whining Prusten, which is a benevolent sound which means he wants to make friends with Pi. Pi then asserts dominance by making loud noises and peeing on his side of the life boat. Pi then starts to fish; he was born and raised a vegetarian but has to kill a fish which he is hesitant the first time. It’s an obvious change over the novel that Pi starts to evolve from a well-mannered young man to mimicking the beast he shares his time with. A series of storms hit the lifeboat and Pi shield himself and the tiger with a tarp, which gives them a sense of friendship against the larger elements. Pi starts to go blind after a while and he hears a French man’s voice talking to him about French food and he assumes that it is Richard Parker talking to him. It is actually another survivor who jumps onto the boat and tries to cannibalize Pi, and Richard Parker kills the man. They end up floating into a Mexican beach and Richard runs into the jungle never to be seen from again. I thought that this was a precious book, full of the harsh reality of the wild. Yann Martel switched from the narration of Pi’s current friend which he meets in Canada to Pi’s own narration on the boat. It was wonderful because the boy’s religious beliefs were so strong in the beginning, and wavered when he acted like a beast but in the end he still found god in everything. Even with the loss of his family and the horrible things he endured, he was still as reverent as he was at the beginning of his journey. It is the age old hero’s journey, the call, the sacrifice, the endurance, and in the end the atonement.