Spring Break!

Not going to lie, all that has been on my mind is spring break.  College students across the country have marked the date down on their calendars for this wonderful week of time off in the middle of a grueling semester.  It is a time to avoid the tests, midterms and hell for a week to gather oneself and return rested and ready to finish the semester.  Many often call college students lazy or party animals for taking a week off but they do not realize the struggles that college students must endure.  Gone are the days of working through college and graduating in four years.  Now students must take out expensive loans, often must take a fifth year do to cuts in classes and must work much harder than ever before due to the few amount of jobs available.  Breaks are healthy and necessary regardless of profession so to all my fellow college students out there enjoy this break, visit family and have FUN!! Because once you come back its business as usual.

Hitting the Spring wall

People tend to do better in college in the Fall semester than in the Spring and if you can't see the reason then look outside your window.  The weather is beautiful, the trees are covered in flowers and it is hard to think of a reason as to why someone would be so cruel and have school when days are so beautiful.  This is when time management comes in.  One must stay focused on the tasks at hand and finish them quickly and diligently in order to enjoy the beautiful days.  I will not lie, it has been hard to focus on tests when I just want to relax on a tropical beach with a pina colada.  This is when the greats separate themselves from the rest.  The work put in during this time makes all the difference, so manage your time wisely in order to enjoy the beautiful weather!

Missing pieces to the puzzle

Not everything in life always goes your way.  Perfection is never achieved, so you must overcome these obstacles thrown in your way and make due with what you have.  These hurdles may come in the form of a physical handicap, a broken home or anything in between.  If one wishes to succeed in life then one must triumph over these obstacles in order to be successful.  Eminem grew up in a home full of drug addicts and an abusive mother, but he used this experience in order to better himself  and change his life.  The late Steve Jobs was homeless at one point and spent his nights in college sleeping on the floor of his friends dormitory and in addition he was adopted, but he did not let his obstacles define him.  Many people often have a victim mentality and refuse to escape their comfort zone.  We can't let a couple missing pieces from the  puzzle blind us from the bigger picture.  In my circumstance I grew up without a father.  It pained me to not have that father figure guide me throughout life, but instead I learned to cope with problems on my own.  I could have chosen to wallow in my own pity but instead I chose to rise above it.  My story, however, has a happy  ending.  Recently my father has started becoming more involved and we have contacted each other three times in person this year alone.  Better late than never.  It seems that the missing piece in my life has been found and my puzzle is complete.

Death

This post is a little different from my typical motivational posts, as I really don't feel the motivation today.  My grandfather, who I am very close to, is in the hospital and will most likely not make it.  I have never faced a death in my immediate family, and I do not have the slightest clue how to react.  I am sad that I will never see him again, yet in a way I am glad that he will no longer suffer.  He is a very religious man and I know that he is ready to meet his Creator.  It just pains me to see a man who I thought of as indestructible is a mortal like everyone else.  Death is a very strange thing.  It does not discriminate; black or white, rich or poor.  No one has been able to elude it yet.  I think back to Steve Job's speech at Stanford.  He said that death is natures greatest creation.  It keeps life fresh; out with the old and in with the new.  It keeps ideas from becoming stale and pushes humanity forward with an endless stream of enthusiastic youth who are willing to push the envelope forward when we become to old and frail to do so ourselves.  If heaven is so great, then why is no one willing to die to get there?  I personally think it is because we become so attached to the Earthly world.  To our friends and families.  To what we want to accomplish and what we have yet to do.  I personally fear death not because of what I fear will happen after, but because of what I have yet to achieve.  As I reach my grandfathers stage in life I feel that my biggest regret won't be what I did, but what I didn't.  I can only wonder if he feels the same.  He managed to raise a huge family of over 8 children.  He has over 40 grandchildren.  He did this while immigrating from Mexico to California, not knowing any familiar faces to help nor the language with which to communicate with the locals.  On top of that he was ridiculed and ostricised by society, often called a wetback because he couldn't speak English.  Despite these overwhelming odds he persevered over the bullshit thrown out him.  He was the rock to his family, yet death does not value achievements.  He lived one hell of a life, was an incredible father, and truly lived the American dream.  It will be heartbreaking tomorrow knowing that I will hold his hand for probably the last time, but his memories and spirits will forever remain a part of me.

The needy helping the needy

It is easy to be so consumed with one's self that they lose perspective on the real world.  Many people make mountains out of molehills, meaning that we may think that some problems are bigger than they are.  I used to think that my life was stressful.  That college was overwhelming me, work was eating me alive and that no one could understand the pressure I was under.  Upon interning as a reporter for the Community Food Bank and interviewing people at food distributions I quickly realized how blessed I was and how foolish I had been.  I complained about college but met so many mothers and fathers whose lifelong wish is to put their children into college.  I complained about work until I met those who would sleep underneath buildings because they had no income.  I met people who would sell their bodies to feed their children, who had to tell use candles instead of electricity and who had overcome drug problems and here I am, thinking that my life is difficult.  I have my health, my family, friends who love me, food on my plate and am attending the college I dreamed of.  I almost feel selfish to think that I actually had problems.

The miracle drink

I often get asked how I have so much energy and focus.  The answer I like to give people is because I have a underlying reason.  I found my "why."  It is impossible to wake up motivated everyday to take on the obstacles of life unless you have a powerful reason to do so.  Without that critical element it is impossible to go through all the difficulties that life throws at you on the path to reach your dreams.  

     The real answer, however, has to do with a roasted bean that powers me through the mornings.  The miracle drink is called coffee.  If you have ever drank coffee it is almost impossible not to be productive.  They give me a jump start in the early mornings so instead of starting the day groggy and needing time to warm up I blast through the morning like a bat out of hell.  Moral of my story:  drink more coffee!

the power of competition

Today a strange event happened.  An eye opening event that to most people may have not meant anything, but to me I felt as if the sky had just been torn open.  I am an intern this semester with the Community Food Bank of Fresno.  My partner and I are reporters (I say this because we get paid to do our job) who must gather stories for the bank's 20th anniversary presentation.  What we do is we go to various distribution sites and each interview clients, find out their story and take photos of them that will show donors that there is a need for more donations.  We were hanging out in the office with our coordinator and discussing what stories worked best for our goal when I asked a simple question.  "Hey partner, do you want to meet some time this week to find out which people correspond to their sound files?"  She said, "Oh, I already matched up my interviews and organized them."  For the first time in my life I had been outworked. I have no problem with people being smarter, more talented or blessed with better resources than I have.  I deal with those people everyday.  What really pissed me off and lit a fire under me was that I have never been outworked before.  I like to credit my success in life to the fact that I am a hard worker and although some peers may be better than me they do not have the same drive that I do.  Later that night I used that moment as a catalyst to take my internship and use it as a competition.  I have always competed with my cousins and in sports for any little thing.  I think competition brings the best out of people and it did that night.  I caught up on all my files and will make it my goal not to get outshone by my partner, who is a year younger than me.  There is something primal about competing, and at times it feels as if your very existence depends on being victorious.  Life is a competition, from competing for a job, competing among applicants for grad school or a simple sports game.  The lesson to take away from this is to always compete.  Never settle for second place and if you do realize that you are losing the battle claw your way back to the top.  My question do you like to compete and if so please share an example.