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MAIN Life@ Edge of 30 My Left Brain
Anime/Film review |
Life @ the Edge of 30University life is a strange kind of experience: it is!!Being at a 4-year university is staying at a nine month long, state-funded education camp. Life is finally settling down at CSUMB. Being an 'Otter' does have it's difficulties. First off, this college is awash in acronyms! CSUMB,BBC,DC,OE,OBC,HCOM, and TAT (Teledramatic Arts and Technology): my major. I think they should at least set up a small workshop that will explain most of them! A lot of the general population seems filled with surfer/skaters who perhaps, could not afford or did not have the grades to get into UC Santa Cruz. Either way they like to make at lot of noise at 2am!! Otherwise, it has been quite an adventure so far. I'm slowly getting the general lay of the land. Which brings me to the weather: It's Amazing!! Right now, most of California is experiencing an indian summer. Highs are going into the 100's in most places. To tell the truth, it did get as hot as 90 degrees for 2 days this week. Today, however, it cooled quicky to an afternoon high of 65-70 degrees!!! Do I feel blessed? YOU BET!!! Being here at the old Fort Ord location (which once hosted 17,000 people), I feel somehow connected to my father. This used to be a huge training facility. My father did his basic training for the army here 33 years ago. As I walk around here, I try to imagine it as it was when he was here. I feel connected in the way that, we were both at watersheds in our lives. As I'm here: learning; struggling; and being tested, I'm trying to get some issues sorted out in my mind. I wonder. Between being drilled, marched, trained, and tested, was he sorting things out in his mind? Sept. 16th 2004 Orale! What's up ese? Happy Mexican Independance Day! Me llamo Robert Gomez. Soy un estudiante de CSUMB. Soy suave y inteligente!! Yo tomo el espanol. Espanol es dificil!! Okay, I admit it. It's not the greatest spanish that one could write. But it is spanish. Something is happening here in RobertLand. I'm not sure what it is. I am taking Spanish, as I mentioned before. It's an awesome language. It's not only beautiful to speak, it's easier than english in some ways....in theory anyway. In learning this language, I'm feeling this sense of connctedness to my background in a way I've never felt before. It's strange. I'm also covering Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit for one of my classes. That play is also reaching out and grabbing me by the huevos somehow. I saw the film version today. I felt this huge swelling of pride within me as I watched it. By the end of the movie, it was everything I could do to not break into tears in front of everyone. I don't think you'll see me using the vato slang anytime soon, it's really not me. I'm a different kind of Chicano. I'm the type the walks the white man's walk and talks his talk. I fit in so well that I'm very rarely marked as a Chicano. We need to be the ones to make it happen for the rest of our people. We can really make the difference. As for me. I want the rest of the nation to know that we are not all vatos living in East L.A. We're diverse. It's time to get ourselve out there AND KEEP OUR ORIGINAL SURNAMES FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! NEXT TIME: My haunted campus!!! |