summer is here!

Today I was sitting outside enjoy the gorgeous spring weather. My ideal weather is sunny with temperatures in the 60s to 70s. Nothing colder, nothing warmer. I think I could live like that year-round. Well, maybe I'd miss a white Christmas. With the sun shining on my face and listening to the birds chirping, it was so peaceful. Spring has sprung in my soul. :) I even did my homework outside! (Wearing sunglasses of course, so I wouldnt have to squint from the sun.) This kind of weather makes me much happier, I think it brings out the happiness in everyone. Just seeing light and getting some sun and fresh air is good for you. Summer, to me, means: laying outside attempting to get a tan, swimming in my friends pools, biking, running cross country, working, sleeping in, vacations, being lazy, and doing whatever I want! It's hard to believe this year is almost all over, less than a month is left. And in less than a year i'll be graduating.. wow. Time is going by fast. I'm glad the winter is finally over though, it's nice to see flowers and green grass for a change.

running leads to traveling

My dad is a marathon (26.2 miles) runner, which means my family and I go on a lot of trips to different states because he likes to run in different races. It's really fun, I like visiting new places, but constant vacations kind-of gets old :/ especially because I get annoyed with my brothers and parents FAST. This weekend my family and I are traveling to North Dakota. I've never been there before, but my dad wants to run a marathon there. It should be fun but it's an 8 hour drive :(. Last year around this time, my family and I drove to Nashville, Tennessee so my dad could run in Nashville's "country music marathon." I love country music, so it was a fun time despite the 10 hour drive. A couple years from now, after a lot of training and hard work, I hope to join my dad in finishing a marathon. I don't think I'll be looking for a good race time though, my hopes are to just cross the finish line. Running a marathon is very hard. It's a mental mind game. You have to keep telling yourself that you can finish. If you don't have any hope, then you won't make it. You also have to have to physical endurance. You can't train for a marathon in a couple months, it takes much longer. To be a marathon runner you have to be very determined and persistant with your work effort and I respect my dad very much for that.

mexican-american students walkout

In my Spanish III class we just got done watching the movie "walkout." It was really good, so I'm gonna do a blog entry on it :) "Walkout" is about a bunch of students who attend Belmont High School in Los Angelos, California. The teachers, who are white, discriminate against the chicanos (mexican-americans) even though chicanos are not the minority at their high school. There's a paddle in the their classrooms that says, "If it's not worth saying in English, than it's not worth saying at all." This is predjudice against the chicanos because they speak Spanish as well, and they get beat (or spanked) if they even say one word or phrase in Spanish. This movie takes place in the 60's but it was made only a couple of years ago. The chicanos also can't use the restrooms during lunch, the faculty is mean to them, and they can't share any part of their mexican culture in the classrooms. Mexican Americans are still very unheard of today, such as in history textbooks. We hardly ever hear about them, even though I know they played a huge part in history and they are ignored. The students at Belmont High are sick of being discriminated against and they want their rights. The main character Paula (who is played by actress Alexa Vega) starts a group that hands out surverys about being discriminated against because of your race. They eventually start picketting signs outside of school that say, "Brown is Beautiful," "Chicano Power," and "We want our Rights." Then, the group of students, stage "walkouts" which is when the students show up for class until the bell rings at 9am and then the students walkout of their school and start protesting. They do this because the teachers need the students there for their salaries, because they get paid based on attendance of the students. The teachers eventually give in and decide to consider what the chicanos want. They get some of the things they want but not everything, chicanos are still fighting for equal treatment to this day. But that doesn't really surprise me, since I see discrimination everyday at Kennedy still.