Here is the latest, it is an article written by yours truly and it is about Cadets in the Leader’s Training Course learning about teamwork and teambuilding! Read on and I welcome any comments!

http://www.usaac.army.mil/acce/ltc/articles/TDC.html

Yesterday:
So I lost my driver’s license in Louisville on Saturday. Came back to the hotel near post on Sunday. Had an event to cover Sunday evening. Realized I had lost my license two hours before I had to be at the event. Called my family back home to look for it. No luck. I was shit out of luck.
Luckily the event was off-post so I did not need to show any identification.
On top of that, I had two stories due Monday and one on Tuesday and barely had anything to show for them (that was my fault though, i’m a natural-born procrastinator).
So spent Sunday night writing one story and transcribing the interview for another. Slept late. woke up early. Drove to the DMV in louisville. Got turned away the first time because I did not have the correct paperwork to prove I was no longer a refugee and got my citizenship. Drove to my parent’s house. Got the papers. Went back to the DMV and waited in line for about an hour. Took the fugliest picture ever (cannot believe the guards at the gate will have to see that pic everyday for the next 2 and half months). Drove back to post, went to cover another event and then spent the rest of the day hating my day and working on the remaining two stories, of which one was already late. I ended the day with a glass of wine (the only consolation of the day).

Today: Could barely get up. Went to the office. Turned in all three stories. Got edited. Editors seemed pleased. Got the center spread for next week and was approved for my multimedia piece on the word “hooah” (will include a link when I am done). I have the rest of the day (but stuck with doing laundry for part of it) and am planning on watching ‘Revolutionary Road” for the first time and I have the weekend off to actually sleep. Today was a better day. I will also end today with a glass of wine.

On another note, I am enjoying my internship in more ways than one. I am learning more and more about what it takes to be a good reporter (even though I am a PR girl), in the end, the stories we are writing are essentially features and great PR stories. I am meeting new people from all walks of life and they make the experience so much better. I get to follow soldiers around and get a firsthand look at what the Army life is like and that definitely an eye opening experience. Not to mention, I am basically getting paid to do something I like: meeting people and telling their stories. Yea, today was a better day and I am looking forward to more.

If you read this far, then either you care or I forced you to read it. Either way, thanks for listening. I just needed to vent a little. We all do sometimes .

Ps: Updated my professional blog. Check it out, it is titled “Grandma_hasablog” under my blogroll.

Hey!

Check out what I have been working on! First summer internship. Check back, will post more! Enjoy and comment! HOOAH!

This was published in the THE LEADER in Fort Knox, Kentucky and it is a profile on a cadet in the Leaders’ training program!

Cadet balances roles as student, husband, father

I am sorry that I have not been a good blogger. But I will try and change and today will be the first day.
So today was my first day as an intern for the Army working with the Public Affairs department. It is a PR internship and it is amazing and I will get lots of experience and I am looking forward to it. And I hope to take some initiative and work out at the same time!

Actually just finished two profiles, one on 2nd lieutenant and one on a cadet! One will be online and the other in the The Leader so i’ll make sure to provide links. Next, I will be writing stories on the Chaplain assigned to LTC, cadet leadership and on the Team development Course. I’m excited about the first two mostly so we will see.

Other than that, my summer has been going well. I slept for the first two weeks after school and watched as much Lifetime movie channel as I could handle. I am also going to be busy planning the 8th annual Youth Summit hosted by the Rwandan American Youth Summit scheduled for labor day weekend. This summer, I also have a million and three weddings to attend (more like 4 actually) and I have no idea where all of these outfits will be coming from.

My promise to myself and to you is to document this summer as often and accurately as possible. I will do it all and I will tell you about it. Ciao and a bientot!

So I am up late doing homework. I am not sure why my eyes have yet to give out on me. I wonder, at a college with a little over 20, 000 students, how many are up right now working on hmw? Is it not amazing how college clearly turns most of us into nocturnal beings. and man, has anyone noticed how busy a college student’s schedule is really ( well in the U.S.A anyway)? At WKU, most of us, have about 15 hours, extracurricular clubs, some professional memberships, others not, we have jobs and we may have an internship and still have countless hours on schoolwork outside of class? I am not complaining, but I wonder what the schedule of students from other countries is really like. And I am a journalism major and we are def. expected to go above and beyond for our majors. I probably spend 3 times the time I spend on work in class as I do outside of it, and that does not include the editing after wards!

But today I had two classes, went to work for 6 hours, had to go run errands and laundry. I passed out 12 hours later for about 2 hours and now I am up because tomorrow is a new day and I have homework due. The chance of not doing it and falling behind with my kind of schedule is not an option. I wonder about life after the multi-tasking college life we lead on the Hill. I wonder what I will do with the time I do not spend in class, at a club meeting, working on a multimedia project, doing a research paper, studying for an exam over social research? I cant even imagine and I am sure my fellow classmates may not be able to either.

Well, I will take it for 4 more days. Then is is off the Panama City Beach for one week, where I probably spend most of my time partying. Yes, another very negative outcome of being a college campus. We find unhealthy ways to deal with stress that is caused by a society setting standards too high for most of us to meet without stretching ourselves too thin. And I do know better than drinking to relieve that stress, the other activity is called naptime; another very famous activity for college students today. But come SB in PCB, I will be napping only after a period of intoxication to regain my strength after my boo Jose Cuervo has taken me too far. Sounds bad? Try the life we lead for a semester, and let me know if you can pass up 2 dollar margarita happy hour?

wow, this entry definitely just took a different turn. I hope that I do not offend anyone or come off as a drunk. I am simply vomiting my thoughts as they come so hope it is taken as just that. Thought vomit. How classy of me.

Until next time.

Someone’s alarm goes off on their watch. They do not notice for a while. A boy in the distance calls off to his friend to wait up for him. All around it smells of coffee beans and cream and cookies and muffins, but mostly coffee.

Feet shuffle back and forth. The faint sound of heels-to-ground grow stronger and stronger as she approaches. Then they grow faint again.
Some walk alone, some don’t. One girl, too taken with her cell phone, almost walks into someone. He holds his arm out to avoid her and you can almost see the embarrassment in her face.

Someone pulls a ladder across the floor; for a second there, it drowns out every other sound in the place.

Two people walk out of the cafeteria. Something must be funny because they can’t keep from laughing. She laughs harder. The boy straightens up, tells her he’s gotta go. She makes a face. She’s not happy. They hug and briefly kiss on the lips. She asks him to call her later. He walks away and she turns around to do the same. But she looks back one more time before she walks out of the door.

The big idea behind socialization is learning the rules early in the games so that we know how to play it and which position to hold later when it is game time. The rules later become the things we are expected to do, to say, the way we are expected to act in order to stay in the game or really, in order to belong or to fit into the big picture which is life. It is so crazy to think that it starts so early in our lives and that the big idea is what we need to know so that we can later fit into society and belong. And it is so crazy to me how we, as humans, feel such a strong need to belong, that we do not not really question why this is so important in the first place. We work so hard to be a part of the group and do and feel as others do that we never really take the time to work on our ourselves and who we are and get a chance to embrace our uniqueness (if it even exists).

I hate losing friends. Everytime I have an argument or incident with someone that results in our friendship ending, I panic. I start to think about how alone I will be and that I will become a loner and have no one there. I feel like I am breaking a rule. Even though I have other friends and family and other poeple that care about me, that one person now lost makes me feel like I will end up alone. It’s sad how we are socialized to think we have to be part of a bigger group and constandly accepted that we lose our individuality and ability to live and be happy on our own without the approval of others. We depend on these people we call friends and/or peers that we will almost do anything to keep them around for fear of not belonging to something or someone.
Well, I am over that.

2008 and some 2009 so far have a time of “spring cleaning”. I am slowly letting go of those poeple in my life who really have no business there. I am beginning to see people for who they really are and their ways and I am no longer scared of not having them around me. I no longer need to no belong so bad that I would keep them around just for that benefit. Sometimes you have to walk the road less travelled and do your own thing and what makes you happy, even if that means losing some people in your life. Because, honestly I’m beginning to realize that “those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind”, as cliche as that sounds, it makes the most sense right now. I am 21 years old and I am trying to start a life for myself, grow up and live my life. And I often find myself being held back by people I should call friends because they may not necessarily agree with the direction my life is taking. Like an idiot, I sometimes stop and listen to their objections, even when I know better.

That is changing now and it is both scary and exciting. I am excited to see what I can do and who I can be when I finally feel free enough to do so. And I am prepared to lose those poeple from my life because I do not have to belong to something. I don’t need to belong to a group to be happy or accepted or “normal”. That is just the false thought we are forced to adopt early in life and in “recess”. I’m realizing that is is ok to carve out your own path and walk it alone and be confident in myself that I will make it. I am so glad I could finally get that off of my chest. Amazing how liberating words can truly be sometimes.

So my facebook status has been all about how I am blogging, both for pleasure and for academic reasons and whatnot. Most of my peers, all 316 of them, barely ever have any idea what I talking about. And that is fine. But in my world and my intended career, I have to know what this is, how to do it and why it is important to do it! So just to save some time, here is a quick and easy guide.

So here it is.

Ps: Check out my other blog about social media, if you liked this post, I talk more about it at Grandma-hasaBlog!
Here is the link
Or you can just click the name under my links. Muchos Gracias!

What do you do when you feel yourself changing? What do you do when you realize that those changes you are going through are changing the way you look at others.

I don’t know what to do. I feel stuck between who I was/am and who I am becoming. But I’m not sure who I’m becoming yet and I’m not sure if I like her.

But I know she will win. I know she will take over and I know I will soon stop fighting her.

I may lose some people now because they will not understand. She comes out every now and then and some are noticing and they are not responding very well. The scary part is that I am not sure if I will care to lose them or not. What does that mean?

It seems that it is not until you are removed from the situation that you begin to see it for what it really is. You never really see things for what they are until you take a step back and look at it from the outside in. So I’ve been taking steps back, slowly but surely and I’m beginning to see for the first time. I’ve been wearing glasses since the sixth grade but i just started to see 8 years later. And I’m choosing and realizing and deciding.. I’m seeing the people who have been around me, those who have been there forever and those who joined this week. I’m looking at the things i have done in my past and what i am doing now. and i’m not sure where I’m going with this except for the fact that i’m SEEing and TAKEing in life for what it is and in the process of it all I’m learning who I am as well and I’m liking this person.

I have been spending a lot of time with ME and the little life that i’m slowly carving out for myself is nice. I like it. I never thought i would say this but a life of solitude is not so bad after all. I get up early in the morning and go to work. I may work all day but that’s OK because this is what I want to do. There, i do my job but i also meet new people and have conversations with people i never thought possible. I get off one job and go to the next where i am alone in the office but its ok because i get my work done and being alone in the big ass building lets me think and gives me a chance to be one with my thoughts.
I come home, and i usually cook a meal, get online to see what catastrophes took place while i was in my thoughts and then i take a long shower that washes away my sins for the day and i get in bed with my book and this is how i finish the day. and it is ok, and i am happy. This new apartment has been my little heaven. It is slowly becoming my great wall of china, the one thing that separates me from the crazy happenings in my life and those happening outside my window. Most of the time i am here alone and I’m not complaining.

You know it used to be that I loved being around people. I loved to be there with others, doing what they do, being a part of the scene and all. I was not a follower, i just loved being around others. but this life bought about too many drama. I hate it. I am so sick of the issues that people have with one another and the bullshit that they fight over and lose each other over. I hate people who do not learn from their own mistakes, for people who do not treat others the way human beings should care for each other and i am not saying that i am a saint but i guess i am just tired. When you’re young, you’re innocent, not because you do not understand but because you view everyone as good. And i have grown up in a violent world and as i get older i am beginning to see a cycle of this life and i don’t want to be a part of it.

i know my thoughts are not very coherent or they do not really go hand in hand right now, but i have so many things running through my head right now that i don’t know what I’m trying to say, where to start….. but all i DO KNOW is that i’m learning my place in this world and how i fit into the big picture and what i thought i wanted out of life yesterday is not what i want today and i am just now beginning to see and understand that. and all it took was for me to stop, step back and see.

so for now while the rest of the world eats itself alive. I’ll be here in my lovely apartment, and my books and what i call my little heaven. and for now that is ok, because it is the only thing in this world right now that is not disappointing me.

and no spell check was performed on this entry because no spell check is ever performed on the thoughts from which these words came from.