Running Brave (1983)

            “The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.” Billy Mills was an American Indian who overcome many obstacles thrown in his way. He was a very talented track and field runner. He became a “running machine”. This caused him a lot of inner battles within himself. In a point, he lost his way and endured a very difficult and rough time. He eventually found his way and achieved his goal by becoming a gold Olympic medalist for the 10,000-meter-long distance race.

Since the beginning of the movie, he faced racial discrimination. The coach was not sure if he was making the right decision to recruit him because of the Indian stereotypes. He said he had a bad experience with a runner who out of nowhere dropped out of college, and therefore let down the team in an important time. Yes, Billy did almost the same as the Indian his coach mentioned. He quit the team when they were about to go out and compete. There was a big difference though, he knew what he wanted but was overwhelmed and stressed with all the pressure the coach and other staff members put on his shoulders. He had to connect with his origins and find the reason that made him love running and where did he truly wanted to be. After his visit to the reservation and witnessing the death of his friend, he joined the Marine Corps and he began the journey to the Olympics.

            Billy was gifted an amazing talent. His friend, Frank, killed himself because he was frustrated with himself. He was an artist who always dreamed of getting out of the reservation. Instead, he never did because he thought he was convinced he will fail just as his father told him he would do. He encouraged Billy to not give up on his dream, yet he gave up on his. He didn’t know how to deal with his problems. Eventually frustration led to alcoholism, alcoholism lead to sadness, sadness led to depression, and depression led to suicide. This was a wake-up call for Billy. He had two choices: follow and fulfill his dream or become as miserable as Frank thinking about what would’ve happened. He certainly followed his heart and accomplish what he wanted.

            We should not judge a book by its cover. This is one of the phrases that we often hear but choose to ignore. There is something that pops automatically in our head whenever we see the cover of that book. It is up to us whether we are going to give a chance to the book or choose to miss out on the amazing story that the author wrote on those pages.

*If you want to check out the movie, and I encourage you to watch it, here's the link: *

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2umn18

"Writing down the Bones"

In the book “Writing down the Bones”, Natalie Goldberg discusses a first thought technique. To better understand how she sees writing, check out this link:

http://nataliegoldberg.com/books/writing-down-the-bones/

 She gives six rules to follow while using her First Thoughts technique: 

When my Professor introduced this to me, I was so confused at first. It is so liberating that it became a hobby for me. You write with no restrictions. When something is bothering me, instead of taking it out on the world, I just sat down and write. This gave me free space to reflect many things. It was as if I was talking with myself: the uptight judgmental me and the free spirit me.

My experience with the Journal’s routine was a very successful one. It was hard to forget about the spelling, punctuation, and grammar but I got used to it by the second week. I can say that the thing that most gave me difficulty was going not this, but rather going for the jugular. Usually I don’t open up to anyone about my personal issues, so I pill them up until I explode one day. The journal became my ally, I had someone to talk to. Someone, who at the end of my writing, helped me see how to solve the problem. That someone was me, I calmed myself down. Now I know how to deal with certain things that bothers me. I enjoyed writing about things that I wanted, not those that I’m assigned to write about. I don’t have the problem that anyone would read my notebook. It was personal, a one to one connection. Also, I liked that I would completely, seriously, disconnected from the world during that 10 minutes.

At the beginning of the project, I was very uptight with what I wrote. I remember how in the first essay I had to hand in for this class I had no idea what to write about. Now I can say that I am able to write about almost everything in an open way. When writing, I just let my emotions flow and guide my pen. I write more and with an expanded vocabulary than I did in High School. Instead of pausing my writing in order to overthink about what I’m writing, I just keep writing and at the end I let my editor’s side do her job. Now instead of considering an assignment I see it as an escape from reality.

            

When I started this project I was just a Freshman in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus. The journal helped me with the transition and the adaptation to this new routine. I notice that now I have more positive vibes, I’m not mad at the world all the time as I used to be. Instead of snapping on someone, I stop and think about what I’m going to do or say before. I definitely learned how to deal with my anger. Exercise and writing helps me on a daily basis. Now I’m able to understand myself better and I also got the opportunity to set my goals, at least for this academic year.

            

A side of me, that I didn’t knew existed, emerged. That is my writer side. She was able to come out and write about things I couldn’t imagined I could do. So yes, I feel more engaged in writing than I used to. I will continue to write and use Natalie Goldberg’s technique but I don’t see myself writing for the public. I have noticed that I express more my opinion and start commenting on Facebook or Twitter.

            

The interdisciplinary goal of this class helps you learn about everything. I selected one of the journals that connected with Psychology. In overall, I talked about I why is the human mind so complex. There’s no book that states how to analyze or understand it. We, the humans, are still very ignorant when it comes to this topic. The mind is the most complex machine that has the power to influence upon the brain, the nervous system, the body, all of the organs, and glands. It is a part of our soul, who we are as a person. It is through it that we reflect how we live and how we function in the world we live with. This connected very much with what I was doing in this project. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to continue my analysis but I used the few minutes I made them count. After I was done, I decided to continue to write about this another day and I made a little research so that I could continue that line of thought.

So, I encourage you to give it a try.

Couldn't keep it to myself - Reflection

Tabitha Rowley is a woman who has been through a lot. Her story is one of the stories that are in this book. Here's the link for a little background of the book itself.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/government-of-the-people-shall-not-perish/book-review-couldnt-keep-it-to-myself-testimonies-from-our-imprisoned-sisters

At the end of her story she says that her purpose of writing her story was because she hopes it will "wake up other misguided young people and prevent them from having to experience the degradation, dehumanization, and isolation of prison". The best way for her to share it and to get it out of her was through her writing. Writing helped her discover many things about herself.

When writing her story, she decided to use her hair to chart the history of how she became strong physically, mentally, and spiritually. There was a connection between her styles and her self-esteem. Since she was just a girl, she was abused. Her mother was not around so much and sometimes when she was, it was hell for Tabitha. Her mother styled her hair in a way that she hated it. When she arrived at school, she changed her hairstyle and when it the day ended she styled it back the same way her mother had in the morning. She was a victim of bully because of her appearance. A particular boy used to tease her because she wore some shoes that, for him, they looked as if there were from her grandmother. He also called Tabitha a witch, because she had the same name as Samantha's daughter from the program Bewitched. After these events, and the one she had with her mother, she began to express what was going on inside of her through her hair. As she grew up, she dyed or cut her hair and this resulted in serious fights with her mother. It was a circle, whenever she fought with her mother left the house and returned with a new hairstyle causing her another fight and so on.

As life continued for Tabitha, she ends up in prison because of bad habits and bad decisions; accused for assault in the first degree. She shot her ex-boyfriend but he didn't die because of the wound shot but because of something else. Before prison she had continued to change her hair. While describing her days in prison she said: "You have to smile pretty for the staff. This place is full of depression but being locked up is better than being dead". One day she decided to stop messing around with her hair, she was going to let her hair natural, as it really is. It was then when she finally got in touch with her, who she was. Step by step she started  to ask herself and answer who she was, who is she now, who is she becoming and why. She figured this out on her own.

Through this story, the reader is able to notice the presence of racism. In prison, she was treated bad by the staff. Once she received a ticket, for which she had was forced to plea guilty, because she decided to cut off her dreadlocks. Also, you are able to see how stereotypes were a factor that influenced a lot at that time.

In conclusion, her story can definitely change the way you look at things. There are people who have it worse than many. Tabatha felt that she had to share her story so that she is able to reach and help someone who may be going through something similar to what she endured. We should remember this quote she wrote: "No part of us is valueless". She found herself, even though she thought at one point it wasn't possible.

Relation between the Long Drive Home and the UPR-RP Drunk Driving Exhibition

What is the difference between drunk driving and intentionally causing an accident? There's no difference, in both cases, consciously or not, they end up harming other people. Even though Juwan was the drunk driver who was using his phone, Glen was the one who causes the accident. There was a chain of events that Glen endured that causes somebody's death. To top it off, as The New York Times Magazine’s review says, Glen was offended just by the sight of a black teenager who was driving too fast in his neighborhood.

As drunk drivers have to do after an accident, Glen had to learn how to live with what he did. He had to wake up every morning and remember that he killed somebody. He decided to cut the wheel and see through the rearview window what happened to Juwan. Sara was with him during this long ride home. She saw everything. He forgot completely about his parental good judgement. What about Juwan's family pain? Tawana's pain was so big that at the end she didn't care about suing him or find someone to blame. She wanted to close the case, since it kept reminding her every detail that happened.Alcohol takes over, you act reckless and selfish. You don't care about anyone in that moment. 

But after? Maybe you'll end up just like Glen. From the start, he was not honest with his wife. She started to piece things together whenever a situation occurred with Rizzo or Tawana that Glen had to explain to her the background. This accident changed him so much that it cost him his marriage. Sara was never the same with him. She was young but not dumb. He ended up alone, stuck in that day. It was not after two years that he accepted he was wrong, when Sara says that she didn’t said anything that it was his fault and she decided not to tell him because she thought he’d be upset. He carried with him the picture which reminded him to be careful. Decisions define you. You can do so much harm. The best thing you can do after is to enter into a rehabilitation program, like the one that the exhibition mentions, and give your testimony to try and create conscious in society. It is as Glen wrote at the beginning of the book remembering what Rizzo told him once: "People confess, he said, to relieve the psychological and physiological effects of guilt, regret, anxiety, shame. To share the burden with someone else. To at least glimpse the possibility of redemption..."(p.1)