Tag: work

Dove

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

A little Dove chocolate told me to enjoy the small things in life.

This is a stage in my life that I need the small things.

With the stress of school, sports, and a social life, it’s the little moments that make it all worth it.

They happen here and there, but today for instance it rained.

The rain brings me great happiness. It cleanses the ground, but it makes everything clean and new.

Flowers bloom, and otherwise dusty hills become rolling green hills.

This is the entrance into spring that we have been waiting for.

The past few weeks have brought a lot of stress to an already stressful life.

One would think that having a single mother with multiple incurable diseases would cause stress.

Having her go to the hospital unexpectedly would seem to cause stress, but that is my life.

This is who I am, this is how my family works.

I can accept that my mother is sick and I can find happiness in the fact that she always comes home, although sometimes not without a fight, she has managed to make it back every time.

On this Easter Sunday I ask you to consider this.

I don’t care what your beliefs are, or if you don’t believe, but there is something on this Earth and beyond that has kept my mother here.

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Five seconds

displacedlocalLeave a comment

One
Your heart pulses
Your muscles prepare for the explosion of force that explodes from your muscles.
You take a breath in
Your mind does a quick recap of your preparations
Your body is ready
Two
A huge push
A signal from your brain reaches the muscles in your legs
The muscles expand throwing you off the ledge
The tendons in your knees expand and contract
Gravity is no longer a boundary
Your brain works tirelessly sharpening the senses
Three
The brisk air flies by your face
you feel weightless
Gravity again grips at your feet
Your brain again fears the earth and prepares itself for impact
Your legs reach out for land
The ledge comes into sight
You close your eyes for the last moment of bliss
Four
Contact
Your muscles absorb the shock
You roll from the balls of your feet, throwing your weight forward
The earth is cold and it grips to your hand
Your brain recovers from the impact bringing blood back to the extremeties to heal
You stand and open your eyes
Five
You let out a sigh of relief
You are alive
You look back at your accomplishment
a ten foot gap cleared
back to work

What You Need to Know

therightliberal9 Comments

Hello journalists!

Let me start off by reminding you of how lucky you are. You are in one of, if not the best, journalism classes in the country. And that is a lot more important than being in the best chemistry class or the best pre-calc class.

And here is why: journalism is much more than a class.

Now you are probably saying, “Evan, didn’t you learn not to use clichés in high school?”

Yes critical reader, I did. But I have evidence for that claim, lots of it.

Let us first start with what skills are required for journalism. A good journalist needs critical thinking skills, people to people skills and the ability to write well and concisely.

Translate that to the real world and you already have some of the most important skills available. You can solve problems, converse with people and then summarize with writing; pretty much the core skills for the work place.

Now let me tell you, Mr. Alvarez teaches this as well as anyone, actually a lot better. I will admit, I am biased. Mr. Alvarez (though he likes to keep this a secret) has very similar views on the world as I do, so of course I was drawn in. He also is funny, and so gosh darn handsome.

But his greatest attribute (and no, it’s not the flat top) is getting you to think. What is the key to this story? What people do I need to talk to? What really should go in the nut graf?

Listen, I have spent my first three weeks of college working my ass off for the paper here. You think Mr. Alvarez asks a lot? You are about as wrong as Mitt Romney. Just one story for the Panther takes hours to get sources for, research, interview, write, edit, edit, edit, and edit.

You can’t just go talk to Mrs. Colborn then swing into Coop’s office for a chat about the subject. You can’t interview your friends, your significant other or your cat. You have to stick your neck out there and talk to strangers. Not just talk to them, harass them for information.

And you think that Mr. Alvarez asks for a lot of long stories and grades them too critically? The bare minimum for this college newspaper is 500 published words each week, so at least one published story. You are missing a comma: there goes 10% of the story grade. You misspell a name (and they do check): zero points. You miss your deadline by a minute (I turned my story in yesterday with 16 seconds to spare): zero points.

I’m not trying to tell you that college writing is hard and you young whippersnappers have it so easy; I am telling you what you need to know.

So here it is: journalism is hard. I have wanted to throw my laptop into the wall after receiving edits (although in college you have other ways to relax yourself), I have wanted to  pawn the story off on someone else, I have wanted to just give up.

But the reward of taking a class and writing for a school newspaper is you get insight on the world that no other class can teach you. You are in a job, you have responsibilities that cannot just be ignored. You learn lessons that can be applied everywhere. And best of all, you meet awesome, cool and groovy people like your journalism teacher (I hope you have been watching these videos, there will be a test).

Even though the late Mr. Walker will turn over in his grave because of this cliché; keep working, it pays off in the end.

P.S. The real key to success as a staff writer is to have the attitude of the honey badger.

Summer… School?

rangerthecatLeave a comment

When thinking about the summer, I was always overly excited to graduate, go back home, and spend time with friends and family.

But, recently, those plans have change. I am still graduating, of course, but I am not going back home. Instead, I am staying right here in Ojai and working for OVS‘ summer camp program!

I knew I would need to get a summer job this summer. So, I started looking for many places back by where I live, but not many of them wanted to hire someone just for a few months during summer. My friend had told me that she was planning on staying in Ojai and working for OVS this summer. I figured it would be a really good opportunity and I would also be making a good amount of money.

I am pretty excited about this opportunity! First of all, I love kids and I am excited to work with the younger kids this summer and do fun activities with them.

Secondly, I am happy that I will be around a lot of my friends, since most of them are day students and live around this area anyways.

After I work, I will be able to go home in early August and spend a month at home with no obligations. I can see my friends and family and then, after that, it’s off to college at Cal Lutheran! I am so excited for this summer and for what’s to come after it as well! 🙂

Unfit Not Lazy

Yourcupatea2 Comments

lazy

Being unfit should be some sort of disorder. Being unfit is not being lazy, it’s just not being capable of doing much exercise. Yes I admit I struggle sufficiently when doing a lot of exercise. This is not because I struggle to walk from the grocery store to my car or because I struggle to even step in the shower. It is because I struggle when doing sports.

This sounds stupid for someone who is so young but I admit I am extremely unfit. I’ve always done exercise and kept moving but still, I sometimes experience slight asthmatic symptoms when walking up to the cafeteria and in situations alike.

My Dad likes to comment that I never do exercise and that I’m extremely lazy. This is because evenings for me consist of food, homework, shower and bed at best. I literally have no time to myself and once my workday is done it is time to rest. I am not fat or lazy and, although others may like to argue differently, I do my best to exercise.

Being unfit just comes to some as a second nature; I guess it’s just one of my bad traits. The best I can do is to try my best to scare it off and if not work against it because after all you can’t let anything hold you back.

Stressed out.

rangerthecat4 Comments

It’s only the 4th week of school. I have been here for less than 30 days.
IT FEELS LIKE I HAVE BEEN HERE FOREVER! AHHHH!

I love this school, and I especially love the people here. I love being here.

That being said, I REALLY wish that I could just take a break.
I know I am speaking for not just myself, but also a lot of my fellow classmates when I say THIS WORKLOAD IS STRESSFUL!

Never in my entire high school career have I worked as hard as I have worked this year. I even dropped a class because I realized that I would not be able to handle it. And still, every night, even on the weekends, I find myself working for hours on end and still not feeling satisfied with some of my work. I thought Friday and Saturday nights were for relaxing… Maybe I’m just crazy.

I know all of the teachers here really care about the students and really want them to learn. I am so thankful for that. I have learned a lot from every teacher I have had at this school. But being a good teacher and helping students learn does not mean assigning homework every night, even on the weekends, and assigning huge essays and projects with minimal time to complete them.

All of these homework assignments just keep building up and I cannot seem to find a way to escape. Even if I am proactive and do my homework days in advance before it is due, thinking this will help me manage my time better, I am always assigned something else.

I will be honest, I do know a lot of students – and even some of my close friends – slack off a lot and procrastinate. And once in a while, I do the same. But it is only because I can never catch a break otherwise. Whenever I have free time, I use it to sleep, catch up with my friends from home, call my parents, or watch a movie. Is it too much to ask to not have a homework overload every once in a while?

I wish teachers could see it from our perspective. Some of them don’t take into consideration that we all have at least 4 or 5 other classes to deal with each day and night. It becomes really overwhelming for us!

I am so stressed out. But, nothing I can do about it… except more homework!

Thank God for Lazy Rainy Sundays

shredicusmaximusLeave a comment

I don’t know what to make of this past week.

This time last Sunday I was DRIVING home from Las Vegas. I wasn’t there for reasons that some of these teachers and students might think based on what “vibe” I give off unintentionally (that one that says I wreak of mischief). I was there for a funeral. I had been there since Friday night and I was tired on my way back. I came home on Sunday night, the day of the time change coincidentally. I came back just on time for baseball practice in a very tired state. I came back to a TON of Spanish homework, but I also came back to batting practice.Read More »