PASS IT FORWARD... because ya'll will MISS OUT if you don't!!!

So during this winter break as it will soon come to a close... boo hoo and horray for new events to come!!! 

I had stumbled upon many Spop videos which consist not only of gold year but quite a few from purple and a brown year spop video as well...

The thing that amazes me the most is that no matter what year of spop video i watch they all almost bring me to joyful tears in the memorise that i have had in my piece of the GREAT spop pie and seeing the previous generations of spop come alive in the new... countless times watching a purple year video have i thought to myself hey we did that too in gold year! This brings me to my most recent thoughts lately which is... PASS IT FORWARD!!!!!

I believe that one of the core reasons why spop is always a successful program here at UCI is one because of the fact that it is a selfless act yet a self-indulgent act which makes you feel good and why the program has a ridiculous amount of applicants. However, i feel the reason that the program has gained such prestige all around the campus is the fact that in some way shape or form everything gets PASSED DOWN!!! 

Why is is so special is because spop encourages one another not to try and be unique... although it is good... but instead spop tells you do what you need to in order to improve yourself and the man or woman next to you, even if it means copying someone else's sheer geniusness. This sounds strange at first because everyone is special in their own way and we should not emphasize emulating others... 

          random side thought, why does spop emphaisze SURROUND YOURSELF WITH                            GREATNESS... duh because when you surround yourself with it you will be it too since you           emulate others and make it part of who you are...

Anyways point being spop says pass it foward because it helps spring future generations to meditate upon and sometimes even improve upon those very thoughts, while PRESERVING THE PAST! Yes that was the key preserving the past = tradition = a group habit = habits are a bitch to try and fix, unless its a good habit =0)

Therefore to conclue my speal I challenge anyone that is part of a group to NEVER lose your roots while stimulating yourself and one another to strive for excellence through outward actions that can be displayed and made an example of, not for yourself but in the stead of all those that came before you!!! 

-I believe that will be a new goal for me in the New Year, to remember the Old in order to futher the Future!!! =0)

An Exhibition Team is a Competing Team

I began thinking about this next quarter and the quickly approaching Vibe practice schedule with reflection of my past year on MCIA. I look forward to these new practices that will truly be a test of our competitive spirit. 

I say that an Exhibition team is one that competes because i believe we do, it is just the field on which we compete is different. First and foremost is the competition against yourself in order to further improve yourself because the reason you dance goes beyond a trophy or name recognition, although recognition is nice FORSURE, but it is simply to enjoy and grow as a dancer. The second competition we face is one as a team, which is team morale. I believe that the true competition for any team is not what happens on performance day but the practices that lead up to that performance...

To continue my thought i also want to put my two cents in for the new Vibe practices and after...

This is because practices are the time where you decide as a team whether you will all just barely carry your bodies to and from practice or you will find a way to to be happy at practice, and don't get me wrong because the topic of happy versus having fun is another topic in itself, but i feel that if you as a team are happy throughout practices then you have already gain a prize that is worth more than any first place at any competition. I say this because come competition day we will all be winners no matter how the performance went.

Therefore back to the discussion of being happy...

Being happy is not a case of cause and effect but BEING THE EFFECT! It is easy to "feel happy" when you gain something or someone does you a favor, but to be happy is that simple set of changing your mindset from whatever it may be and saying this is good and i'm happy with it. Now i go back to the second competition with an exhibition team which is morale, i believe that the key to success in this aspect is the same. It is hard to say that you will always come to a practice "feeling happy", due to drama or school work or just feeling cranky, BUT the key is to take whatever circumstance that you have and say you know what, i may not agree with it but i'm happy because at the end of the day i am here and that is enough, because if you think about it most people don't get to end at least 3 out of 7 days with 40 people that they love.  

In conclusion, positivity is a thought process and happiness is the mind set. Together with the determination to push yourself in order to improve yourself is the ultimate field of any dance team in my opinion, which leads to say that whether your competing for a place or doing it for the performance the grand finale of any dance team is the same hence and exhibition team is a competing team.

Take Your Time

This quarter more than any other i have been faced to challenge my beliefs and how i view the world that i live in. While taking Soc 1 with O'Connel and taking IS 11, with two Marxist professors, i found they bring very good points up about life in a capitalistic society or a colonialist society where one must suffer in order to keep another on top which give birth to the idea of Social Darwinism. Therefore you can say Americans are born into a competitive world, but the question is why? 

In trying to understand this point i find myself facing my beliefs on Christianity and how they affect my perception on life. In class i had learned that Christianity was a tool that politicians used ever since the formation of our country and i initially was very upset thinking Christianity is perfect in every way no matter how much i struggle with it. However, the question transformed into what makes a religion a religion and i believe that you yourself create what you believe and therefore the only person that tells you what is right and wrong is yourself. This lead me down a path where i started to think that institutionalizing Christianity does nothing for faith but hinder it by giving the religion stereotypes. This broadened my scope to think about national religions and how those seriously take away from what faith is all about, for example the numerous wars that have been fought under a religion when most religions go against the very idea of war. Therefore at times it makes no sense spiritually to gather and meet other than to support one another in your faith which is a positive thing, but in actually all it does is put people against each other because they want to be right. However, the definition of right is so controversial to begin with. 

This brings me to my next point which is how the word "right" changes so much based on your perspective that is attain through time. As a child i use to think my grandpa was wrong in stating the church has so many hypocrites and how he refused to go to a church. This was due to the fact that i had been raised since birth to always attend church and thought it was a place of fellowship and worship, but i could not see the politics behind the church that provided these things. In this sense i do not blame the church because as much as they want to be available for everyone it is hard when you must pay for rent and facilities in a capitalistic government, therefore stressing about having enough money to support the church. Therefore the part about my grandpa which i disliked so much after 5 years has become something that i had learned to understand and the biggest eye opener is that neither of us were right, but the fact is that the way our system has been set up it is inevitable to do much without money. The church which was suppose to be a place of support became a place of reliance on others donations and the government that was suppose to help its people relied on the money of its people in order to function. This brought me to understand just how unforgiving our country is when you don't have money yet when you do everything seems wonderful.   

Once again from that thought my mind shifted gears again to knowledge and how it changes you as a person. From when you were little and did not understand the workings of the world so in blind ignorance you would follow what you were taught. To rebelling against the world because you learn for yourself that this institution you have been breed into has fed you falsehoods and half-truths. To finally, you in a journey to find out who you are and throw away all those preconceived notions in order to for the first time step out and figure out what you, yourself want to learn as your truth. This is the on going journey that i have found myself in as i would constantly think of many random things and connected one dot to another in order to try and paint a complete picture but always fall short. I had dinner with my family last night and my grandpa was talking and once again i listened to the man who i thought was half hysteric and came to realize that he is a very wise man who i would not be able to comprehend but am slowly starting to in the slightest of ways. This was a scary thought for me as  i realized how vast the word knowledge was and how the only way to understand it is through time. Therefore as i start my journey to let my brain explore within itself and dig for the truth that i desperately search for, i start by taking a deep breathe and telling myself:

                                          take your time because that is what it takes! 

P.S. - Sorry my thoughts are pretty scattered and i'm sure it is hard to follow but that is really how my brain thinks and how i come to the conclusion that i do =0p

Intro...

Well i just told my girlfriend that the fist entry in a blog is so much pressure that i dunno how to start it so here it goes... I'M STARTING... and if anyone reads my blogs sorry but i will have MASSIVE spelling errors like a ridiculous amount therefore SORRY... 

but for a better introduction i just want to say... Take a Second...