What a week....

All I can say is what a week this has been for me!!!! I have had the most stressful week, and I am so glad to say I have had a great support system behind me. The week started off very busy and chaotic with piles of school work and actual work on top of that. I feel like there was no break in between my hours in the day what so ever. My days consisted off work in the morning/early-afternoon and school in the afternoon/early night. Then home for homework and studying. It was a non-stop cycle that lasted these last four days!!! During these times I thought to myself, WOW where is my social life? It seems like the older I get the more responsibilities I have, there is no time to go out with the girls and have a good time! Not only was I busy with school and work this week, there were numerous things that just didn’t go right for me. First off, my credit card was stolen, so I had to deal with all of the issues that were resulted because of this. Second, my service engine light went off in my car, so I took my car to get fixed and to my surprise to fix it the total cost would be 1,000 dollars all because it was a BMW. That was so frustrating, because being a college student I defiantly don’t have an extra 1,000 dollars to spend on my car. Therefore I had to make a call to the parents telling them what happened to have them send me the money. Doing this made me feel very irresponsible, because I hate relying on my parents for everything, but I knew it had to get fixed since I rely on my car everyday so it was worth it. And to top it all off my cell phone was turned off for a day, not because I didn’t pay my bill, but because the check got lost in the mail. I could not believe this happened, as I was without my phone for a day, it killed me!! There was not one thing that went right for me in the last four days, but I guess the saying, “When it rains it pours” is defiantly true. So to make my week better my amazing supportive roommates planned a girl’s night out tonight that I am awaiting anxiously! Tonight calls for a fun time, with no stress, to put all my problems behind me. I really didn’t think I could have the worst four days in a row, but to my surprise I did. I could not be happier to have such supportive friends and family in hard times like these!! I just hope that this weekend is better than the week and nothing else goes wrong!!

Family Time

Getting away taking a little vacation back home for a couple days always puts a smile on my face. Last night I left Monterey and ventured back to my hometown in Campbell to spend a couple days with the family! About seven months we welcomed Mia Nichole into our family. This was the best blessing we have shared as a family in some time. Not being able to see her all the time, its amazing how fast she is growing up. Sitting up,making little words up, smiling, cutting teeth, she is not the new born baby she once was. Today is my day to babysit, therefore I decided to blog while I actually had some free time, while she naps!! I am blown away by how much work it takes to care for a baby. Don't get me wrong its such a joy to do this, but it is defiantly a lot of work. Mia is the first grand baby, and boy is she spoiled, but then again how could you not spoil the first baby in the family. I am very proud of my older sister, who takes on the responsibility of being a single mom and caring for her daughter. I have seen her struggle throughout this journey of mother hood, being on her own, but with the great support she has from her family, she is doing a great job! Spending time with my family and Mia is one of my favorite things to do, and I enjoy every minute I get to spend with them ;)

When life throws you in differnt directions....

There are crazy things in life that happen that are sometimes out of your own control. Thinking back two years ago, I am so happy and privileged to know I am a survivor of a horrible drunk driving accident. Fractured pelvis, metal plate, 15 screws, wheel chair, crutches, bed rest are just a few words to explain the pain and suffering I went through all because someone decided to drink and drive. On December 27, 2008 my life was completely changed forever. A fun planed night out with the girls turned into a nightmare I relive in my dreams from time to time. Flashing red lights, screaming voices, sounds of cry's, and paramedics working on me was all I remembered, as I woke up on the side of the freeway after being ejected from a moving vehicle. Right at this moment all I could say or do was ask, "Where is my mom?" All I wanted at this time was the comfort and sound of my moms voice telling me it was going to be okay. Laying in the hospital bed, with IV's in both hands distributing the pain medicine, I had no idea what to think or even knew what was wrong with my body. The first words that came out of my mouth were, I hope my face looks okay,I hope nothing happened to it, all I wanted was the reassurance from the nurse that I was going to be okay. The first night in the hospital consisted of numerous tests to figure out what was wrong with my body. Results showed that I had fractured my pelvis, very severely. Not only was it broken in the back side but I had hair line fractures in the front part of the pelvis as well. Basically I broke my whole pelvis ring. All I could think at this time was WOW, a broken pelvis, am I going to be able to have babies, this can not be happening to me. I have never really heard of people breaking their pelvis. I knew I was in for some major recovering and an intensive surgery to put my pelvis back together. I went through a six and a half hour surgery where the doctors put my pelvis back together with a metal plate and screws, and an hour pre-op surgery where the doctors drilled my knee to put weights on it, to release my leg that had been shoved up into my pelvis, causing much of the pain I was experiencing. I spent a total of nine days in the hospital, where I was on bed rest. I was not even able to site up, I had to sit at a 60 degree angle, or stay laying down. I knew this was the start of a long road to recovery. After spending nine days in the hospital, I was sent on my way home to start the recovery process. Two months in a wheel chair, and two months on crutches was the result of breaking my pelvis. It wasn't until four months later, when I was able to put both feet on the ground and start my baby steps to walking again. The day I put both feet down on the ground and started walking was the best day of my life.I could not express the happiness I felt at this time.
So still to this day I ask the question, "Can you trust anyone?" I put full trust in the driver that night, making sure he didn't have anything to drink before we left, and it wasn't until I was laying in the hospital bed not being able to move when I found out he was drunk driving. I am lucky to say I survived being ejected from the vehicle, and have learned a lesson in trusting others. Like I said when life throws you in different directions, you learn to take it, as I did in this life changing situation.

Blog One

Today is the first day for me to write my first blog. It's pretty exciting, but at the same time I have many ideas I want to write about, narrowing it down is going to be a challenge for me. Therefore, today I decided to focus on the topic of this course, "Free Speech and Responsibility." Considering, I have never taken a class on Free Speech before; I am thrilled to start going down the path and learning about Free Speech ad its elements throughout this course. Before this class started, I had many ideas as well as questions inside my head as to what free speech means.
In my opinion, free speech is the freedom to speak without any limitations, but also to think about what you say so that you don't harm or hurt other people. Although, you can speak how you feel or express what you have to say on certain issues, there is a line that should not be crossed with certain things that should not be said. For example, certain aspects of disrespecting anyone is ways that are crucial to race, sexuality, gender, etc. Although you may have different views and opinion on a issue and have the right to express how you feel, I believe there are certain limitations that should not be passed when expressing how you feel. This can lead to many different negative outcomes amongst people. I know from personal experience, there have been many times where I wanted to say something so badly and express how I felt to another individual, but I knew it may have offended them in one way or another. Therefore in situations like this, I held back my freedom to speak what I wanted and approached what I wanted to tell the other individual in a different way, in which didn't cross the limitations that would offended them in any way. Speaking the way you feel is not a bad thing at all, it's just the way you go about doing it. This needs to be done in a respectful manner no matter how much you hate a certain thing or disagree with certain issues.

As broad as the word "Free Speech" is I know there is going to be a lot learned on what "Free Speech" actually is. After doing a couple readings and a few group discussions on free speech, I am gaining new knowledge and information from hearing others opinions and ideas on how they feel about this topic. I may not know much considering this is my first class on Free Speech; but I am excited to continue on and learn more of what this course is all about!!!