What I learned about Journeys

This 3 months I went through a lot of journeys. The number of journeys I had in these three months has been the equivalent of a year’s worth. I have only valued the journeys that took me to far off places. I had never considered a trip to the supermarket a “journey”. I always found it odd that in all my 19 years of life, I only remember only a fraction of it. Well of course, for the vast majority of people, this feat is downright impossible. We cannot remember all our days, but we can remember more. We have this romanticized view of what a journey is. Journeys do not have to be big to be fun or memorable. A walk to a bus stop can be just as much journey if we are willing to look around. We do not have to wait for that plane ride. I maybe ranting on and on without making any coherent sense. I think its better if I share one of my experiences in these last 3 months.

Let me start off with one of my daily trips to the university. As I was walking on the sidewalk, I tilted my head up to look at the clouds. I noticed two big ball shaped clouds on top of each other. The clouds were almost perfectly round, but the upper cloud was a little less so. It had a snippet of cloud that was shaped like a triangle. Suddenly the cloud turned into a snow man. After that little distraction, I got to the bus stop. Right on time too, for the bus just arrived. When got in and paid my fair, I decided to take a seat behind a big brown man. I thought nothing of it, but when I looked at his neck, I saw a smiley face. You see, the man’s neck folded in such a way that you could see a happy little content face. I chuckled. I got to the train station and into the train. I took a seat towards the nearest window. I enjoyed the view, but then a girl about my age sat in the seat in front of me. She started to sing in a low voice the song called Killer Queen by the band Queen. She sang pretty well, and I just listened to her voice for the rest of the train ride until I got of and walked towards class.

You see, that story you just read is my version of a journey now. Maybe it’s a journey now because throughout these last three months, I have started to appreciate the small things in life. Now, I kind of look forward to each day. Unless there is an exam. I digress. I implore you to be more aware of your surroundings. Most of our days may seem boring, but that is because we have not bothered to look around. This line of thought makes life a little more exciting. Be more aware and you can have a journey every day.

Hate The Project But Love The Group

First, I would like to say, all I liked about the group project was the group part of it. Personally, the work was kind of boring but, doing it as a team made it much less burdensome. I always loathed working in a group and I still do most of the time, but this was different. The reason I despised these types of assignments was because nobody seemed interested in talking to each other. It would always feel like an obligation. I expected no better from this class. Imagine my surprise when it was not so. On our first assignment we immediately hit it off. Out of all the groups, we were the only ones laughing. It is not that we were not doing the work, we would keep telling jokes or just talk about funny things as we were doing it. I remember how our first assignment was late and we made a sort of “search party” to hunt down our professor. It was fun. The only thing I detest about this group is the name. Holistic Nomads. God, I hate that name. My biggest regret is not doing everything in my power to change that godforsaken name. It just sounds so cringy. Every time I heard it being said, I would shiver. The name is strangely adequate though. Holistic is defined as “all inclusive” and that is exactly what this team is. I have never felt excluded. Everyone seems to accept me for who I am. I wish to remain in contact for the future. I do not know whether everyone sees this the way I do. This could very well be the start of something cool. I always wanted somewhere to belong. To have friends who I can talk to and depend on. The thought of everyone going their own separate ways makes me unhappy. Everyone has something to offer. Sergio is very quiet and reserved for the most part, but when he does speak he is quite hilarious. Miguel is also funny in his own sarcastic way. Kiara is super friendly and sociable. Isabel is intelligent and has very interesting things to say. Alondra is very kind towards everyone. I am sort of the eccentric one, to say the least.  I really want to get to know more of everyone and be true friends with them all. Hell, I even proposed to hang out sometime after the semester is over.  Maybe play some board games, drink some beer, and maybe watch a movie. I have had very few friends over the years. I have always been meticulous choosing my friends, For I only make friends with people I truly like. People would also find me to be extremely odd, sometimes even stupid, so that also did not help in socialization. Despite the extreme difficulty I have in socializing and making friends thanks to my Asperger syndrome, I still hope to make some truly great companions. Who does not want that? Thanks to this project I was able to meet some truly genuine people. For that I am truly thankful.

New Eyes

            I never realized how many small things we miss. Today I decided to be a little bit perceptive on my daily route. I thought I seen it all. I lived in Miramar for about 4 years! How did I not notice these things? Well, I never really bothered to look. I would always take the bus to school and back. The bus would leave me near my house, but I still needed to walk a bit. When I would walk to my house, my body would go on autopilot. I would reflect upon how my day went, think about a book I read, the food I would eat at my house. It is not like I missed anything big like a statue or a building. I am not that oblivious. I bet that I would still find new little marvels if I looked a little bit further. As I walked down from the bus, I had to consciously snap out of my everyday trance. I was curious as to what I would see. In my route, I would always pass a school. Today I passed by exactly when the students were dismissed. There was a little boy with a white shirt, but today I noticed that the uniform had a logo consisting of tiny wings. I assume the wings were representative of the ones of angels had because the children studied at a Christian academy. I also noticed that the crossing guard for that school was wearing a Yankees cap. It was the navy blue one with the white letter N and Y. Walking down the street right after crossing, I quickly noticed the dress of a young lady. It was white dress with big red polka dots. She was also walking a dog, it was a Boston terrier. He looked ugly, with his eyes bulging out and all, but kind of adorable. A little bit further down the street, there was a small little house with a tin roof. I already knew about the existence of this house, but I never bothered to look at it post hurricane Maria. Upon the tin roof there was these thick tree branches. I thought it was pretty funny that the owner had not bothered to remove the branches. I know that she still lives there.

After walking a bit further, I turned to the right. In the corner there was this beautiful beige house, which I also knew the existence of already. The house had a barred patio. Upon further inspection I saw this really cute black feline with big green eyes. As I approached her she quickly scurried of. Typical of cats. At the end of that street and right beside my Apartment, there was another house. This house was white with a Puerto Rican flag hanging besides the barred front door. Below the flag I found this small wooden rooster. I had fun with this nice little experiment. It was a lot of fun. I found so many new things. I did not even have to look that hard. Everything I found was in plain sight and I never noticed. From this day on I while try to not go on my usual trances and be more aware of my surroundings. Not only is it a fascinating exercise, but I will be less prone to trip over things.

My Cotton Friend

I lost a lot of things throughout my life. My marble collection, my chess set, my favorite book of all time, etc. These are all things I wish I could recover, but these are all things I could live without. There is one material possession that despite how embarrassing or childish it may seem, it is something that always sits in the back of my mind when we move from one country to another. I is something that I won’t forget or rather something that I cannot under any circumstance forget. My favorite blue teddy bear Antonio.

My teddy bear has been with me all my life, ever since I was a year old, or so my mother would tell me. He is a gift from my grandmother who died when I was just 2 years old. My mother told me that I got my love of reading from my grandmother. Who would read to me every night while my mother was working. Despite not remembering her face, I can still feel her love for me. A special bond that despite being made in the span of two years, its as strong as iron. Nowadays I consume books like I do Pizza, at Jet speeds. Thanks to her.

My blue friend was also my first friend. From toddler to prepubescence, it was the “person” that I would most talk to. He did not judge, no matter how weird I was, he just looked at me and listened. I would talk to him about the books I would read, talk about my day at school, everything. He was my psychologist. Thanks to him its that I was able to come out of my shell and talk to people. I only spoke the truth to the young teddy and that is what I did in the outside world. I spoke to people almost as truthfully. That attracted people towards me. Little by little I was less afraid to speak. I thank him for all the great friends I made.

He is the reason I like blue so much. I love the color. My whole wardrobe is full of blue clothing. Very little diversity there besides my pink t-shirt and my cargo shorts. My room was blue, my chair is blue, my desk, my pencils. Pretty much everything I have for the most part is blue. If it is not blue, then I’ll probably find a way to make it blue. If my soul had a color, I bet it would be blue. I like blue for many reasons, it represents the sky, the ocean, and my dad’s blue uniform. But it all comes back to loving blue for the simple reason that my cotton friend was blue.

Now everyone knows. The truth is out. I am not ashamed. He is my friend, my mentor, and my grandmother’s emissary. He is a key part in why I am the way I am. For better or for worst. You could have a Lamborghini, a swiss watch, or a flat screen tv. Nothing is more valuable than my teddy bear. He is priceless.    

As Far as The Eye Can See

            We are bombarded with information. All the time. Yet humans can only see so much. We cannot help it. For focusing on everything around us is impossible. This is what Alexandra Horowitz explains in her book On Looking. We tend to focus on the things right in front of our very noses. Not only that. We also miss out more information because of how we perceive this information. Throughout my reflection of this book, I will relate my personal experience with this concept.

              I have lived only in cities all my life. So, for the most part, my life has been grey. The sounds I would hear ranged from loud police sirens, barking dogs, and the collective chatter of pedestrians outside my apartment. Occasionally though, the chatter would die down, the dogs would get tired, and criminals would pull their heist elsewhere. It is ironic that with less things going on you can notice more things. The silence was surreal and sometimes I would bask in this silence. I could hear the water drops of the bathroom sink from my bedroom, the sound of my cat scurrying about, the humming of electricity passing through my light bulb. So many sounds that all the hustle and bustle of urban life would hide.

From Horowitz’s novel, it talks about how limited our vision is. She said, “Our sensory system has a limited capacity, both in range and in speed of processing” (Horowitz 11) I remember one time when I was reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I loved that book to death. I read in as little as 5 hours. It was a really good book. I was sitting on a chair, reading on a dining table. My dining table is right besides my front door. Today me and my family where going to the mall. My whole family would walk right pass me and through the front door. They waited for me for 10 whole minutes before calling me on my cellphone, telling me to get in the car. I could only focus on the pages before me. At that moment, I could only see paper.

When we do something of interest, our mind immediately sets up the brain to focus on the object. This is called attention. Attention is the act of discarding all other visual and auditory stimuli except towards the object. Horowitz said, “Attention is an intentional, unapologetic discriminator. It asks what is relevant right now and gears us up to notice only that.”  This could not be truer. I was very busy on my camping trip with the Boy Scouts. We went for a swim, played dodgeball, shot some arrows, canoed, etc. My senses were so overwhelmed by all the moving and the bright colors worn by all the boy scouts. At the end of all the excitement, I went towards my hammock. When I laid down, I was finally able to see the beautiful mountain in the distance. There was very little else to see besides the mountain. I was awestruck. How did I miss something so big?

This was a very interesting read. It encourages readers to occasionally stop what they are doing and look at your surroundings. We do not even take have of the information surrounding us. Who knows what we might miss. That is my interpretational of the author’s premise. Thanks to the reading, my mind might become a little bit more scatterbrained. I really do not want to miss out.

Undercover Tourist

Being a tourist is hard, let me tell you. From the clothes to masking the accent. I had a lot of work to do. All the James Bond movies prepared me for this moment. Like any good agent, the first thing you must do is blend in. For this I had to observe the tourists. Not in the creepy way (in the search it up on google images kind of way). The results varied, but I eventually settled on a blue t shirt, some swim trunks, straw hat and sunglasses. I wanted to go somewhere close, so I settled on Plaza Condado near the Two Brothers Bridge. You know, the bridge where people jump of…For fun, But I digress. As I neared the main entrance, I got some very weird looks. Darting glances and puzzled stares, I think I over did it. The first thing I did was head over to Starbucks. As I walked up to the counter, I would keep telling myself to “Be the tourist”. I looked at the menu behind the Starbucks cashier and I thought “what is the most touristy thing I could order”. I settled on the Iced Caffè Americano. Nothing could top that. I channeled my inner tourist and said in the most English sounding way I could, “Iced Caffè Americano please”. Emphasis on the Americano. She answered in Spanish. I said, “what?”. She told me, “Are you not from here?”. I said that I was visiting from New York and that I was raised there all my life. She would then answer ask me if I wanted anything else. As I declined, I asked if there was anyplace she would recommend visiting. She told me to go to visit the beautiful fort of El Morro and to visit he contemporary art museum near La Parada 18. She was very enthusiastic and friendly. As I opened the door to leave, I got curious and decided to listen to the same cashier take the order from people that seemed from here. She was not nearly as nice. In fact, it almost sounded as a bother to speak to them. A certain smugness to her voice. I gained some more curiosity and decided to visit some other shops. I would ask some questions then I would stop to listen to the dialogue between the cashiers and some native people. Similar results occurred. I felt kind of bad, doubting the fact that the Starbucks cashier was genuinely nice to me back then. Anyways, I took it in stride and went back home. Mission complete.