Learning Experience #10

Summary:
What? I am going home next week? I am done with my first semester just like that? No way. This semester had so much events going on, so maybe it does make sense that it flashed right before my eyes. I remember having a countdown with my friends back home for the day I will be leaving to Gallaudet University. I remember how terrified I was. I did not want to go to Gallaudet University to be honest, I was too scared. I did not know what to expect and I felt that I would end up alone at Gallaudet University. I cried several times before going to Gallaudet University, and my mom kept on saying “Trust me, you will end up loving Gallaudet.” And I did not believe her. But damn, how right she was. I love this place. I have experienced different things, I have went to house parties, I have had hard classes, I pulled an all-nighter, I made new friends, and so so so much more. I just would not trade any experience for the experience I had with my first semester at Gallaudet University.





Response:
I must be dreaming, I am leaving Gallaudet University in a week? My first semester I done just like that? I am pretty much half way done with my freshman year? Sheeesh. Yes, I must be dreaming. What a semester it has been for me, such a whirlwind. I am so lucky to be at the right place, and I am curious what the future here will bring me….

Gallaudet University, second semester.. here I come ☺

Learning Experience #9

Summary:
You know, as you have seen in your freshman classes- a lot of us have colored hair. You may wonder why, well we are shaving our hair on January 29, 2009. It is called “Bald Day” and has been a tradition at Gallaudet University for many years. I have dyed my hair to different colors basically to damage my hair and then shave it all off. I actually haven’t dyed my hair in seventeen years, my parents had that rule where I can not dye my hair till the day I graduate. I graduated and then went onto to Gallaudet University and dyed my hair for the first time, I dyed my hair to auburn red. I loved it! I did not want to dye it because I felt that it suited me and it was “my color”. I had to dye again anyway because of course, I want to shave my hair. I dyed my hair to a darker shade of red, and it was still pretty cool- I loved it. I took a risk with the next dye, because I dyed my hair blonde. Oh my god, I hated myself in blonde hair! I dyed my hair quickly to neon blue and pink bangs. I liked it since it was combination of my two favorite colors. I dyed my hair purple next, and it did suit me pretty well and then I decided to spilt my hair in two parts and bleached one part on the bottom. I dyed teal color over it and got pretty cool result. That is my current color, and I will cut my hair very soon and dye it to yellow or orange, that I have not decided yet.

Response:
I love dyeing my hair! It is actually cool to see what color I suit with the best, and it has been a fun process. I honestly have to admit that I can not wait till I am bald because my hair is already damaged badly! It does not feel healthy, but basically I do not care because I hate my hair anyway and am looking forward to being one kickass bald chick ;).

Learning Experience #8

Summary: On a Friday night, a week after my birthday, my friends hosted a surprise party for me. My bestfriend who is still a senior at Maryland School for the deaf surprised me and came for my party. I had fun that night and then next morning, she was like why don’t you just come home earlier for thanksgiving break since I did not have to go to classes on Monday and Tuesday, I agreed and went home. My parents did not expect me at home so it was nice surprising them at home. I stayed home for five days and had a blast with my family for thanksgiving. I am really thankful that I have my family so it was nice celebrating it. It was so weird when I had to leave, I did not want to leave at all but on Sunday, I packed up and went back to Gallyland.


Response:
This year is the first year that I went home for thanksgiving break, not already being at home. I have been away from home for almost five months, beside several weekends where I just went home for the weekend. I am able to do that since I live only forty-five minutes away. It was so surreal packing and getting ready to go home, I have never once did that before. It is always packing at home and going somewhere for me, but it is like I am leaving home to go my real home. It is really weird but I had a blast being home and I already cant wait for winter break where I will be staying home for four weeks!

Learning Experience #7

Summary:

The show was at 6 pm and I was really excited all day to watch the famous well know deaf film called “Gerald”. Of course, it is not famous in other communities beside this our own fabulous deaf community. We arrived the Elstad Auditorium a little earlier than we were supposed to because we were just too excited to watch. It was pretty cool because I knew some of the cast members such as Micaela Paulone, and Sandra Ammons. The movie lasted roughly 100 minutes, and I enjoyed every single second of it. When the movie ended, I stayed behind as everyone left to discuss with my friends about the movie. We all had great comments about the movie.

Response:

I haven’t watched that much of deaf films, and Gerald was my third movie that I watched. Out of all movies I watched, Gerald was definitely the best one. I felt that the effects and how the camera moved through out the movie were really real. I felt that to make this movie, it might have cost them a lot of money. The actors and actresses acted really well and comparing to other deaf films- I felt the actors seemed more real. A lot of deaf actors do not sign like they normally do in real life as they do in the movies, but I was really impressed with this crew whom signed just like they would in person. I have a good feeling for our deaf films’ future. It surely does seem very bright after this film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it became more successful from now and on.

Learning Experience #6

Summary:
Of course, I have to write about some events that happened during the homecoming weekend! It was a really crazy weekend, indeed! On Saturday night, a group of us freshmen decided to rent a party bus that would take us to the clubroom. About 4 pm that afternoon, I started to cough and felt like I had a sore throat but I was so positive to not let that affect me because I can not ever imagine missing out on my first homecoming clubroom! I stayed positive and promised myself I would go no matter what. I took a nap, and woke up to my friends telling me to hurry up and get dressed, and I was still half awake at that point. I decided to get ready and do all of those things every girl would want to do to look their best. I did not feel any improvement but I did not care about my sickness. I rushed and got ready by time the party bus arrived. We got in and it was so hot inside with 30 of us freshmen, I started feeling worse at that point. We stopped by Chipotle (my favorite food ever!) and we ate- I started to feel better so I thought thank god I’m feeling better! I sure spoke too soon. We got back on the bus; everyone was so excited and danced while I tried to do the same but just ended up sitting down. I was too down to even enjoy my time but I tried to do my best. By the time we got to the club, I was really sick. I went into the club for only fifteen minutes and I couldn’t even stay. I just wanted to leave so bad, a friend of mine was willing to go back with me so I went back to Gallaudet University.
Response:
I know you are thinking “wow that must have sucked!” Yeah it sure sucked for me especially it is my first homecoming. I went straight to bed after I got back, and I took a temperature and I had a fever of 102 degree! I was so hot but cold at times, I kept on coughing, and my throat ached so bad. I tried to go to sleep but it was not easy especially I was hot and cold off and on. The next day, I woke up and took my temperature and I had the same degree still. I knew right there that I was really sick. I rested all day but on Monday night, I’m finally starting to feel a bit better. I’m so sad that I missed clubroom on Saturday night ☹ but hey health comes first :P

Learning Experience #5

Summary:
As you all know, last weekend was the homecoming weekend and it was awesome! A lot of events happened, but one event really stood out to that and me was the pep rally. All of the classes had to create a class song, so my class (class of 2013) ended up having Lauren and Cody sign the song and they did an awesome job. The event went on with cheerleaders, and I thought they did really good. Their stunts were out of ordinary and it was something I haven’t seen before. Our Gallaudet University bison song always had that tradition where they pick two people every year to sign that traditional song and last year was Emily Jo and Cesar, so they announced at pep rally who is going to be our new bison song signers. They announced that Stormy Smith and Justin Jackerson is the new signers. The cool part about this is that Stormy is my RA on my floor and Justin was my staff at Youth Leadership Camp so that was really cool to see.
Reponse:
My first Gallaudet University homecoming’s pep rally was not something I expected. It was really different compared to where I came from, from MSD. It was really different but not in a bad way, but MSD always had events during pep rally where the classes compete against each other and I loved that. Gallaudet didn’t have that but they had class song which wasn’t that bad. It was a nice experience for my first homecoming anyway ☺

Drinking and Drugs in College

After graduating from almost innocent high school under parents care, we go straight to college in two months looking for that freedom everybody talks about. At college, we get the freedom of deciding when to wake up, which class should we attend or miss, when to do homework, when to eat and how much should we eat. Of course, we also decide the biggest factor out there, when should we party and how hard should we drink which has it’s side effects to our focus in college. Sometimes when drinking gets a little old for some of us, we take interest in an entirely different world like drugs. When I say drugs I mean marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, and many more. Knowing that drugs and drinking is a huge problem in universities today, there are many articles that cover those kind of stories when somebody has drank themselves to death, or snorted so much that they became nobody in the education area in college that they left school. As for drinking, many college students drink and there’s no question about that, but the question is, are they drinking to get drunk and are they binge drinkers? Women who consume more than four drinks in a row are drinking too much than their bodies can handle, they will be considered binge drinkers. As for men, they should only consume five drinks or less, if not binge drinkers is what they are.


In 1993, sixteen years ago, from 140 colleges in 40 states the statistics came down to 44% of the students binged. Sixteen years later, the numbers have increased…but how much? It has increased dramatically from Columbia because compared from 1993 to 1977, more than triple the 10 percent. Drinking doesn’t only bring danger to your body; it brings danger to you and your schoolwork. 90% of campus violence is related to alcohol and 80% of date rape incident had men who were drinking. The worse part is 55% of the date rape victims had also been drinking during the incident. As for drug users, there was an article that explained a person’s result in drugs might be relying on where their interest in religion lays. Students who are very deep in religion are more likely to try drugs in all classes of drugs. While students who have no interest in religion are more likely to try marijuana, amphetamines, and hallucinogens.


Students who have a philosophical view on religion are more likely to linger around opiates and tobacco. Intellectual interest fall in hallucinogen, tobacco and of course alcohol. Students have this perspective of trying new things, to experience as much things as they can at college because many of them feel like it’s the perfect or the only time they can. They don’t realize the true experience and thinking of a subject, item or a situation lies in the human mind, which is mysterious. It is important to know that you went to college to be successful in life, to get the network you need, to climb the ladder to success on your own, and to experience things you want. When I say experience things you want, it doesn’t mean to try illegal things like drugs or drinking underage. Drugs is a path that should never be touched, addiction can easy drain you to the life that means nothing. Drinking is fine, but binge drinking isn’t. at parties, students should consider how much drinks they should consume and have fun with it. Fun isn’t found in heavy drinking or illegal substances, it is found in the human brain, where a student thinks to do for the day.