Identity

The motion picture "Running Brave" it's about a half-Indian half-white boy, who loves to run and gets a scholarship to Kansas University to be on the cross country varsity team. Throughout the movie we can see how the protagonist, Billy Mills, struggles with the ethnicity problem at this decade. At first we can see how the coach didn't want to recruit him because he was half-Indian, and he believed Indians were quitters and couldn’t adapt to the "white" people lifestyle. Native Americans where really proud of their origins and they didn’t want to do anything with white people, and we can see this at the beginning of the movie when Billy is leaving for college and his family/friends tell him to remember which half of his is better than the other one, obviously referring to the Indian one. I will like to make something clear; Indian is not the right term for this people, since they are not Indians but Native Americans.  But the movie uses this term so I’m going to continue using this wrong term.

The movie has a great message, since it touches a part that most of us don’t dare to talk about: identity. Billy Mills feels that he should stay true to his half-Indian part and not give in to the white half. But he now lives in a “white” world, as the movie states, and he has to learn to live there. It’s hard for him since he is discriminated by everyone all because his ethnicity. But he doesn’t give up; he has a goal and he is going to achieve it, one way or another. He adapts and learns to live in this world, but learning to live in this new world earns him problems with his relatives back at the reservation. He gets a visit from them, and they judge him because they believe he has forgotten who he truly was and where he was from. So he has problems from both parts, and he feels lost and doesn’t know where he truly belongs. He feels he doesn’t know his real identity. At first this makes him stop running, all of this and pressure had made him lost the love he had for running in the first place. But he gets back up, he graduates, trains, joins the marines, and go to the Olympics; and he wins, because no matter the bad things life brings us we can always get back up and continue the race. And “it takes a winner to come from behind and win”.

So it’s important to know, that identity means who you are and staying true to yourself. No matter where you come from or where you go, your identity is who you truly are no matter where or with whom. 

On looking (tl;dr)

If I agree with something, is that is all about perspective. We don't see what other people see, and they don't see what we see. That’s why it’s important to be seeing every side to the story. But that’s pretty much impossible since we cannot know everything. And that’s something much human beings don't understand. But that’s not the point here. The point is, that we must not think that our opinion and point of view is always right and the only one that matters in this world. It's also important to know, that what people see is what people believe. 

So if you have a chance to read On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz, do so because it may change the way you think and see things. Although, I believe it's way too long for the message it's trying to deliver. 

**If you have time, watch Brain Games S02E01, it's about focus and attention, and how our brain works**

So you wanna get to know me?

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?" I’m Nobody! Who are you? (Emily Dickinson)

Hasn't it happened to you that someone asks you to tell him/she something about you, to describe yourself, and you just stand there with this confused looked because your mind just went blank and apparently you know nothing about yourself? Well, that’s the story of my life. I have a blank page to fill with who I am, to give you a brief summary of my life, and yet I have nothing to tell. So, let’s start with my name. Hi, I'm Jeanette Liz Janice Marquez Rodriguez (long name, I know) and I study chemical engineering in the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. This semester I decided to get out of my comfort zone, and took courses in the Rio Piedras campus. Who am I kidding? I was practically force to come here for personal, health and family reasons. But that’s a topic for some other time. Now let’s talk about me. Well, I hate talking about myself and having the attention on me.  I'm a very reserved person, and I don't like to bother or make other people uncomfortable with my presence. And that’s the thing, I think I bother everyone so I'm always scared to meet new people or even talk to my actual friends. I don’t talk about my situations, worries or stuff that happens to me because I truly believe people don't care about me or my life.

But here I go, and I'll give it a try. I love to watch series, movies and read books. Watching moving pictures help me see a new perspective of situations and life. The acting and the way a person and a setting can catch and create feelings in me, it’s magical. Not all movies/series can do that, but when you find the right one, it’s magical. Meanwhile, reading a book makes my imagination gets to work and you can learn so many things by doing it. I found pleasure in my readings, because there is no best feeling to reading a good book, and study the different points of view that other people may have. The way your mind creates the setting and characters, even if it’s an autobiography, you find things you never thought you would experience. Like my mother would say, “When I read books, I travel to places I've never been, without moving from my bed.” Doesn’t mean she won't like to travel but that it gives her more inspiration to do it.

I love to dance, its one of my biggest passions in life. I believe I'm a nice, considerate person who will give anything for the persons she loves; even tho some people may consider me a total B. I never had a normal childhood, or a normal family, and I had to go through some rough stuff to get to where I am today, and I don't regret any of it. All those situations taught me how to be the strong person I am today. I’m not a positive or negative but a realistic one. I know how things work, and I don't expect more or less than what life is.  I consider myself a walking paradox, a walking self-contradicting disaster. I want to be happy, but I think of things that make me sad. I’m lazy, yet I’m ambitious. I say I don’t care, but I really do. I crave attention, but reject it when it comes my way. I’m a conflicted contradiction. If I can’t figure myself out, there’s no way anyone else has.

 I’m not scared of taking things to an extreme; actually I am an extreme person. I don’t like in-betweens, I prefer all or nothing; and yeah I understand that sometimes we have to settle to what we have, but why? Why settle to something less, if I can achieve better things in life? I believe that if I work hard enough, someday it will all pay off. I believe that to give up, it’s a waste of time. I want to be different from my family, and I want to become a better person. I want to be successful, and I have my goals clear, and I almost lost track of them, but here I am again, because if I don’t try then I won't get anywhere in life. But also, I am lost in life. I don't even know myself, my taste or preferences.

So, you want to get to know me? Good luck.

The Use of Force

First of all, what exactly is the use of force? You may think the title pretty much explain itself, but let’s dig a little deeper. The use of force can be defined as when you use strength or a certain force you are in possession of, and imply it in other people, stuff or situations. It’s having the power to have something done and use it. Let’s talk about person to person use of force. As mostly everything, the use of force has two sides to be considered: the person implying the force (person 1) and the person who it’s implied to (person 2). Sometimes the person 1 doesn’t need to use the “use of force” on person 2, and it becomes unfair, because things can have been done a better way, where person 2 didn’t need to suffer the way it did. But we have a second case, where person 2 needs something, somethings that has to be done. When person 2 imposes to receive or do what it need to, it’s actually using the use of force, and this leaves person 1 with no other choice but to use the use of force on person 2. In the story “The use of force” by William Carlos William there’s a combined case of the two discussed before. Here, we can see a doctor who is not in the best behavior or attitude toward the patient and a patient who strongly refuses to being examined by a doctor. When you read the story you think “Wow, that doctor is so imprudent and what he did was totally unnecessary”; but what about the girls attitude? She was obviously depriving the doctor from doing his job and she knew she was sick, but she still was a stuck up and didn’t cooperate when she had to, when it was all for her own health. So the doctor had to do what he had to for the little girls’ health and wellbeing. But, we can all agree that he took it a little to the extreme, for example, he saw that the girl was bleeding and he didn’t stop the pressure and force he was using on her. He even says, “But the worst of it was that I too had got beyond reason. I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her. My face was burning with it.” He wanted to use the use of force, knowing her parents will agree being afraid she was dying, to see her hurt, to hear her screams and he could feel he had the power in the situation. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a little psychotic. They both were wrong, and by implying the use of force they made the situation a lot worse. So in general, is the use of force really necessary, or is it much easier if both parties cooperate and have a peaceful agreement upon the situation?

"The use of force" by William Carlos Williams