Author: Joye

For the cause to get more Native kids to attend college, I’d like to talk to my friends about our book we have created together.  There are many aspects that are obtained within the book that gives better perspective to young Native youth.  I’d share it with family also so they can be encouraged to attend college.

Almost everyday, our crew has been attending to “Common Applications” which makes you rethink what your “game plan” will be.  There are several ideas of what to choose as a career and to study on.  This almost daily class has been inspiring each of us individually to find the best college that suites our needs.  There are many different types of colleges that I am considering at the moment.  I’ve determined that I’ll plan on becoming a veterinarian but this ideal may change in the mysterious incoming circumstances.  There can only be one decision but I understand that I have plenty of time to rethink things.  When applying for college, this class may help since it gives us insight of what will be on the application.  Shelva Hurley has persuade most of us that this need for further education is in one of the highest importance in succeeding in life.

When finishing the common application, there are some necessities that are required to be completed.  For one, you have to determine the college you want to attend to.  There are various colleges that specify in certain studies; in example, if I were to attend a college and I still want to become a veterinarian, I’d need to attend a college or university specially obtaining the studies of life science or animal science.  They’d ask you a range of questions reflecting on your life and personality.

Researching for colleges should be important while applying for a college because there are costs to attending colleges, stats to reassure your graduating percentage, the majors you may want.  All those are only a partial ration of what components are distributed throughout an entire college curriculum.

Writing a solid college essay is mainly giving you professors and the board of admission. If you have an inner network and if they like what you write, they see where you come from and see the real potential you may obtain.

If you have a connection to your professors, they see you are trying to become a good student and when they write about you when you are trying to get a job, they’ll have a good context to write off of.  You may as well make friends with your professors rather than enemies.

I feel that knowing our language, ancestors, and songs are some of the important aspects of a culture.  Rose, our theater teacher, told all of us that songs are  powerful because it brings us together and makes us strong.  A strong bond with each other makes us more durable with hardship that we may face.  Our conscience is like the very rope we made at Wishtoyo.  When we are bonded together, we are strong and almost unbreakable.  If you are just a single strand, you can’t handle the wear and tear of outrageous events to come.  Language is limited but helps us communicate.  Without this communication, how would we manage as a full?  We can play charades for a little while but there is a wide range of vocabulary that couldn’t be defined by body gestures.  Without language, we couldn’t build villages and learn each other ways. Now ancestors tells us of our past and our people.  We couldn’t manage without them.  They are essential into becoming a better person.  They teach us the language and set the rules.  They keep us safe and steers us away from the wrongness of things.  They help us without needing to be there.

Being able to learn Cultural Knowledge and attending to the ceremonies is an honor.  Although it seems to only benefit being in any future ceremonies, they can help with strengthening your mentality.  Once in college, you’d be stressed daily but when at a ceremony, you can calm down and relax yourself physically and mentally.  When reaching further to quench your thirst of education, having a variety of Cultural knowledge helps find natural solutions into waking up in the morning or just even getting the best yet cheapest food.

Montie taught us that you have to give for whatever you take.  If you don’t give back, then those plants may become even rarer or harder tpo find.  Those plants help us through our daily lives and they helped our ancestors also.  It’s best to have a natural knowledge to items to use in foods and medicines.  You can’t trust what ingredients are actually inside organics.

On the day we left campus, I woke up at 4 in the morning to get ready.  I was excited and cranky at the same time.  I was worried about not using any of my electronic devices for the two days but once I got there, it felt as though I was at home in a different environment.  Although it doesn’t make sense in what my emotions attachment to that place was, it was an incredible experience.  When I heard we are doing some abalone pendants, it reminded me of my great uncle.  He does those pendents so impeccably that if attempted to duplicate, it will come out differently than the actual product.  I don’t know how many times he’s done those magnificent pieces of tapestry but he seems as though he’s done it thousands after thousands of times.  There are no words to describe my attempt into doing those pendent except terrible.  My piece seem as though they were scribbled on there by my baby brother.  Maybe Joel could even do better than me.  I don’t mean to criticize myself but Id rather be honest to myself.  I tip my off to you Uncle Ervin. (If that is, you’re reading this)

During a ceremony, Montie made an eloquent speech of this world’s turn to becoming more modern.  There are barely any people that actually respect the environment and habitats of animals.  Sure there are people that make some sort of an effort into making the world healthier and a better place to live in but our airs are still polluted and animals’ habitats being destroyed by lack of water and fires and demolition for commands of more housing and so on.  There are various of things people can change to make things slow down but the damage has been done and the Earth has been affected devastatingly enough.  That little inspirational speech made me realize the reality of this sort of thing but that doesn’t mean our culture can die along with this event.  We can still keep out Native culture alive and stop dwelling on the past.

I love last night’s story telling because no matter how much Montie tried to make his story seem scary and true, most  of us were laughing…. especially me.  I didn’t find any of those stories scary except Pedro’s if he actually told the scary version.  He thought the details of contents were too “scary” for all of us.  Oh well.

Each person has some sort of background and a past that has shaped them into the person they are today.  They go through some events that could be horrible or happy. These events are important to be retold so younger siblings or children can learn from their mistakes.  It is true what our elder, Joe, says.  We are the future and we need to be the example for the next generation.  Although it seems doesn’t seem like a big deal, we need to tell our stories.  It may become a greater importance to someone else.  It may even make on feel better about themselves when they realize what depths your life took.

A story that I’d want to be heard more often is the story behind the artifacts within those museums.  Since the last time our group visited it, I’ve been pondering the stories of how it has gotten into those historians’ hands.  There is a mystery that tells a story.  We just have to discover it.  If those people had left those items to their rightful owners from way back, there wouldn’t be very much difficulty into finding those stories.  What would happen then?  Our native people of many nations have the desire to be able to have that history in our hands instead of having it lost.

My childhood was based of a unique film named “Lilo and Stitch”.  It teaches the importance of family and tells the story of how a little girl kept her emotions and conscience strong after her family was broken and became little.  She learned to forgive her new friend and later accepted him into her family although Stitch, the alien, has been very emotionally frustrating.  There were some aspects from that film that could be related to many other people’s lives and could be part of their story.  There are only few people that actually understand the extended theme throughout the movie that could help them learn some important life values.

Pitzer College has many different benefits.  Pitzer provides various of recreational activities to do after they have a long week of studying and working.  This school built a flexible cirriculum so their students can do any free activities or study.  Whatever is wisest.  There is also on-campus entertainment and special interest clubs offered by The Claremont Colleges.  When it comes to athletics, Pitzer joins with Pomona college and that makes a great team.  During this entire week, I’ve been waking up EARLY and going to bed later than usual.  I underestimated the work a college student has to go through.  There is work piled on top of work and things you wanna do when outside of class.  You also have that responsibility to finish your homework and keep you clothing in check and clean.  There really is a lot of work than what I’m really getting at.  This entire time we had our break today, I slept like a log.  There was no way I could do this every day.  It amazes me of how many times people do this without trying.  When we walked around the Scripps College, I was walking but it was without my consciousness.  I was glad we got to sleep in and get more sleep throughout the day.  My favorite part of the day! 🙂

I’ve cooked before.  I cooked for my brothers when my mom is working but never have I cooked with a true Native.  Kim Marcus is an excellent cook and his knowledge of all these natural foods within the environment is impeccable.  He taught us all that we don’t have to depend on grocery stores and his wife clarified that most myths about foods are lies.  I’ve actually learned that I was wrong about fats being bad for your body. They actually maintain your health by giving you more energy than protein.  I was actually awed by her presentation that explained each myth.  I’d like to thank them for that. (If you guys are reading thing, thanks!)  Seeing the variety of food that is surrounding the campus and even back at home was shocking because I didn’t know they were edible.  If our culture was brought more into the modern time, than I would’ve known.  This statement makes me ponder about history; what if we had won the war?  I can’t write as much as last night because that was quite tiring and I hate seeing my group wait for me.  There are little things I’d like to write on this blog tonight.  That we could live just as well without grocery stores.  Perhaps better since we wouldn’t be gorging on all those sweets.  Marcus show us what their sweets were like back then…. It was a bit too healthy.

Being side by side working on the pine nuts with my classmates made me feel even closer to them.  It made me realize that there was no way people could have done it individually because with all our pine nuts piled up, we barely filled the surface are on the bottom of the bowl.  There was no way that could’ve fed an entire village!  I couldn’t believe how our ancestors did things so intricate that it became a way of living.  It made me think that the past may have been better than the modern day.  Our people didn’t just lived with life; they made living a passion.  They kept learning new things everyday in order to survive and in a way, that just made life even more interesting.  They never knew the future.  They didn’t have our short-cuts.  They depended on each other, and that’s what we all should do in the present instead of going our separate ways.

It’s almost been a week… I miss everybody back at home!  There are my siblings, Mo’a, my mother, my step-dad, and my friends.  My family is very tough on me and that makes me strong.  Being without them, I feel, is something they prepare me for.  They want me to become an independent woman and I thank them for that.  My Mo’a, or grandma, is strict yet kind with a tang of sweetness.  There are many times she has helped me when I was feeling depressed or distressed.  She always is full of the right words and knows when to say them at the appropriate moments.  I always am ready to input any thoughts she has to say.  She is very wise and I compare my mentor to her, because in a way, Miahuatl is as kind and caring as her.  My mother is one of the toughest women I’ve ever met.  She sets my boundaries yet considers things as acceptable.  If I were to accidentally be late to come home on time, she’d forgive me.  Of course she has an idea of a discipline such as confiscating my kindle from me but that just betters me.  I wish I’d learn sooner that I should respect her instead of forgetting to do my chores.  She helps me with me in the present and in the future.  I know she obtains that knowledge way better than me and I should listen to her more often.  My siblings… I can describe them with one word.  Annoying! They are very irritating yet that just keeps my memories of them even stronger.  There is at least one brother that hasn’t caught what to do to get on my nerves.  The youngest, Joel, is always playful and ready to learn.  He has taught me patience and tolerance without even meaning to.  He could be aggressive since he is only two years and a half, but he is sweet and funny.  There are many personalities that he has even though he is still arrogant of the future.  Sometimes, I act like him since I too don’t know what the future contains.  There is also Ethan.  He isn’t as much as annoying but he can be demanding.  He is the oldest of our sibling group yet I think he has a childish side to him.  Underneath all his bossiness and calmness, there is always that little child inside of him that wants to express itself.  Don’t get the wrong idea that I’m saying he is pregnant. Ha, if that’s even possible.  Anyways, my last brother who is in the middle of the siblings just like me but younger, James.  He has an outgoing personality that keeps his listeners interested.  He still acts as though he is ignorant of what he says but we all have that type of thing that influence us to do things.  Sometimes it’s for the better.  My step-dad has taught me many things about his own culture.  I wouldn’t have known “Espanol” without him.  He teaches me that hard-work does pay off.  He inspires all of us while he works behind a kitchen all day with all that hot and humid air.  I think he could’ve been a professional in a professional kitchen at a professional restaurant and professional, professional.  He could have done many things but he chose to be with us.  That is what’s so compelling into showing what he has encouraged me to do when I go to college and get the perfect career.  Now my friends are a small pack which is constantly growing whenever I go somewhere new.  There is Karlina, Isabel, Rosalie, Julie, and Sawyer.

Being away from home is pretty sad.  I miss many different friends and family members yet I am having fun with this new experience with new people.  There are many opportunities I that open for me while at this pipeline.  Not that I don’t miss home, but I would rather make such sacrifices to get a better education and an opportunity to be more familiar with this kind of college work.  There are still things I need to learn and I think that being on this pipeline may help me find all the open doors to whatever job or studies I choose.  Maybe even by the end of this program, I will have a better understanding in myself.  Sure it sounds strange but I’d want to be open minded on this sort of stuff especially when it has to do with my future.  Not only does this pipeline help me connect to myself, but it helps me be more open to my friends.  I made new friends too! It’s not like you have a variety of friends from where I live.  It’s important for friends to be friends in a little town since it’s like a way of surviving.  If u have enemies then you should watch your back.  I got to meet people with my interests, style and even personality.  There are even some people I can trust with my future like the staff and mentors.

Throughout this entire day, I felt (and to be honest) tired and sluggish.  I couldn’t wake up from my sleep and I felt like a zombie.  I wish I could’ve went back in time and lecture myself to sleep.  It was only when our “crew” went to Mount Baldy.  Sorta an interesting name, eh?  I woke up with a surge of energy because we got to hike a little ways and we had a ceremony. The ceremony felt ecstatic!  We danced like pros…. well, maybe not literally.  But we all did great! Congrats everyone who participated… which I think was everyone. Oh well, GOOD JOB!!!!

While being in that museum, I felt our Nations’ artwork and history has been taken away.  It became unbalanced.  An abomination. They take our things and they’ve stored it within chores and shunned it to the public.  Have you seen the museums write articles on how native people can get their stuff back through an intensely long process?  How are we, native people, suppose to claim our ancestors’ beautiful headdresses, powwow dance wear, and their earned eagle feathers?  Joe told us the history behind everything; about every item and how people earned them.  There was never any words in the reservations spreading about how we can get those important stuff back.  It’s very aggravation how our people could use those things and how we need them to tell our later children the stories of each artifacts.  The historian didn’t know the story of each item and where it came from.  I feel cheated of our history because everything needs a history behind it.  You can’t just take these goods from tribes and nations just to put it up behind glass displays without our consent.  The only thing I interpret as “polite” from these doings is that they handle each and every thing with care.

Although a college education is immensely important to me, I take my culture with stronger seriousness. In my understanding, our native culture may be able to be accepted in few colleges such as Pitzer College, but how many are there in each state?  Sure our people can go to regular and more “white” colleges, yet, we wouldn’t be fully accepted.  Of course there are going to be those people who will see our culture and rituals as weird and strange.  There is going to be those racist statements made within those colleges but that’s what makes us strong.  If we survive these few obstacles, then what could stop us?  We have the courage and bravery to do these things; we just have to find it.  We will always be the opposing ones which people may consider us as strange, however, that is what makes us unique.  Our people and families are one of a kind. We are independent and we don’t need things to shape us into whatever people want us to see.

Today, I had a talk with David Zachary, one of our teachers.  He lead me to a better understanding into what type of career I may most be likely able to do veterinarian work but I should still keep an open mind.  About a year ago, my father introduced Nikola Tesla into my mind.  Tesla once said, “Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments.  The present is theirs, the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” The way I reflect on this quote, it reminds me that I have that future to look forward to.  If I really worked hard to get that positive reinforcement, I can accomplish countless things.  Signing Out~ Joye

During these few days I’ve been in Pitzer College Pipeline (which I think is very fun), I’ve develop a immense interest with common application workshop because it taught me to better understand the importance of the future.  In this class, we looked up colleges matching with our skills and future careers.  I’ve noticed that very few people accepted that the concept revolving around the idea of college isn’t on the top of their list.  There are very few rules to follow when thinking about the incoming jobs.  First off, you’d need to try your best.  I often have problems while doing this because my laziness gets the best of me and I’ll not try.  Many people can relate with that.  What I mean by not being lazy, I don’t mean to just exercising (which I need to do 😉 ).  Everyone needs to do homework and participate into many other extracurricular activities which would help you while applying for a college.  You’d also need to make the appropriate life choices without following people’s decisions because it’s best if you become your own person.  When looking for the right colleges, you can also go to these two different websites. “Commonapp.org” and “collegeview.com”.

In this new community at Pitzer, they help me get better ideals about future decisions.  My parents and Mo’a inspire me to continue towards college.  Surprisingly, my siblings inspire me also in a indirect way.  There are many things that encourage me to do things yet I can’t explain them very well.  I have difficulty expressing certain ideals that come to my thoughts yet I’d eventually allow those thoughts to be typed or written in better eloquence than my current style.

I’ve been trying to contain all the talents and natural skills that I posses and I’d rather become more decisive in my studying choices.  Although it’s very tempting into giving in into laziness, I’d rather  continue onward to be able to have a secure and successful future.  There are still thousands of little things that may swerve my perspective into the other direction yet I’ll still try to become more confident into what I’ll like to become.  Attending to this pipeline was one of my decisions influenced by the thought of college.

Today, I’ve been able to relate to the science classes and I think I may start looking into dedicating my studies towards that.  To become a veterinarian, I know that you’d have to take a science class which would help you getting better into that career.  I’ll make my decision later or eventually after the pipeline.