I whip the dust off of my keyboard, as I think back a month ago about the beauty and intricate youth bonding that occurred at our January Face-to-Face gathering. It's been more than two weeks since I initiated my depiction of the F2F weekend, so pardon me if I do not include all the juicy details of those three wonderful days.
So, as I recall, I left off right at our arrival... The place was really nice. In a cabin-like environment, it was surrounded by arching trees, lots of green grass, and ample space for the 60 plus people who were going to be spending the weekend in this Youth Center retreat. I walk inside, as I'm instantly greeted by Diego and Felipe. We hug, and Diego points out the rooms in which we will be sleeping in and gives me a mini-tour of the establishment. After dropping my bags off on the top bunk bed of which I will be sleeping in, I slowly walk around to explore, and greet all of my youth movement friends. Some new, some old. Gradually, the more people that arrive, the better. Sam and Steph open up the night with the establishing of the ground rules that need to be followed on the weekend as we all listen intently. Some of the names of the rules are funny, but they were all obeyed for the most part. "Don't yuck my yum," would be an example. Which basically means do not shoot down what someone else said. Clever name, don't ya think? Following the ground rules, a quick activity of introductions involving balloons ensued, which everyone seemed to enjoy! And lights out soon after. Especially for those who had traveled from other parts of the state and were exhausted from being strapped down to a car for whatever number of hours they traveled. Day One was done.
Day Two: I am awakened at 6 A.M. to the yapping and chattering of soccer talk. Mind you, I LOVE talking about soccer, but NOT at six in the morning! Whatever, I am already awake, and as I look around, so is Facundo and Diego who were obviously disturbed from the noise as well. I stumble into the bathroom corridors, plunk my contacts into my eyeballs, and jump in the shower. The shower was surprisingly nice, with hot, steamy water but it had to be quick! The girls were waiting for the guys to finish.
Finally, I'm in the main room with breakfast already being served. I chow down on a great breakfast cooked and delivered by our very own members with bagels, strands of grapes, strawberries, eggs, and delicious coffee just to mention some of the delicious breakfast items! Consequently, Grey begins the day with what is to be discussed on the agenda and an energizer activity exercised in the front yard of the youth retreat.
This is where everything kind of becomes a blur in my memory because we did so many things on that epic Saturday! From the birthday aligning of all the members in which you had to be mute, to deliberating on the nominations of new steering committee reps., to running around the entire place in chainmail unison, to the privilege activity, to the counting the squares activity, everything was a blast! Now you might think, they didn't get anything productive done?! But, we did! We bonded and got to know one another, especially those who we had never met. For example, I met Rommy Torrico! Which I did not even know was Grey's younger sister, but we had a great one-on-one conversation talking about tennis and our common heritage. We are both Chilean, the best country ever! Hehe.
In addition, amidst all the fun, games, and activities, we did touch on the most important subject which was the We Are Florida campaign. Very well done by Felipe and Diego. They outlined the major points of the campaign and how we, as representatives of each county, can help and assist in the dismantling of the racial profiling copycat bills being introduced in the Florida legislature. Subash even made a special appearance and gave a quick run-through of the SB 1070-like bills and a condensed version of his Know Your Rights trainings.
The coolest and most knowledg-packed presentation was Luna's though. His explanation of Plan Colombia was so jam packed with information that I just stood there in awe, hugging with Jessy, as we keenly listened to each of Luna's explanations of the beautifully crafted white cloth piece laying on the cement sidewalk. You could hear a pin drop as all eyes and ears were on Luna. It was an experience that I had never seen. Truly eye opening.
Lastly, Saturday's events could not culminate with anything less than a soccer game! On an outdoor basketball court that is! We all had to be pretty careful, but it got intense as does ANY soccer game. I knocked Sam in the nose, Facundo collided shins with me, Esteban broke his nose...Haha, no, never THAT bad! Don't worry everybody, nothing happened to Panda's nose. But, yeah, it was an awesome game! Especially having Walter, Diego, and myself on one team! We balled up. Enough said. The Argentinean bragging started rubbing off, sorry guys. Hehe.
After soccer, everyone kind of did their own thing. Some people were outside by the bonfire indulging in roasted marshmellows and bootleg smores or everyone else was inside dancing and having a blast "letting loose!" Grey was by far the life of the party with her eccentric but ridiculously cool dance moves! Everyone had a great time in the "dance room" which made the party last until 2 in the morning! I was exhausted before the music was turned off and slept like a baby. Great Saturday.
Day Three: The final day had arrived. Sunday. Everyone woke up a little later and more tired than the prior day, but in a great mood! We obviously had a delicious breakfast once again, and before everyone departed on their ways back to their respective homes we deliberated on the steering committee decisions, created a proposal that was adopted unanimously to have a list of contacts on the SWER website of point persons of different chapters and regions, and Esteban and Fabby did a quick KYR training. Oh, and how can I forget, our technical genius, Walter, gave a run through on the SWER website and how to work with it. We still had one more activity though, a Theater of the Oppressed rendition by Luna and Edwin. It was awesome! We all interacted together and ended up in a huge pile with everyone hugging each other and maybe touching each other in forbidden places. Haha, I'm sure it happened. We all laughed and had a great time :)
Then, as we began to clean up and say our goodbyes, the distribution of our "fan mail" aka our envelopes was given which kind of got everyone emotional but with tears of joy and happiness. Especially Mayra, she was waterworks!
We really are a great group of individuals, united together with the same goal to better our lives and that of others. I am honored to have attended such a special weekend, and cannot wait until the next Face-to-Face meeting is scheduled and running!
P.S. I'm sorry that I might not have gone into a detailed description of everything, but it was a month ago! My busy mind cannot remember everything, but I loved having finally composed this post and back to my writing ways! Love you all! Until next time!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
"Hey Hey Hey..Face-to-Face Meeting" Part I
The Face-to-Face, el Cara-a-Cara, the duel, the showdown, the main event fight...At least that's what comes to mind when I hear about a "Face-to-Face" meeting. But, a SWER Face-to-Face meeting is the total opposite. No gloves involved, no taunting, no bickering, no bloody lips, no swollen eyes like that of Antonio Margarito's post-Pacquiao fight. Now, that was ugly.
Nevertheless, a Florida Youth Movement Face-to-Face meeting consists of all of the immigrant youth clubs and organizations in Florida coming together at a single location for the length of a weekend. At the meeting, numerous topics are discussed ranging from the events that the movement should focus on to the election of new regional officials to workshops detailing the framework of the We Are Florida campaign (fight against the Racial Profiling bills) to relaxing and fun activities that we, as members, participate in, in order to meet new faces in the struggle for immigrant rights and advocacy of human activism.
Mind you, this was my first F2F meeting, but I had heard many good things about it so I was excited to participate in the weekend's events. Plus, I was going to see friends that I had made from FLIC Congress last November, so I was stoked. Let's start from the beginning though, three weeks away from the F2F date and there was still no set location!
The location was originally suppose to be Indiantown, in central Florida, but apparently there was a stick in the road with that plan so a new location had to be found ASAP! Luckily, Diego, Felipe, Steph, Gaby Mejia, and a few other people organized diligently and were able to find a cozy spot near downtown Miami that facilitated their location to us for the busy weekend. Emails were expedited to all of the core leaders of each chapter in order to create the list of attendees, instructions on the events of the weekend, and rules and regulations of the allocated location. Everything ran smooth as butter and Friday the 28th showed up in no time. At least from a spectator's point of view. I don't know how hectic things were behind the scenes. Hehe.
Friday creeps up, I get back home from hitting with Danny in the morning and I am already behind schedule because I have not packed. At all. I run around my house gathering all my things and stuffing them into my bag. Shorts, shirts, underwear, contact solution, deoderant, pogo stick are flung in the air as I do my best impersonation of the Flash. Pogo stick? You guys caught that right. I don't own a pogo stick even though I'm not going to lie, they are pretty cool. Back on track, OK, so I kiss my dog goodbye and I walk out the door towards the bus stop. Of course, it's a Friday afternoon, and all of my potential "rides" aka my parents or my brother are working so I have to take the bus to the metro to my final destination. Hmm, Final Destination, freaky ass movie, at least the original one. The sequels were kind of dumb. Whatever.
I meet up Fabby and Rosa at the Dadeland North station and we embark on our journey in search of the F2F retreat. We exit at the Vizcaya station as I pull out my trusty iPhone, input the address into Google Maps, and to our surprise, the place is walking distance. Of course, Fabby does not want to walk, but Rosa and I using our excellent persuasive skills convince Fabby that it's "not that far" and our foot trail begins. We walk, and walk, and walk some more. Not as much as the Trail of Dreams walkers, but a good fifteen-twenty minutes. Until, we are lost. Where the hell is this place? But, out of the shadows, appears Luna! We hop in his car, he drops us off, and we have arrived...
It seems as if this post is reaching Bible-length again and I do not want to lose my readers so I will have to place a pause on this epic weekend. I also have to get over to the tennis courts because I'm itching to get my hit in and run my ass off at practice. Wow, that kinda sounds like a drug reference, my "hit in?" Haha. Tennis lingo. Hopefully, I'll find some time later tonight to complete my rendition of my Face-to-Face meeting. Glad that I didn't run into Manny Pacquiao. Don't need physical face reconstruction, thank you.
Nevertheless, a Florida Youth Movement Face-to-Face meeting consists of all of the immigrant youth clubs and organizations in Florida coming together at a single location for the length of a weekend. At the meeting, numerous topics are discussed ranging from the events that the movement should focus on to the election of new regional officials to workshops detailing the framework of the We Are Florida campaign (fight against the Racial Profiling bills) to relaxing and fun activities that we, as members, participate in, in order to meet new faces in the struggle for immigrant rights and advocacy of human activism.
Mind you, this was my first F2F meeting, but I had heard many good things about it so I was excited to participate in the weekend's events. Plus, I was going to see friends that I had made from FLIC Congress last November, so I was stoked. Let's start from the beginning though, three weeks away from the F2F date and there was still no set location!
The location was originally suppose to be Indiantown, in central Florida, but apparently there was a stick in the road with that plan so a new location had to be found ASAP! Luckily, Diego, Felipe, Steph, Gaby Mejia, and a few other people organized diligently and were able to find a cozy spot near downtown Miami that facilitated their location to us for the busy weekend. Emails were expedited to all of the core leaders of each chapter in order to create the list of attendees, instructions on the events of the weekend, and rules and regulations of the allocated location. Everything ran smooth as butter and Friday the 28th showed up in no time. At least from a spectator's point of view. I don't know how hectic things were behind the scenes. Hehe.
Friday creeps up, I get back home from hitting with Danny in the morning and I am already behind schedule because I have not packed. At all. I run around my house gathering all my things and stuffing them into my bag. Shorts, shirts, underwear, contact solution, deoderant, pogo stick are flung in the air as I do my best impersonation of the Flash. Pogo stick? You guys caught that right. I don't own a pogo stick even though I'm not going to lie, they are pretty cool. Back on track, OK, so I kiss my dog goodbye and I walk out the door towards the bus stop. Of course, it's a Friday afternoon, and all of my potential "rides" aka my parents or my brother are working so I have to take the bus to the metro to my final destination. Hmm, Final Destination, freaky ass movie, at least the original one. The sequels were kind of dumb. Whatever.
I meet up Fabby and Rosa at the Dadeland North station and we embark on our journey in search of the F2F retreat. We exit at the Vizcaya station as I pull out my trusty iPhone, input the address into Google Maps, and to our surprise, the place is walking distance. Of course, Fabby does not want to walk, but Rosa and I using our excellent persuasive skills convince Fabby that it's "not that far" and our foot trail begins. We walk, and walk, and walk some more. Not as much as the Trail of Dreams walkers, but a good fifteen-twenty minutes. Until, we are lost. Where the hell is this place? But, out of the shadows, appears Luna! We hop in his car, he drops us off, and we have arrived...
It seems as if this post is reaching Bible-length again and I do not want to lose my readers so I will have to place a pause on this epic weekend. I also have to get over to the tennis courts because I'm itching to get my hit in and run my ass off at practice. Wow, that kinda sounds like a drug reference, my "hit in?" Haha. Tennis lingo. Hopefully, I'll find some time later tonight to complete my rendition of my Face-to-Face meeting. Glad that I didn't run into Manny Pacquiao. Don't need physical face reconstruction, thank you.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Balancing Act
Half way through the fourth week of the spring semester and a month into the new year, I already foresee this as the busiest college semester ever. I reference college because the most strenuous scholastic year that I endured in high school was definitely sophomore year. Pre-Calculus homework by Mr. Innes kept me awake until at least 2:00 AM three out of the five days of the school week and the rest of my classes, projects, and tennis definitely beat me into a bloody pulp. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a tad bit. In retrospect though, I am surprised at how dedicated and diligent I was as a high school sophomore. After that year, I think senioritis kicked into full gear.
But, this Spring '11 semester will definitely kick my ass if I don't prepare myself. With the help of my new iPhone (using the Calendar app) I was able to plan out my January events and have been working on February as well! Something I would have NEVER done before, or maybe tried to do but ultimately would have failed because of laziness. Balancing five classes in a four-day school week, being the Vice-President of the SWER chapter at St. Thomas, gearing up for my last tennis season as a collegiate athlete, and trying to teach tennis on the side to make some bucks undoubtedly will be the death of me if I do not shape up my organization skills. This does not include extra-curricular activities that I would love to do such as running a half-marathon sometime in March, indulging in the yearly visits to the Sony Ericsson Open, partying to house music during Winter Music Conference week or Ultra Music Festival, and participating in the 2011 Freedom Rides at the end of the semester in early May.
This hectic schedule is bound to leave me with some gray hairs, but I would not have it any other way. Yes, of course, I could always look back to last year where my only responsibilities were tennis and schoolwork which left me with plenty of more leisure time, but I think that I am ready to take on these new roles and responsibilities in life.
I feel as if I am doing the right things and tipping the scale of my life in the right direction. There's exactly a week left until we, the STU tennis team, face off against the reigning NCAA II National Champs, Barry University. Even though Barry was too scared to add us to their schedule and is only calling this a scrimmage match, I am waiting anxiously to surprise them just like we did last season. Against Barry, I probably played one of the best matches of my career, upsetting their number one player and escaping with a 10-7 third set tiebreak win. The final score was 3-6, 7-5, (10-7). Barry still beat us in the overall, 7-2, but I savored that win for the next few weeks following the match. This time around, the Barry coach did not schedule us for an official match because "God, forbid, the almighty Buccaneers lose A MATCH against the Bobcats," which is probably what the coach was thinking. I on the other hand will go out there guns blazing and will fight to pull another upset yet again!
How could I forget to mention the Florida Youth Movement Face-to-Face Meeting which culminated just a few days ago, some of you might be asking? Hold on, hold on, I cannot detail the events of such a powerfully informational weekend in just one post or this blog post might as well become the eighth book in the Harry Potter series! So, with that said, I will devote my subsequent post solely to the amazing Face-to-Face event held last weekend where I will spoil everyone with juicy, scrumptious details of the three day event! Just kidding! "What happens at the Face-to-Face, Stays at the Face-to-Face!"...Until it reaches my blog! Until next time, gotta hit the sack right now. My body is calling for it.
But, this Spring '11 semester will definitely kick my ass if I don't prepare myself. With the help of my new iPhone (using the Calendar app) I was able to plan out my January events and have been working on February as well! Something I would have NEVER done before, or maybe tried to do but ultimately would have failed because of laziness. Balancing five classes in a four-day school week, being the Vice-President of the SWER chapter at St. Thomas, gearing up for my last tennis season as a collegiate athlete, and trying to teach tennis on the side to make some bucks undoubtedly will be the death of me if I do not shape up my organization skills. This does not include extra-curricular activities that I would love to do such as running a half-marathon sometime in March, indulging in the yearly visits to the Sony Ericsson Open, partying to house music during Winter Music Conference week or Ultra Music Festival, and participating in the 2011 Freedom Rides at the end of the semester in early May.
This hectic schedule is bound to leave me with some gray hairs, but I would not have it any other way. Yes, of course, I could always look back to last year where my only responsibilities were tennis and schoolwork which left me with plenty of more leisure time, but I think that I am ready to take on these new roles and responsibilities in life.
I feel as if I am doing the right things and tipping the scale of my life in the right direction. There's exactly a week left until we, the STU tennis team, face off against the reigning NCAA II National Champs, Barry University. Even though Barry was too scared to add us to their schedule and is only calling this a scrimmage match, I am waiting anxiously to surprise them just like we did last season. Against Barry, I probably played one of the best matches of my career, upsetting their number one player and escaping with a 10-7 third set tiebreak win. The final score was 3-6, 7-5, (10-7). Barry still beat us in the overall, 7-2, but I savored that win for the next few weeks following the match. This time around, the Barry coach did not schedule us for an official match because "God, forbid, the almighty Buccaneers lose A MATCH against the Bobcats," which is probably what the coach was thinking. I on the other hand will go out there guns blazing and will fight to pull another upset yet again!
How could I forget to mention the Florida Youth Movement Face-to-Face Meeting which culminated just a few days ago, some of you might be asking? Hold on, hold on, I cannot detail the events of such a powerfully informational weekend in just one post or this blog post might as well become the eighth book in the Harry Potter series! So, with that said, I will devote my subsequent post solely to the amazing Face-to-Face event held last weekend where I will spoil everyone with juicy, scrumptious details of the three day event! Just kidding! "What happens at the Face-to-Face, Stays at the Face-to-Face!"...Until it reaches my blog! Until next time, gotta hit the sack right now. My body is calling for it.
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