SAAC is known as being a competition, and when people hear you're going to one, they say their goodbyes with "good luck". True, the vast majority of SAAC events are competitions between various schools in South America, but this particular one is different. Just in case you don't know what SAAC is, it's an acronym for South American Activities Conference, and reunites schools from Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay, and of course Peru. Usually, SAAC revolves around a sport such as basketball, soccer, volleyball or swimming. However, this one is different. I present SAAC Fine Arts. This is the one SAAC event, where instead of competing against each other, we work together to create music, drama plays or art. After weeks, or even months, of rehearsing songs, polishing plays, and perfecting art pieces, six schools come together to put different pieces together. In my past experiences, and regarding the choir ONLY, we had been very unprepared. Rehearsals were a lot more tedious, where each part from each song was revised separately multiple times in the attempt of getting it perfect at the concert. However, this time there was a more professional feeling in the air (although the overall feeling in Chile last year was a lot nicer, but that's not very relevant). At the first rehearsal, we went over the songs so smoothly, that I was starting to feel like the songs were so much easier than previous years. But this is a lie! We were singing songs in Quechua, and a Zimbabwen anti-drinking song from the Shona people. Everything was done with no lyrics and most included intricate clapping or snapping rhythm sections--and believe me, it's hard to clap and sing and dance, as well as trying to remember the lyrics of a song in Shona dialect. What I love about singing in the SAAC choir, is the opportunity to practice in our home countries and come together to put a full on concert in just 3 days. Every time I come back from one of the festivals, I feel like I strengthen my weaknesses, and work on my strengths, especially now because we don't have a functioning choir at school. This lack of choir, did make me realize that I was losing my ability to sight-read music, match pitch as well as harmonize, all things I consider my strengths, and I was none other than distraught. However, I felt that this year I was surrounded by great people, who are even greater musicians, and was in good hands that could help out whenever I was stuck. As my fourth year of participation began, I still felt that buzz for meeting new people I had felt waaaay back when I was a freshman, and am I glad I did. This year, I made a bigger effort to talk to people I had met the previous years and made sure that I had a way of keeping in touch with them, unlike previous years where I only kept to my Roosevelt crew. But, the most important thing I got out of this years festival is that music is like a machine, and each part has to be well oiled in order for the machine to work properly. As we had all previously rehearsed the songs in our home countries way before the festival, when the time for SAAC came around, we just had to put the pieces together and fine-tune the machine.
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I dream of donuts, the IA dreams of smoothies and Jiro dreams of sushi. We all dream of food, in very similar but also very different ways. Just a quick recap, Jiro Ono is the owner of Sukiyashabi Jiro, the best sushi restaurant in Tokyo, and probably in the world. Although his restaurant has won 3 Michelin stars, he does not conform. Jiro literally dreams of sushi. He dreams of new things, as well as classic dishes, and how to improve them. Jiro is probably the most hard-working person I have ever heard of. As I said before, he doesn't conform, and it's all for the best. Jiro was kicked out of his house when he was in 1st grade and had to survive on his own, because there was no going back home. But this made him what he is today. As the world's best sushi chef, he is always trying to improve; he's at what everyone considers the top, but he knows he can still climb even higher. As I start Glazed, my donut company, I'm constantly trying out new recipes. I want to have three recipes before I start selling, but after trying so many, I have only finalized one. Why is this? Everyone who has tried the other recipes have loved them, but I can't find myself putting them on my menu because they're not good enough. If they're not good enough for me, then they're not good enough to sell. I like to think that just like Jiro, I don't conform. As soon as the documentary was playing, I could find parallels between Jiro and BlendZ. For one, Jiro has everything systematized to the T, where everything runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. That's where we're trying to be. We're trying to implement systems to our company so we can pass it down to the next owners being as efficient as possible. Just like Jiro passing the restaurant to his oldest son. Jiro was constantly saying "always try to elevate your craft" and, whether this is sushi, food, school or work, that's what we should always want to achieve. We should always want to improve, for yourself and for the people around you. March 6th, Karen and I made a decision which ended with bad consequences. We messed up, and when we went to own up to it, we were greeted with "you can't make decisions based on assumptions." At that moment of extreme guilt I agreed, but there was something about that phrase that wouldn't go away; those seven words kept nagging at me, stuck at the back of my head. I had agreed with them in the moment, but I started to question them later that day. Was that RIGHT? Can I really NOT make decisions based on assumptions? It did not feel correct. I started to reflect back on the the year in the IA and things that we had done based mostly on assumptions. Our business pitches, one of our first assignments, were based almost 100% on assumptions. According to Pedro, people would gladly welcome an on-campus importing store; DD believed that fro-yo would be an awesome asset to the campus; Babi and Stangl believed that smoothies would hit the spot. These were ideas created based on assumptions from talking with a couple of friends and hearing their opinions on what our school needed. Although a couple of people were not the whole school and not the complete target audience, they were good enough to assume that smoothies were what we wanted. Low and behold, BlendZ was born, and it has become very successful. Recently, I also made the decision to start my own donut business: Glazed Donut Co. This was a decision made because I don't like the donuts that Dunkin Donuts sells and supposed I wasn't the only one. Before I even had finalized recipes and figured out prices, I was already excitingly posting pictures on Instagram and Facebook of my donuts, gaging the reactions and excitement from my peers aka my target audience. Since the reactions were positive and excitement high, I created a Facebook page. In just a day and a half, I had reached almost 100 likes (I honestly wasn't expecting this). Again, this was based on the assumption that there were people like me that didn't like Dunking Donuts and would gladly welcome am alternative to them. But let's go back to when Karen and I messed up. We explained our situation and agreed to present the following Friday what we had skipped out on the previous one. This time, we were greeted with an excited 9th grade class and not the mocking jeers that the juniors had received us with, a positive start to our brief presentation. We switched up our speech and I tried to make it more exciting. This time it was a reminder that Habla Roosevelt was starting the day after, we needed volunteers who wanted to spend six Saturday mornings of the semester teaching English and that it was going to be fun, rewarding and a learning experience, celebrated with fun activities on the last day of classes. This time, there was more interest and the atmosphere felt more positive and alert. As soon as one hand came up wanting a paper with more information, so did several more. In the end, yes, we messed up and skipped on something that we shouldn't have, giving off the wrong kind of energy and vibe that we wanted Habla Roosevelt to have. But in the end, it wasn't all negative. Making decisions based on assumptions can have both its positive and negative reactions, but when executed perfectly, there is no reason as to why those choices have to end negatively.
We're taking some stuff for granted this semester. A week before starting school, the Habla Roosevelt team had a meeting in which we scheduled dates as to when we were going to start and how everything was going to work out. We planned everything as if we already had volunteers and more than one teacher that would be working but that was not the case. We were also working around the fact that we though getting volunteers would be as easy as 1, 2, 3 and everything would fall into place. But that wasn't the case. We expected that recruiting volunteers would be easy and we would have plenty of students interested in joining us. But recruiting is hard, especially during summer when most all students are going to the beach and don't want to sacrifice their precious weekend to come to school. I talked in front of middle school and high school and in front of individual homerooms last week, as well as to individual students, but haven't been able to get past four interested people. In all honesty, it kind of feels like me talking to them has been in vain. I feel that we are trying to hurry up Habla Roosevelt because we are so excited for it to happen and we want to start it ASAP. Our plan is to start March 14th, but it feels like we're starting without having a very good foundation: volunteers. At this point, there is absolutely no turning back because we've already made a promise to others, but we're going against the clock. Sometimes assumptions can be good and harmless, but sometimes, like this time, they are not so good and turn things frustrating. As a pilot program, we definitely want to make sure that everything goes accordingly and without any problems, and we especially don't want to let the Habla Roosevelt students down, but by hurrying things up there is a chance that that might occur. We don't have many volunteers, but they were supposed to be the driving force behind the program. In an attempt to make Habla Roosevelt happen, we have sacrificed perfection and hurried things up. It makes me wonder, are we hurrying things up too much?
This week has probably been one of the weeks in which I've done so many firsts: interviewed a teacher for a possible job position; started recruiting volunteers for something I'm co-leading; stood up in front of the senior class to talk about it. Apart from Lunahuana, I've never done so many firsts in such a short amount of time, and it feels good.
Towards the end of last semester, I was starting to feel discouraged about my purpose in BlendZ. We were so unsure about taking decisions regarding the truck, that I felt stuck. I felt like we were going around and around the same idea but we weren't getting anywhere. I was losing my motivation, and with it, my purpose. We had a BlendZ meeting during vacation and the food cart idea was introduced to us. I thought it a great solution to our problem but the gears in my head were turning; what am I going to do now? My position as Director of Architecture and Building was kind of void now and I didn't know what I was going to do for rest of the semester. However, there was no lack of jobs and tasks to be completed and I volunteered to help Karen out with what was then called Habla BlendZ, now known as Habla Roosevelt. Over the summer, I helped with creating the profile for the teacher we would hire and the recruitment of volunteers. When we started school, we split into hiring the teacher--Karen--, and recruiting the volunteers--me. Instead of sitting in front of a computer trying to find different truck designs and contacts to make them like I was doing last semester, I was sending out emails, talking with teachers, setting up meetings and interviewing possible teachers for the team. I was running around and I was actually getting stuff done. Since word about Habla Roosevelt has started to spread on campus, I've had a couple of teachers come up to me and tell me that it's such a great initiative and such a great opportunity. And honestly, even though I liked looking for trucks and different ideas, I've never felt so motivated to be working in BlendZ. Don't get me wrong, I used to like it before, but now I love it. Last week, I was dreading the fact that this week I need to stand up in front of different grade levels and high school to talk about Habla Roosevelt and recruit volunteers. At this present moment, I'm already starting to feel the adrenaline rush and I love it. Working to make Habla Roosevelt possible is making BlendZ so much more fulfilling for me to work at because I love to feel the buzz and the excitement whenever I talk with one of the workers about it. When we had the meeting with the four sindicato leaders over the break, I was amazed at how forward they were, asking any possible question in order to make sure that Habla Roosevelt is a total success and not a total flop. Working directly with them has also allowed me to put a face on who I'm working for, making it so much more real and worthwhile. I know who I'm working for and I don't want to let them down. It makes me so happy and so excited, that I'd probably be one of the saddest if Habla Roosevelt didn't work out; and for this, I promise to give my all. I've found my purpose, BlendZ edition. |
Author"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Archives
June 2015
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