A • P E R S O N A L • R E C O U N T

As part of the Journey into Literature, a Literature course offered in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, we had a course assignment that consisted in creating and running a blog. We had to total 10 entries, 11 with this one. A blog is a personal space for anyone to write and express their ideas, thoughts or emotions, etc. This can be a personal blog, where no one but the author is able to see the writings, or a pubic one, where anyone can enter and read your posts and/or wish to comment on their thoughts on your post, if you wish for them to do so.

This experience to me was a new one. I use to write my thoughts, but to myself, not for everyone else to read. But nonetheless, apart from a single post that I pulled the courage to upload for everyone to read, it was fun to write and run a blog. Also, I found it greatly entertaining for me do decorate and basically decide the layout and the aesthetic of the blog perse. Blogging has become a recent modality for many people during the recent years, and I've never expected to go though the experience of running one, and having so much fun while doing so.

Since this was part of a class requirement, most of the post were related to readings discussed in class and special assignments from the professor. From my perspective this way is an innovative and interesting way to make students interested in writing reflections and implementing technology to do so. Having students run a blog, makes it easier to transmit their thoughts and impulse their creativity both when writing and setting the blog to their personal tastes.  After the end of the class, I will most probably run back to my blog to express and convey anything that I feel like to share with anyone who is interested in reading my posts. I greatly enjoyed this experience and plan on experimenting more with blogging

• F R E E L A N C E R S •

During a cold morning on November 14 at around 5:30am The Freelancers decided to get together in Caguas, Puerto Rico to go up in a hike to the "Arbol Solitario" or Lonely Tree in Cayey/Salinas Puerto Rico. We got to knew each other on a Literature Class named Journey into Literature in the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. Once the professor called our names and told us we would be a group, we quickly got along marvelously. Since our friendship grew, one of the members suggested that we go on a hike, that he would lead us on the way. We all got very excited and scheduled the hour and date, so that we would go chase the sunrise and see it from up in the mountains. 

The date of the hike had to be postponed once because of academically work, since we are students from different faculties and each got a packed schedule all of a sudden. But this didn't matter, because once we found an opening, we jumped at the chance. The hour may seem quite early, but it was just the perfect hour. "El Arbol Solitario" was a place I knew one could go up on a hike, but before getting to know The Freelancers, I didn't know how to get up there, nor I had friends that were willing to go and explore those uncharted lands that none of us knew.

"El Arbol Solitario" is a tree you see when you are cruising along the PR-52 interstate highway. Once you are going down the mountain on the highway, after you pass the Monument of the Jibaro, you'll see a lone tree up on the mountain. This tree doesn't have other trees of its stature near by, hence the name The Lonely Tree. This trail is accessible through an emergency ramp right after the monument that I mentioned earlier. To my surprise, this hike is marked and easy to follow. I have been to only a few hikes in my life, but I would consider this trail an intermediate, although is not all that difficult. 

Once we reached the top (at around 7:00am) the view was breathtakingly beautiful. We could see the highway and all the beautiful green scenery that Puerto Rico has to offer. Also, since it was sprinkling rain, we got to view a beautiful rainbow engulfed in some of the early mountain fog. All the work done to get to the top was worth it. There is no greater pleasure than to work for something and get such an amazing reward as the reward, in this case, the view. If you are a local, and never have been there before, this hike is definitely a most do; also if you're a tourist, this is too a must do. This is a wonderful opportunity to witness the beautiful sunrise or sunset, whichever your preference, this is something you won't be disappointed in doing.

Photo Credit: George Arnaldo

"The best view comes after the hardest climb"

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Thanks George for the amazing opportunity. 

• B U T H A N •

 Upon reading the book written by Eric Weiner, tiled "Geography of Bliss",  I came to the understanding that happiness is something relative. Happiness depends, on my opinion, on your particular feelings and how you take your life experiences and what you make of them. Weiner on his book, describes how Bhutan was a city rated as one of the happiest in the world. This is something that Weiner felt very interested about, and decided to visit. Upon arriving at the country, he was greeted with the great hospitality and friendliness. But to me, this seemed as it was a forced happiness. The Bhutanese, to me, appeared as if they were happy because their king was happy, they didn't feel happiness because they genuinely felt it.

  Everyone experiences happiness in different ways, and definitely culture, country and religion greatly influence this. I live in the country and small island of Puerto Rico. We often are celebrated as being one big happy country that if given the opportunity, celebrates anything and everything. As everything, not always its all fun and celebration. Puerto Rico has been under public scrutiny for over so many years because of the debt caused by the corruption of many politics. But even given this situation, I am grateful to be called Puertorrican, because even in the greatest adversity, we manage to face our everyday lives with a smile and great joy of our country.

  But happiness is not always "measured" you can say, the same way. As I mentioned before, happiness is relative. What makes a person happy, might make another angry. In Weiner's chapter describing his visit to Bhutan, we can see how the Bhutanese people don't ponder much into the reflection about what makes them happy or nor, they just go on in their everyday journey enjoying everything that life and that day has to offer. We must not worry too much about the things that make us sad or keep us from resting at night. We must understand that sadness is temporary and that everyday the rising of the sun gives us another opportunity to go about our day and experience our new happiness. Because sometimes, all this worrying and overthinking causes us to miss those opportunities and/or experiences that would've granted is happiness, even if it was just for a moment. It's those little moments that we must embrace, because when we're older, most probably what we remember the most, will be those little moments, thus we have to make every day count and not delve  too much on sad and stressful things, and make everyday, a happy day.

"What doesn't kill you not only make you stronger, but also more honest."
                                    – Eric Seiner

A • D A Y • I N • A • B A K E R Y

 

"Quesitos"

I have had the privilege and opportunity to travel to various countries and places with my family. While being on another country, one is a tourist, and usually stand out. Since in between the to and fro of things, we stop to try new foods, to take pictures, basically, do anything and everything to stand out. As part of a class assignment, I was instructed to play the part of tourist for a day. I decided that I wanted to try and play off my best impression of a British accent, and decided to go to a bakery not too far from my house, and not to far also from the common tourist area of Isla Verde. The name of the bakery was "Panaderia Metropolitana". I discovered this bakery while on a volunteer work one night, and what impressed me the most, was that it as a 24 hour bakery.

  While in the line, I was getting cold feet. I was so nervous, I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. I wondered if they would look at me funny, if I would be so nervous that I would start to laugh; so many other things filled my head in that moment. I had never felt so nervous! When it was my turn to order, I started speaking in a British accent, and I stated that I found this bakery while driving without aim in order to see other aspects of the island. I noted that the person looked at me in a weird way, and I started to panic a bit, because it looked as if she didn't understand me. It was here that I to panicked internally. She started to flash at me with her hands that she didn't understand me, and started to look for someone that did speak English. She finally found someone in the back that spoke English,  at this point I gave up on trying to do the British accent impression. I told that I wanted to buy some sweets, but that I didn't know which. He then proceded to recommend me "quesitos", "tembleque", "tres leches" and "flan de queso".

"Tembleque"

  Although my impression of the British accent was kind of off in parts of the conversation because I was so nervous, I think that they really didn't believe I was a tourist, and the way they would look at me made it even more true. Fortunately, the lady that took my order first didn't understand my English, which prompted the change in the person, and thus made me regret speaking in the British accent, because it made me really self conscious. While pretending to be a tourist, I experienced first hand the different treatment that is given to tourists, even though I think that they didn't believe me, they went along with it. Even though I think I got a treatment that was a little courteous and more friendly than usual, I don't think that the treatment, in this particular place, was not going to be much different than the treatment that a local would get. Regardless, I was glad to have the experience to be a tourist in my own town. This experience is one I will certainly be doing for fun in the future.

T H E • C A R O U S E L • R I D E

           One way or another, everything in our lives is a carousel ride. We jump, we get excited, and we are desperately waiting in a line. We wait for the ones who are riding the carousel to end their ride so that we can go climb our horse (or whatever creature is on the carousel) and start our ride. When we were little, very very little, we didn’t know what a carousel ride was. Our eyes would look with great wonder and amazement at that foreign object that we had never seen before, and get excited and wait for our turn to get to enjoy the ride.

   It may sound bogus, but think about it… In life, we get to experience things once, others more than a few times. If we are satisfied with the experience we look forward to our chance to experience it again. But if it just so happens that we made a mistake while on the ride or while getting of it, we ponder our mistakes and try to not make them again when we ride the carousel again. This, I have come to understand it and ponder it myself for a while now. When we are little, we look to others as role models or we look in others for things that we want to do or try because we saw another person doing it. Sometimes, this may lead some to a few experiences that we may come to regret. But in the end, everything is a learning experience.

    Just recently, I had a fight with a friend. I know, you may think is your common fight when you don’t agree with something, right? But no, this was different. The things he was saying, it was as if he was wishing upon himself great misfortune. I didn’t want him to keep saying those things because I would not know what would I have done if something did happen. To make matters worse, he blamed me for overreacting. It wasn’t my fault for the things he said, but the words hurt more than anything at the moment. One thing lead to another, and matters were resolved. But what leads me to the carousel is that, no matter how many times we get into fights, into being hurt, sometimes little things like that don’t matter because we want to keep experiencing the ride more. But the most important thing, is that no matter the situation, one can’t change a person. The person if he wants to change, he has to do it by himself and by his own free will. Even if its for their own good.

     We can’t try and change someone… that is a lesson I learned the hard way. Now, I may look like a selfish person because I’m trying to change someone and not trying to accept them as they are. Sadly, the truth is, that there is not a day that goes by that I try to put myself in his shoes, trying to understand, but just like a carousel, I end up in square one. Sometimes we want to ride the carousel in hopes that this time would be different, sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s not.

    Experiences are not fun and happiness all the time, but they make us who we are. We have to take up the ride in the carousel as never ending experience, because whether we want it or not, we always end up in a carousel ride. But whether is good or bad, we must make the best out of the situation so that we don’t end up in the carousel back to square one without getting to learn something out of the ride.

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P.D. It was not easy writing this, nor it was easy posting it for everyone to read. But as everything in life, not everything is simple and a "piece of cake". In posting this,it is proof that I am over the situation and that I have learned and forgiven, and that I have returned from the carousel with a learned experience, and had not let that ride go in vain. Thank you all for reading. 

A U T O B I O G R A P H Y • A N D • F I C T I O N

"I have no memory at all. That's one of the great defects of my mind: I keep on brooding over whatever interests me, by dint of examining it from different mental points of view I eventually see something new in it, and I alter its whole aspect. I point and extend the tubes of my glasses in all ways, or retract them." 

                                                                               – Stendhal, The Life of Henry Brulard

   Is with this quote that V.S. Naipaul opens the first chapter of his book, Reading & Writing: A Personal Account. The quote greatly expresses and fit the line of thought Naipaul gives in this chapter. Across this brief but deep chapter, Naipaul recounts to us, the reader(s), about his experiences with his Indian family in his new home, the island of Trinidad. He also recounts his experiences while growing up in the island and the diverse memories he had while in school and in the university. As one keeps reading, the reader finds that Naipaul is recounting his inner journey while he is discovering a side of himself that he had been having trouble with since he was a child. This side is his own desire as a writer. He recounts how he has several anthologies of parts of books that he liked, and how this would differ from the own likings of his father. 

    His father served a rather special role in this journey. His father served as his role model, and his inspiration for the things he wanted to achieve. We can observe in this chapter as he struggles while wanting to become a writer, not having nothing to write about but his experiences, which frustrated him greatly. But what's rather impressive in this chapter is how Naipaul uses a rather peculiar way to recount his tale. He gives real people characters, and uses a rather peculiar way to tell his journey.As one keeps reading, one gets caught up in the stories, which makes it more interesting when reading, since it provokes an interest in the reader to keep reading and find out what happens.

     While reading Naipaul's chapter, one may think is rather easy to write this way, but it actually is a rather difficult task. I find it rather hard to write a personal experience as a story and assign real people characters in that story. While Naipaul uses his rather fun and entertaining way to write, we can see in other authors like Carl Jung, that there is a tendency to exaggerate and even have the possibility to alter the memories or alter the success of events as they really happened. I personally think that this is a normal part of writing an autobiography, since most of the time we can't remember the event in full detail; I make the remark that some people do possess this amazing ability to remember everything in full detail. That's why we must be careful when writing, even more so if it's an autobiography, because we can get caught in writing everything as a fictional tale and forget the actual event, and start exaggerating or change the actual story when writing about it, just so it can fit more into the fictional tale we are trying to tell. 

"An autobiography can distort, facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally."

                                     – V. S. Naipaul

T R A V E L • J O U R N A L: A N • E X P E R I E N C E

      A journal, is a book or a notebook, in which we write our personal experiences and thoughts. As part of a class assignment, we were supposed to keep a Travel Journal. This journal was not our typical "diary". In this Travel Journal, we had to follow a few guidelines, given to us by our professor from the book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg. We were meant to follow these rules, which were called "The Anti-Rules"; this prompted us to do the following:

1. Keep your hand moving

2. Don't cross out

3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar

4. Lose Control

5. Don't think, don't get logical

6. Go for the jugular (which basically means to "go into difficult emotions")

At first, these rules were really hard to follow, specifically rules #2 and #3; at least for me. I'm a person that strikes out misspelled words almost automatically, because I'm what you call a grammar freak. I like my writings and works to be properly written and punctuated, and since we had to write without thinking and just flowing with whatever thoughts popped into our head, these two rules were hard to follow at first. 

     As the weeks passed, these two rules that gave me so much of a hard time to follow, got progressively easier to overrule. I slowly but surely, learned to just ignore my misspelled words, and if I wrote something as it wasn't supposed to be written, I would just stop writing the word, and just keep on writing. Another strategy that I found useful for myself, was that when I would write a word and I knew that it was spelled wrongly, I would write a dash (–) and keep writing after it. This experience was something interesting, since I had never done something like this before. 

      Another part of the journal, was to do an activity where we had to do draw something called a "Life Compass." The drawing is as follows:

As one can see, it's very similar to a normal compass, but instead of North, South, East and West we have S, M, E and P; each letter means spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, respectively. According to what we were feeling in that moment, we would appoint a number with 3 being the maximum and 1 being the lowest to each letter. When all the letters had a number, we would sum all and obtain a total. This was our "number" and with this, as we progressively did more compasses, we could compare the results and see the areas where we had been lowest and try to reflect upon this and try to see if we could make a change so that the numbers went up, instead of down. 

      

      For me, I noted that the days when I obtained the lowest of numbers were the days where I was sleep deprived from staying up until late in the night to study, thus affecting severely the numbers on some compasses. Over all, the experience of the Travel Journal is something I may keep on doing in the future. It really helped me ease my stress over the things that were bugging me on particular days. This experience is something I will encourage some friends to do also, while following the "Anti-rules" because it's like a form of therapy that really helped me relax and keep on going through out the day, and I'm confident it will do the same for my friends. 

Travel Journal: Front Cover

Travel Journal: Back Cover