New Year Resolutions

Before I begin I want to congratulate all of you for making it through another year. For all your accomplishments and hardships you have definitely proven yourself of your values and self-worth. *insert applause here*

With 2016 beginning I wanted to discuss about my opinion over New Year Resolutions. When I was younger I would set New Year Resolutions, "I want to be more sociable, gain more friends", "I want to grow more taller", "I want to be less shy and speak out", "Wear more makeup so that people will see me for my actual age". Those for the gist of it were my New Year Resolutions. Not many of my resolutions consisted of materialistic items or gaining more financially but more so the resolutions were made to fix some of the things that I thought were wrong with me. I thought if I were to change these aspects of myself that I would soon be fitting in with the crowd and be more likable. I thought that people would take more interest in me and would be more likely to give me a chance. Then as I grew up and realized that some of my resolutions were just not possible to complete, I have started to not believe in New Year Resolutions. Why do I have to wait for a whole year to make goals for myself? Then after making those goals not follow through with them? Weren't resolutions supposed to make me feel better about myself?

You cannot expect to have a behavior to change in a matter of a day's time, if that was possible then my anxiety would have already left by now. I wish I could just say goodbye to my anxiety but it does not work that way. Changing a behavior takes time and I believe that many resolutions fall apart in the same month they were made because we expect an immediate change. For those who are considering to be healthier remember that bad habits are hard to break but those habits should not be the reason why you should quit. Those habits should be the ones you are working at to change and if you maintain the attitude that you can change something, then you can change something. Be healthier does not have to mean losing weight it could also be quitting to smoke, removing drugs from your life, taking more walks, taking your prescribed medication and vitamins and or reducing the amount of sugar intake. Being healthier means to find that happy medium where you feel good both physically and mentally. Where you wake up one day and you can freely say that I am happy to be where I am today, that is when you know you are heading in the right direction. You are already beautiful so continue being fabulous on your route to better health!

For those who have new year resolutions to better themselves whether is through changing studying habits, parenting habits, working habits, relationships, or general habits set yourself mini goals. Since you know the big picture from the looks of making the resolution, with these mini goals this can help you gain the confidence you need to continue pushing through your set resolution. If you can have someone you can confide yourself and will be willing to give you the extra pushes needed when you have those days where you want to throw in the towel. Remember to celebrate your mini milestones along the way but maintain within your goal. Limit your cheat days to when you absolutely need to let yourself free from your routine. Never compare your milestones with others because each and every one of you has a different value that only you know how well you did that day. In fact instead of discouraging, why not share your courage with others?

Just know that at anytime you can make resolutions to improve yourself. You do not have to wait until the next year or for the next opportunity. It's like saying "Oh I'll wait until night time to look at the moon at its full glory" when we all know that the moon is always around in the sky you just need to remember to look up. Make your own deadlines, shoot for your own stars, everyone rides on their own wave and by that you should be able to have control in your own life. I do not believe in New Years Resolution, because I believe that everyone should have already settled on some goals they want to complete before they leave this planet. If you need that push to start and it happens to be during New Years then use this time as your catapult to start. I am all for self improvement. I believe in all of you that you can do anything if you only set your mind to it. Do not forget to be proud of yourself too for as minimal progress you are doing, that is still progress and I will continue to cheer you on. Do not lose who you are but more so build yourself to become the best you, that you can be.

What are your goals?

xx Chavelita

Day 10: Future psychologist

Throughout the time I was in high school in the back of my mind I already had the idea of becoming a psychologist. Maybe even younger I wanted to become a psychologist I just didn't know that there was an actual profession to what I wanted to do. Now what specialty I wanted to be in the psychology field that I spent quite some time considering which one best fit me but I had this feeling that I was meant to be a psychologist. In my nature I wanted to help people in someway and what I have learned that simply using my words I was able to gain the trust of people and assist them without making them feel pressured or uncomfortable to tell me. Do not get me wrong if I had a choice to speak or not, I wouldn't be talking. Yet with psychology it gives me a reason to speak even more so to talk and express new ideas that may be beneficial for others. Talking to people may seem like a job that anybody can do but you have to be careful with your word choice. You have to be tactful, considerate, and be as unbiased as you can with your patience to be able to get the most genuine information that you can. This is probably why I had plenty of people tell me that being a psychologist is a job everyone wants to do that is easy or when people are not sure what they want to do as career. So in other words, I was getting this idea that being a psychologist was kind of like this place holder to buy more time to figure out the desired career. Yet, psychology is my desired career... I do not see myself doing anything else other than making a profession in psychology, a clinical psychologist to be more specific. To work along side a psychiatrist and learn more about mental disorders, even if I may spend the rest of my life researching new information and discovering new topics of human behavior through studies, that I wouldn't mind doing. Learning about the human behavior and the mind is intriguing and since psychology is probably one of the youngest sciences to be learning from, then that still opens up to the endless amount of knowledge that we may not know yet.

With my fear of blood and my lack of not thinking on the spot, being a doctor or a nurse was already out of the question. Coming from a family of nurses, I appreciate my mom's and my uncles' career as a nurse and I understand that it takes patience and strength but that was just not my calling. On the other hand I had a uncle on my dad's side that suggested that I should become a psychiatrist, learn medicine and treat people who is struggling through that form. Though my plan did not include medicine and I understand that I will learn that different medicines to use and the recommended dosages but I do not see myself writing prescriptions to medicines that I may not even believe in. I wouldn't be able to live with myself to be paid a bit more to promote medicine from companies for medicine that completely changes the individual. Medicine may work in some cases, do not get me wrong, but I still see medicine as a last resort in treating people. I am pretty sure there are plenty of alternatives to treat mental disorders, we just haven't discovered it yet. 

What is your dream career?

xx Chavelita

Day 2: The car trip

In my previous blogpost, Life is precious, I had told you all that one of my mom's friends would take me to school during the time that my mom got ill and as to this day I can still recite the things she had told me even if it was just a minute worth of advice.

I was staying at another one of my mom's friends house that day and as I got ready for school, the lady who picked me arrive at the house who was also taking another one of my mom's friends son to school since we both went to the same school at the time. Normally I am not given rides to school because I would take the bus that was in the middle of the neighborhood. near my house with my friends. Yet there is little quiet me, riding in the back seat still feeling exhausted the night before still thinking about my mom and trying to fall asleep in a bed that wasn't mine. During my middle school years I felt those are the ones I will remember the most, I felt like most of my transformation happened during those two years of middle school which is probably why I consider my middle school years the best years. As we arrived to the school, the school was on the right side of me, which was also the door opposite from where I was sitting. Patiently waiting to slide over to exit through his door, he closes the door in my face which triggered this powerful emotion in my mom's friend. I remember her yelling in the car to him but I am not sure if he heard or just ignored her. Then out of instinct I told her that I was used to it. Now this is the part that stuck through me until today,

"You shouldn't have to be used to that behavior. People should treat you with respect."

Somewhere along those lines, I have learned that I should not settle for less. Just because some people were not taught to treat others with the same respect that one gives them, I shouldn't be accepting behavior that I did not deserve in the first place. If you are reading this, you have taught me about my self-value, which was something I was struggling to define in myself at the time. That day I felt like something just clicked into place, hearing those words were something that I needed. Being tough and strong but handling disrespectful behavior are totally different things and I thank you for teaching me the difference. Being the independent person and the hard headed person of not wanting anyone's help because I thought I could handle anything that was tossed at me, you have taught me that everyone needs help once in a while and that it's not a sign of weakness whatsoever. Instead, asking for help measures my ambition of completing certain tasks and how willing I am to get things done by using the resources around me.

So I thank you.

My ambitious readers, do not forget about your self-value. That is something that you should be proud to have and no one should water down the amazing people you are with negative attitudes or unacceptable behavior. Which I also do not want you to lower your standards or to anyone's level, if they want to be with you or want to be friends they should be the one's raising up to your expectations. Behavior and manners is key, if you do not like something then speak up as we cannot change a person for who they are, we do have the choice as to what to tolerate.

What is something that has stuck through you in a conversation?

xx Chavelita

Nothing but clever thoughts

I have constantly been asking myself for the reasons behind the behaviors of others, most importantly my peers (alright, my acquaintances) and is like the pile of disappointments are outweighing the positives.

It is sad that some students do no understand that our teachers are as human as we are, or in fact more human than we are for actually being able to make a living through their own teachings. People forget that teachers go through regular stress and drama of their own and because they are not asked it does not mean that it is not occurring. Not many give their teachers a chance and instead they come up with assumptions for one independent event. Such as when I work in my school's office, it is about a regular that a student will complain that their counselor is never there when they come to see them. Excuse me, but a counselor has emergencies too, a counselor needs to nourish themselves during lunch time, a counselor gets sick too because THEY ARE PEOPLE TOO! Amazing, right? They have blood and flesh just like us, it's remarkable. Honestly, if something is going to be said it should have evidence to actually back up what is going to be said. Some people complain about their counselor not being there and they only went twice. Besides instead of complaining (which could of been time used to do something productive) come during another time or email them. Whatever it is but people have to stop expecting that the world does not revolve around them.

Something happened today in my short day of class today, and it was that my classmates was laughing at their teacher who were stating her opinions and the fact the plagiarism is indeed something that should be avoided especially in IB where if a sentence is copied, that document will be immediately be voided ruining the chance of receiving the IB diploma. I do not understand what is so hilarious about a teacher looking out for her students, in fact she has every right to be scolding the students for previous copying that has been occurring. It is understandable that she is speaking to her whole IB class of this situation occurring and that to some students it should not be a problem but it is as if people are taking IB seriously. I cannot say that last year IB class were more structured and motivated to reach the highest potential they could possibly reach but from the look of my class it is the opposite. Students believe that they can get away with anything such as copying and not have the teachers notice, but when something stinks it is quite hard to not notice the smell. I am truly appreciated through the amount of time, work, and patience these teachers has given us because it is for them that I feel confident to continue this program knowing that if I do what they tell me to do, it is for my future benefit. Teachers are people too, with emotions and sometimes they do feel insecure but the magic of actually socializing with them and getting to know them you will soon realize how hilarious they are and what similar interests that are shared.

It is quite annoying that I come up with the cleverest things to say after my opportunity to actually say it. This is something I want to work on, I am tired of being the bystander who hears everything and does not do anything about it. I have a voice, I should use it even if it means getting judgments from certain people or group of people.

(Just because you casually speak to your teachers/counselors, it does not make you their pet. It means you're mature enough to see that the differences are actually similarities.)

Has there been a time when you just want to slap some sense into people?

xx Chavelita