A Special Girl

                I recently interviewed a girl named Liliana Munoz. She is an amazing 19 year old Mexican American with 4 sisters and 1 brother. Even though she looks very shy she is very active in her community and in her family by going to work as an eye doctor at St. Johns and by teaching sense to her little cousins when they are up to no good. What motivates her to do so good is her family. She wants to make her parent’s lives more comfortable. She balances her life out by putting school first, work second, and family third. She describes herself as determined, a hard worker, and as a caring person. In five years she sees herself as finishing school and in ten years as a psychologist starting her own family. What she likes about Oxnard College is that some teachers make her think which makes her contribute to her classes in many fun ways. One thing she would improve in Oxnard College is that she would make time for one on one lessons with teachers and students because sometimes students can’t attend the teacher’s office hours which I agree on.

                I had a very good time interviewing her and I hope you enjoyed this interview!

My Memorable Moment!

            It was a beautiful sunny day of the year 2011 when I was at my Bible study with my mom and my spiritual sister named Analisa Baragan. I just turned 18 and I graduated from high school. As I was reading through the book we were studying, I noticed the topic was about baptism. I have been in my religion ever since I was born. I never thought about getting baptized even though I knew a lot especially because I have Bible study I know more. When I finished reading, Analisa popped the big question, “Why don’t you get baptized?” I was nervous because I knew the process of that commitment. She was right. Why didn’t I get baptized if I do the right things and nothing is holding me back? That’s when I decided I was going to do it because I knew it is an important step of getting closer to God and in order to get saved I had to do it because I already met the requirements. Since I said yes I was going to do it Analisa decided we should study the questions that brothers were going to ask me so they know I was ready for that big step. I had to answer 100 questions. As soon as I told brother David Figeroa my decision and hope, he got happy. I could tell by his warm and friendly smile that he knew I was ready because he saw me grow up in the truth and he saw my improvement. He told me that that is the most important commitment a person can make that brought you closer to God and I agreed. So he scheduled an appointment for me to meet him at the kingdom hall, a building next to Blackstop that is now being reconstructed, on a certain day so he can ask me the first 36 questions.

            My first appointment was a nerve wreck. Even though I studied with Analisa the questions the brother was going to ask me, I thought I was going to forget the answer to a question. I entered into a little white room filled with black chairs and a big brown table in the middle. It looked like a conference room where people have serious business to discuss. The room also had sketches of how they were going to reconstruct the hall and build a second one on the side. Before we started, we did a prayer. That moment was a relief for me because after the prayer, my nervousness went away. I felt confident and relaxed. It went really well and brother David Figeroa said I did really good. The second appointment was in the same room but with a different brother named Jose Perez. He was strict but gentle at the same  time. He reminded my mom and I the importance of always studying the Bible for the meetings. He emphasized that before we studied we needed to make prayer so God can lead us to understanding the literature we needed to study to know and remind ourselves of how God wants us to live our lives.  The third meeting was awesome! It was with a brother named Moises Ruiz. He is a very outgoing person that made me laugh a lot. He is tall skinny, funny, intelligent and caring. He made the meeting last for two hours  just talking and describing to me some important things a person has to do in the truth in certain situations. To my relief, I finished the questions. It was a surprise because the days went by so fast that I was actually proud to answer these questions to show that I understood the information that I needed to know. Now all I needed was to know if I passed or not.

            It was a hot Friday night when we went to our meeting at the hall. I was excited to go because the brother, Moises Ruiz, said to meet him at the little white room to tell me the big news! My heart was pounding and I was very nervous to hear if I met the requirements and my face was getting red! After the meeting I met up with the brother and he was telling me the dress code for the big event. I was smiling because I was just happy for some reason, I guess I knew I was going to pass because the brother was just telling me the instructions of how to act on the special occasion. He finally said it! “You are getting baptized!” I immediately went to my house to look through my clothes to find out what I was going to wear for that occasion. I was packing because my mom, my sister and I were going to stay for three nights in Long Beach where the convention was going to take place.

            It was July 21,2011 and we were traveling to Long Beach. My mom and I went with my aunts and cousins in a big dark green van with tinted windows. My sister went in her car with one of my cousins and her baby really early in the morning because she did not want to catch traffic. Unfortunately, we caught traffic and we took a long time to get there. It was really hot that I began to feel dizzy from not getting enough air inside the van because my aunts didn’t want to open the window since their hair would get messy. So I bugged them until they did. We were traveling beside the big blue and sandy beach. We saw a lot of big two story and one story houses where rich and famous people lived. Some houses had their garage on the top which was weird because the rest of the house was below the garage and I have never seen a house like that before. We also saw a lot of surfers and people getting wet in the beach. It just made me want to join them. We even saw tents and mobile homes on the side of the beach. I was thinking my family should do that one of these days. It seemed really fun. My aunts were even talking about doing that one of these days because they were seeing how much fun it could be and it wasn’t that far away home. We were traveling away from the beach and into the city. All I could see was tall office buildings and billboards along the road. All three hours we were traveling on road I was playing with my little cousin named Stephanie who is 10 years old and was really energetic . It made time go by fast. We were playing tic tac toe and connect the dots. It was so funny because mostly I would win the whole time we were playing.

            As we were entering Long Beach, the first thing I saw were big, luxurious hotels. I also saw a lot of homeless people on the streets which was really sad but that didn’t keep me from enjoying my trip. We stayed at a hotel called Hyllat. It was tall and white with 16 floors. It was right next to where our convention was going to be at so we didn’t have to walk far from the hotel. The hotel even had a piano inside and people were playing it. I saw a lot of men with black and white dressy clothes carrying luggage with carts everywhere. The whole time I was in there I was happy because it brought back old memories and I was just thinking of all the fun things I can do. I even went to the gift shop with my little cousin Stephanie so I could buy souvenirs to remember that day that is very important. As we got our card to go inside our room we had to carry all our luggage to our room. It was funny because we were carrying a lot of things and my little cousin almost didn’t make it to our room. When we got in our room, I got on top of the bed and I just relaxed because I was really tired. After, I remembered the hotel had a gym and a swimming pool, so I enjoyed both. First I went to the gym and I ran three miles. Later I cooled down and I went to the pool.

            It was a sunny Saturday morning and I was just nervous of how the day was going to go. It was my big day and I woke up early to get ready and arrive on time to my seat. I was so happy that I was smiling the whole time at the hotel. I put on a nice gray dress that had a belt on the middle, I curled my hair and my eyelashes to look pretty and I also put on my candy flavored lip gloss and perfume to smell nice! I was ready to leave. I entered the arena where the convention was taking place and it was full of a lot of nice people who were wearing tuxedos, dresses and skirts of a lot of bright and faded colors! As I was making my way up to my seat, I saw a couple of my friends so I greeted them. We were taking a lot of pictures and we were giving each other a lot of hugs since I hadn’t seen them in a while. I sat at the very front to pay good attention to the talk of the brother. It was very inspirational how the brother gave his speech that it made me really emotional. He asked all the people that were getting baptized three last questions and I answered yes to all of them with a big loud and firm yes! I could feel all the stares around the arena upon me, just so happy I made the decision of dedicating my life to Jehova.

            There were 72 people, including me, that were getting baptized. In there was my friend Marisol. The brothers led us to the women’s changing rooms and I put on a bathing suit with a long shirt and some shorts on top. As I was in the line to get in the water, I saw a lot of people I knew there to show how much they care. I was so nervous I was trembling with joy and excitement. I was getting video taped while I was in line and I was just smiling and saying hi! It was time for me to get into the water and I felt a feeling I will never forget. I felt as if all my problems and fears were gone and all I could feel was happiness! That instant changed my whole life! I made clear in public I would not live for myself anymore but for Jehova. I showed I loved him with all my strength, mind and heart. I will always try to do what is best and not do something that will harm my relationship with him. I will also try to always put him first above everything else. Now I feel him blessing me for what I do for him. I am so great full I know him and that I gave my life to him. I hope I never do things that will lead me out of this path and into a bad one. I just feel so happy that I will do whatever it takes to make Jehova proud of me!

Texting is Fun!

                Texting to me is really fun! I love to text that’s why I have unlimited text messages on my phone. It’s fun for me because you could send pictures and happy faces to your friends. I like it because if the person you are trying to reach is somewhere where they can’t use their phone you just text them and they will answer back. Also because if you can’t reach them by calling, you just send them a text and they text you back. I also like texting because I can text without having to worry about how much money the phone company is going to charge me because I have unlimited texting. When I am bored texting is the way I find out what my friends are doing so I am not so bored and we make plans by texting. Texting is a good way to send directions to someone if they are lost like the name of a street or place. Also texting is a good way to send information so the person won’t forget what they need to remember. As you can see, texting is useful in many ways. From having fun with friends to learning new things by information and that’s why I like it!

Reality T.V. is Harmful

                I’m the kind of girl who always tries to find something to do that is useful to my life. Like for example I like to exercise a lot instead of watching T.V. because I know if I watch T.V. I will just be wasting my time doing nothing but sitting down. I don’t like watching T.V. because right now I think that the shows are ridiculous and it’s so fake. I try to stay away from it as much as possible especially because sometimes they show inappropriate things like people dancing nasty. I just don’t like to expose myself to those things. Those type of shows are harmful to little kids and to our society. I think the more people that see it, the more you will see people try to imitate those things that are horrible. Like for example the way young people act in the T.V. it’s the way other young people want to act like or live there life like and they even want to treat others the way certain actors treat other people. Also I try to avoid T.V. because even some commercials are like rated r. I just think T.V. right now is very over rated and since I try not to influence myself with those things I try to not watch it at all. Those shows just cause more problems than you already have and it influences in the way you live. Watching T.V. is like inviting those people you are watching to your house and living with them. That’s why, for example, if you watch like shows like the Ghost Hunters or other paranormal shows you start feeling scared when you are alone in your house or freaky things happen because you invited those bad things to your house and it’s like you invited them over to your house and the more you watch it the more it will be like you are living with them. Also, shows can make you make bad decisions in your life. For example say you like this actor, you like that actor so much you try to live like that actor and you begin by imitating him or her and you end up losing friends and you might even end up harming yourself because you want to be like that certain actor like if that person is skinny and you are not you might do whatever it takes to look like that actor the bad way because you are so influenced by that actor or you see it too much in the T.V. that you think that is how you should look in order to get accepted by a group of people. In the end, T.V. can influence you a lot in a bad way and that is why I try to avoid it by keeping myself busy on other things that are more important to myself and that are going to benefit me and others around me to make good decisions and to live a healthy life.

   

My Fast Food Habits

                Fast food was part of my childhood. I remember every Sunday my parents would take me to a fast food place like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Toppers Pizza, the Chinese place, Carl’s Jr. and KFC. We would go as a family to spend time together. I also remember I would get the same thing all the time like in McDonalds I would always get a happy meal with a cheeseburger and fries. Bach then the McDonalds place didn’t have as many choices as today.  Like for example they used to not have apple dippers or milk that comes with a happy meal. It was part of my family’s regular life because we would go out to eat every Sunday. We wouldn’t eat it all the days but we would go at least once a week as a treat for our hard work. At that time I remember I would always be happy to eat fast food because it would taste great and I enjoyed going out as a family. As I recall I would go the most to McDonalds for the cheeseburgers and the toy in the happy meal. I would always love to play with the toys there with my sister. I would also love to go to Carl’s Jr. because they had a playground back then and they also had toys with their meals. This one time they were giving out Man in Black toys. I remember they were also giving out these cool sunglasses but you had to pay extra. I would beg my mom to get them for me but she wouldn’t want to so I told my dad. He gave me the money so I bought them and I was so happy because my sister and brothers had them to. At Taco Bell I would always get the regular crunchy tacos and one soft taco. They were so delicious! I would want to get nachos but my mom wouldn’t let me.

                Right now I tend to avoid eating fast food. I choose to be more healthy. If I go to a fast food restaurant I always try to get a salad, a chicken burger with wholegrain bread or if I go to a pizza place I get the vegetarian pizza. I love eating healthy and I tend to take care of myself more because I want to feel and look great! I got into the eating healthy thing when my brother would tell me I should especially if I wanted to lose weight. Before I used to like eating fast food but now I don’t like it that much because I found out what it does to you and how you feel after you ate some. I only eat it like when I go out with friends or family.  I also eat it rarely because I joined a cross country class and I want to feel energized every time I go run and for that I need to eat healthy. I am so glad I eat healthy because that’s something that keeps me moving forward.