Why my career and me

I sometimes wonder why it is that I want to become a doctor, and why go through the effort. Though nothing ever seems to be 100% certain in life, I have come up with several reason for which I am hungry to become what I believe I am most passionate about. This is also a way to motivate myself when life gets hard, and remind myself why I wont give up on what I want.

Reasons for becoming a doctor:

In becoming a doctor, I will have learned the necessary skills to diagnose people, and help treat whatever problem they have. This is essential to me because I will be able to not only practice medicine on my patients, but I will be able to help my family and friends stay healthy. I will meet many doctors to whom I can refer my family or friends to be helped when needed. This is very motivational to me, because in the end, family is everything, and the money I make will simply become a plus to my job.

A doctors whole objective is to save lives. That motivates me to know that every patient I would be treating is laying down his life on my hands, which puts a lot of pressure on me, pushing me to work at my best ability to save a life. A doctors objective isn’t something like fixing a car, which of course we need cars, but it is not life threatening. A doctors objective is to save lives, and it is potentially life threatening to patients. This creates a sense of importance for doctors, and even more to me, because I don’t see what could be more magnificant than saving another persons life.

In life, any time we work for something, the feeling of accomplishment creates the reward feel much greater than just being handed something. As a doctor, I will never stop learning or striving for more, because medicine is constantly evolving, and there is always something interesting and new to learn. Knowing that I worked my ass off, but eventually it paid off and I became a doctor is something unexplainable. As a doctor, I will rarely have time to stand still and do absolutely nothing, which will make the times where I am not working feel much more enjoyable. When it comes down to it, if you are doing nothing, you get bored of life, and it seems like you would have no purpose.

As a doctor, the effects of your work can be seen right off the back. When performing a surgery, the results of the surgery are immediate after the surgery, which involves whether you helped the patient, or not. There is as immediate feedback for a majority of the medical jobs, which is rewarding because I will get to see the real time effects of my work.

As a doctor, instead of panicking in high stressed situations, and solving nothing, you are demanded to think in a stressed situation, and come up with a solution. I have noticed in myself, that often when faced with a problem, I fix it as soon as possible, and instead of panicking, in my mind I immediately begin to think of a possible reason, and more important a way to fix whatever happened. This is something doctors do on a regular basis, which is very appealing to me. I enjoy finding the reason behind something and the solution.

The Effects of Group Work in my Bayan Community

Throughout this semester, in both my English and PD class, group projects has always been a central theme to our learning. This take on learning forces all of the members from one group to accomplish an assignment together. I learned that even though you are able to do something on your own, it is much easier when you have a group.

Communication is the key to group work. I was able to learn to split work between my group members so that everyone's strengths are being put to use. Upon working with other people, I formed stronger connections to people in the classroom, which is beneficial in tackling down a college course. Specific to this classroom, you become a true Bayan, and in a sense are welling to help all of your brothers and sisters pass the class. And knowing that you have acquaintences in your class which have become friends makes you feel that much more secure. In a sense, we begin to form Kapwa, the Filipino value of togetherness.

No other class I have experienced has been anything close to my Bayan classes. Everything is done as a group in my Bayan. We are teaching eachother through our group projects, and sharing and transfering knowledge through working together. Meeting out of class to accomplish group projects takes school into our personal life, which is key to forming closer relationships. I have personally become closer to the class as a whole, but particularly to my group members. And as we rotate groups, and begin to work with new people, new connections are formed, and sooner or later, the whole class is even more inter connected.

In the end, the importance of a class is what you get out of it. In my Bayan not only do I learn the class material, but I get to take the relationships I built out of the class and into my life. For example, someone with the same major as me is most likely going to be taking similiar classes, and so helping eachother out would be a wise effect of out Bayan class. And so, everything revolves around creating friends which is a major asset in college.

Hispanic and Filipino Cultures

In the majority of my blogs I have written, I have always found way to make connections between Filipino cultures, and my own Hispanic culture. That is because these two cultures are very similar. I have noticed this not only from what I have studied in class, but from personal experience as well.

My best friend is Filipino, and a large part of my childhood life was spent with his family. We would hang out , and I would often attend his family parties and he would attend mine. These occasions were frequent as his family and all its members were very close to each other. This was the same for me and my family. Food and the delicacy of laughter were often the main events to these gatherings. I would become a part of his family, and share the experience of the food. It was a great feeling of togetherness, and I was in a sense acculturated. I learned to try many new Filipino foods such as lumpia, ponset, and many delicious deserts. This whole experience however, was not so different from my own family gatherings.

Hispanic families are also very closely knitted, similar to Filipino's. Our gatherings would be frequent, and have the same theme as my friend's family gathering. We would be enriched by generally traditional Hispanic foods such as posole, tacos, and menudo. My friend would very much enjoy these delicacies. He would become a part of my family, and experience a lot of the Hispanic culture. Much of the values which are held by Filipino's, are also held by Hispanics, or vice-verse. Kapwa, the Filipino value meaning togetherness, is definitely seen in the Hispanic culture. Though it is not termed Kapwa, Hispanic togetherness is like that of Filipino togetherness. For example, if one of my family members were having money problems, my family would be more then willing to help them out. And this is something that has occurred in my family. And I have also observed this as well in my friends Filipino family.


Essentially, Filipino's and Hispanics are very similar. Their value on family and togetherness is identical. And not only can this be found in books and studies, but from my personal life I have discovered and observed this.

All It Takes is One Person to Change A Community

Last week I got to visit Judy Patacsil and listen to her speak about a recent book she released. It was hosted in city college, the weather was rainy and bad, and the parking was terrible. Despite the effort of arriving to the location and finding the building, listening to Patacsil's words of wisdom was well worth the trouble.

Her book was a culmination of pictures of Filipino related people and events. However, each picture seemed to tell a whole story. Inside the book she put a short description about each picture, allowing you to dive deeper into the story of the image. She featured pictures ranging from a Filipino coffee shop, to Filipino families. The picture which I remember most clearly was the last picture she displayed. It was a picture bringing together a recent time Filipino family. It was consistent of not just Filipino's, but also Mexicans, and African Americans. This shows how Filipino's have acculturated into the American culture, as well as Mexican and African American, and a new diverse Filipino race has been born. For Filipino's this is a huge thing because Filipino's are normally known for only mixing amongst their own race. They were discriminated against and looked down upon, but now in this picture, they are the same as everyone else, and the walls between race have been brought down.

This is important because I am of a mixed Mexican and Ukrainian decent. Like the Filipino's, indigenous Mexican's were looked down upon by European cultures. But now that people of all race's are mixing, all race boundaries have been brought down. Though discrimination can never fully disappear, it has certainly improved. Patacsil's picture shows this. I am also an example of this because I have not faced, or at least been aware of discrimination for being of Mexican decent.

 Essentially, Patacsil's picture is a summary that we are all human. We are all people, and apart from skin color and hair color, we are all the same.

A poem and a little bit of my Life

As of right now I am extremely tired. I have a math quiz tomorrow, and I have been working at Starbucks everyday since last Wednesday. However, back on topic, last week in my English class we discussed about various poems, each having to do with identity. The poem I have chosen to describe is about Filipino identity, though I am not Filipino. This is the Poem:

he asked me what
i
was

are you indonesian
spanish
         chinese
indian
         hawiian
i'm a filipino
         i said
and the words
dissolved
into
our recognition
of one another

 I am a Hispanic with a mix of Ukrainian blood from my mothers side. I am proud of my mixed heritage, and share a Hispanic, Ukrainian, and other culture influences. Though Hispanics are typically a subordinate group, I do not have brown skin and black eyes. Thus, I do not feature the subordinate appearance based in our society. Filipinos, as I have learned through the readings of our Filipino psychology book, are a subordinate group because of their dark skin and "different" cultural norms. For this reason, Filipinos prefer to connect with other Filipinos. Most Filipinos share a common background, and so can relate with each other when under oppression. This easy connection is shown in the poem which deals with a Filipino encountering another Filipino, "he asked me what i was [...] i'm filipino, and the words dissolved into our recognition of one another." Thus, because the man was Filipino, automatically the two men felt and understanding of each other. The author in the poem also refuses to capitalize any of the I's, showing that perhaps the two Filipino men were not the proudest of their ethnicity. Also, when the man asked him what he was and attempts to guess, he does not guess Filipino. Clearly showing that Filipino is a subordinate class due to society as the man does not even see it as important enough to guess Filipino. This also applies to me.

As a Mexican/ Ukranian mix, I also appeal to other Hispanic people. Though I have acculturated myself into society,  like Filipinos, I am also typically able to form a bond with other Hispanics quite easily. However, this does not mean I do not associate with other Ethnicity's. I am open to all people, and enjoy the multicultural influences I receive from all kinds of people.


Overall, the poem reveals identity through the eyes of two Filipino men, showing how a connection between two Filipinos can be simply based on race, and not only applies to Filipinos, but to Hispanics as well.

The English Class Beyond Just Books

Welcome to the beginning of something new, a Bayan. This is a community which uncovers a new concept of learning. This concept is a blend of a family and a class room, known as a Bayan. The ingenuity behind this idea is that a professor functions as a father, while all of the students are children, and thus brothers and sisters. Everyone is connected and eager to help one another pass the class and understand the information. This creates a friendly and motivating environment because we are all sharing a common goal, to pass the class with an A. We study Filipino works in order to get a basic understanding of the Filipino culture. But because this is an English class, Filipino study is not the main area of subject. We only use Filipino novels as a framework for our study, because how we analyze the novels is the real objective. In my Bayan community I have learned many new things in a very short time.

Within only a couple of week of having been in my English and Personal Development class I learned and developed how to easily identify what an author is trying to say in a writing. My writing skills have improved greatly, and I feel that I am clearer and getting my point across now. I learned about myself, and how to self motivate in order to keep my goals in priority. I discovered that my preferred learning style is that of a tactile/ kinesthetic learner. I also discovered my preferred professors method of teaching, which is to keep his students active, as is done in the Bayan class through interaction with our peers. Through this I have become acquainted and comfortable with my peers and the people in my Bayan group. Every week I continue to grow by gaining new knowledge about myself and my studies. I am fortunate to be a member of the Bayan community, and am extreemly appreciative of this honor.