January 20, 2009

Ever since I was little, growing up in a small and quaint apartment sometimes even filled with mice, savaging through salvation army and st. Vincent de Paul to find clothes to wear, my parents holding mahjong games almost daily at my house just so they can use the pot money to pay off our rent and expenses, I would say I am accustomed and well exposed to struggle, though at the time I may have been too young to comprehend. By any means, I wasn't no rich kid, neither was I well off like some fortunate ones with their toys and private school educations. I was living in east Oakland, the heart of the ghetto...where stealing, robbing, and shootings occurred on a daily like it was nothing. I got my stuff stolen...things that my parents actually bought with what little they came up on. And to be honest, life was pretty difficult. I am not ashamed to say this for I knew my parents had it more difficult living in the Philippines than what I could have ever experienced here. I take a look at things now, and though they have definitely gotten better over time with us obtaining a place of our own here in San Leandro to my parents finding better paying jobs, I realize that my struggle has made me who I am. Though it was hard, and still is now that my current situation isn't any less difficult with my dad's unemployment and mother's disability, it definitely made me even more appreciative and grateful of what I have now. With Obama as president, hope instilled in me in the change awaiting to come and I put my faith in his promises that he wishes to address.

Today is an eventful day. The world seemed to pause for a brief moment in the making of history as our first president of color is inaugurated. As I was watching, I felt a pang of joy knowing that what I never thought would be possible became a reality by us people alone. Obama speaks so eloquently and I was taken away during his speech when he mentioned that "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." He is right. If we all have our minds set on our own personal gain or benefit, nothing would be accomplished to help our declining economy. It is through unity that we can solve this dilemma. After all, it is through the unity of the people, through the intricate lacing of different ethnicities, the bridging of the gap between such differences among others, was this country and political system established upon. I never thought I'd see this day come in my generation, but it did and I'm hereby a witness of what is now forever documented history. Yes we can, and yes we did.

*****shifting off to a different topic****

Like I said today is an eventful day. Around 12 Bee and Lance came over to pick me up so we could all drive down to BART for Daly City to purchase books at the school bookstore. We arrive there, buy our books and hang around for a while, unknowing of what to do next. We then decide to go to downtown so we cross the street and head to the muni. My knowledge of transportation around SF is not so great, so Lance and I mainly relied on Bianca to teach us. As we were waiting for the muni, I take a look at the top of the bench that we sat on to find a tannish colored leather jacket just lying there. I was looking around to see if the person that owns it would come on by to get it, but with us being at the far end of the platform, no one was. I grab it to take a closer look and decided to keep it for myself, haha. And yes, I am going to get it dry cleaned of course. We got on Powell, head to Blondie's, ordered a medium pizza for the 3 of us to share, and then walked around while waiting for it to be made. We decided to go to Starbucks. Lance and Bee ordered their soy green tea lattes, while I ordered my sweetened passion fruit lemonade with 6 pumps of melon. So happens to be that they discontinued the melon! I did not know that. I just got the tea by itself with 6 pumps of the classic. The barista calls me up after a couple of minutes saying that they ran out of passion fruit tea and that if I wanted to I could wait as she makes it. I asked her how long it would take, and she said 5 minutes. I was okay with waiting. Turns out I got a free Starbucks card on account of my patience, and in the end I realized that patience really does pay off (: We went back to Blondie's, ate the pizza then hopped back on BART to my house where we played catch phrase..fun! I also purchased a SF Chronicle not only as a memento, but also of the value it's going to gain within the years to come.