Day 3 of Hybrid Instruction! (SOL)

I am on my third day of hybrid instruction. I don't necessarily want to slice about it as I feel I am still too close. And I prefer to get some distance and allow things to percolate. But as I was pouring my anger and frustration into my notebook yesterday and today, I realized how …

Practice and Practice (SOL)

Recently I was working out, and I did an exercise that had my wrist immediately feeling tight and even painful as I continued. I began to recall that it was years of computer gaming and playing the guitar which led me to warming up my hand before writing for extended periods. With my renewed passion …

Tearing Up the Floorboards (SOL)

I grew up in my parent's church; it's hard to think about how all-consuming that life was. The intensity and the pace would not have been sustainable. Once my father left the church, the strict norms the church adopted were eased at our house. Still a holy man with a personal relationship with Christ, he …

In Search of More Color (SOL)

“Just please be quiet,” my mom says as she hands my brother and me pens. We pull out the handouts from our Sunday school class and unfold them and look for the blank spaces to draw. With those pens, we begin to draw. For some reason, we are drawn into world-building. We build a world …

Where am I Going?

If on a blank page, I would go somewhere far. If on a blank page, I would go and lay down the bricks and blocks of a just world. A world where kindness and community are held in the highest regard. A world where education would not only be valued by words but by action.I would carefully cut the …

To the Guy Who Insisted I Vote for Trump

"I highly recommend you vote for Trump" the words had dropped on us out of nowhere. I was walking to class with a friend, and we had stopped to say hello to a groundskeeper. He was a nice old guy who would always be kind to the students. Even when he caught us smoking on …

Lessons from Dino Eggs (SOL)

Over Christmas, a close friend got the kids presents—an absolute blessing. But two presents for the 6-year-old were dinosaur-egg-dig-kit things. After letting the eggs soak, I let my son spread himself out on a table and begin the good work of digging into the plaster/clay. I tell him that paleontologists have to painstakingly excavate little …

A Nudge in the Right Direction (SOL)

There are moments in our lives that help shape who we are. Sometimes there are huge events and moments that propel us. But a lot of our direction comes from numerous smaller ones that nudge us towards our paths. One such moment I remember was in community college. My first year of college was terrible. …

Slice of Life: Praise Music

I grew up in a church that valued praise through song. It was a beautiful thing. The church had many flaws, especially the people in it. Growing up in a strict fundamentalist church was not very fun at all. But the music was something that I remember very fondly. When the “glory of the Lord” …

Procrastanation

A few weeks ago I was asked if I could speak at an immigration rally. At first, I was a bit confused, but I agreed to it because I figured as one of the very few Hispanic staff/students of my university I should take it upon myself to speak up. I didn’t give it much …