This I Believe, Sinead Coleman

The Control You Have

I believe in controlling your anger, no matter how big or small the situation you are in is.

Working in retail allows me to defend all retail employees. Many customers do not realize what I have to deal with as soon as I walk into my store while we are busy. I get bombarded with multiple tasks to take care of within the first 30 minutes of my shift. Whether it is counting in to my register or helping a customer with whatever they need. And then I get yelled at because I have not completed all my tasks because I was too busy with a customer; who made me walk around the store, picking out multiple clothing items only for them to purchase one item. Only leading to ringing up a customer who gets angry with me for the price of their purchase; something that is beyond my control. I believe in not retaliating by yelling back because the customer is always right, I control my anger.

I learned to control my anger from the people around me. My mom always tells me not to get involved in a fight I would not want to look back and regret. My dad sometimes acts quickly on his anger, resulting in many slammed doors and hurt feelings. My eldest sister gets her anger from my dad, getting irritated with many simple, small things. My other sister can control her anger, but most of the times, all of the fighting begins with the bickering of my sisters. As I watch my family pretty much tear each other apart with words and rage, I sit back, controlling my anger.

Learning to control my anger instead of getting into unnecessary fights is probably the most important quality to have. Those who do not have control could easily let anger make them lose sight of the important things in life. I believe to control any emotion is better for everyone in the span of things.

A picture of my sister's and I when we enjoying time together.

The Teardrops

This I Believe

I believe life isn't fair for everyone. Life isn't fair for the poor. They don't get enough water, food, and shelter and that is injustice for them. They don't have any money to buy all those materials to keep safe. They lose children due to lack of clothing and starvation People don't realize how hard it is for those families and young ones to survive each day without the right things. Also life isn't fair to the kids with diseases. Everyday a family loses a loved one due to cancer or diabetes or some other disease. Why should they be even sick in the first place. All the people that I know that have passed away from cancer were all great and loveable human beings. They should've never been put in this kind of situation. Only to some people life is fair to them. And most of those people don't even deserve it. They either lie or cheat to earn that money. All the rich people are usually all stuck up and like to show off there money. It isn't fair to kids or parents who don't have enough money but still have a smile on there faces everyday and continue to work hard and provide food and shelter for their families.

Adventure #6

  In this adventure my family and I went to San Francisco and we walked on the bridge. It was a  cold day and we decided to go on a small adventure to San Francisco since we haven't gone in a while. We always like to drive everywhere and on some random days we like to go to San Francisco. I really like the view from the bridge and it always fun to take long drives with my family. Most of the time we drive on the bridge, but sometimes we walk around and today was one of those days where we walked and talked. We arrived at San Francisco around 10:00 a.m. because we didn’t want drive home with a lot of traffic. We took a lot of pictures and relaxed for an entire day. The day turned out to be really run and I would love to go again.

Adventure 8!?

Last Tuesday when we had a day off I went to the beach! When we arrived at the beach my friend and I went in the freezing water, but after a while I got used to it. Aron remained cold. While in the water, Aron kept diving in the waves which I had been really scared to do before, but I tried it and didn’t die so that was cool. After going in the water we walked up the side of the beach to the train tracks. The last time I had been at Manresa, I walked all the way down to the bridge and walked over it. This is probably one of the scariest things I have ever done. When you walk over the bridge you can see all the way to the ground and planks from the bridge are missing. At one point I even sat down because I felt paralyzed because I was so afraid. Hoping to share this experience with my friends, I walked then to the bridge only to discover it was completely missing. On the other side from where we were, I could see the construction workers with a giant crane. I was devastated. I was hoping my friends would share the same fear I did.

For this adventure I went to the agriculture department with my digital photography class to take pictures of the animals. This was for our first official photography project. Before we went to the Ag farm we want around the school and took pictures for 10 to 15 minutes. Then we went to the agriculture farm our teacher, Mrs. Barcellos suggested we take around thirty pictures. It could have been about anything, like the ground, trees, and the animals in the farm. When I went to the part of the farm with the pigs were I saw on peeing. But I missed the shoot because there were people passing by me and after they left it kept peeing so then I took like 4 pictures of that. I liked this experience because I like animals. But at the same time I didn't like seeing animals in cages. That why I am not a fan of zoos because they are prisons of animals and I think it’s wrong.

Halloween Adventure

On Halloween, I went over to Alex's house. When i got there we started watching the first episode of The Walking Dead. Towards the end of the episode i noticed that Alex had fallen asleep. I woke him up because i wanted to go trick or treating. We walked out of his apartment and onto the side balcony. The view was beautiful showing downtown Los Gatos and the Santa Cruz mountains in the background. We walked down stairs and he led me to a blocked off street with tons of people. Every house was decorated. People were having parties. Houses were having karaoke on their front lawns. We went to a couple houses for candy, but all we really wanted was to look at all the elaborate decorations. After about an hour and a half of walking around, we went back to his apartment to have dinner. His mom brought home chinese take out. Overall it was a really great halloween. Next year i will definitely spend my Halloween in Los Gatos with Alex.

Barn Adventure

Last weekend i decided i wanted to spend the day with my mom at the barn. Her schedule for the day wasn't as long as it usually is. When we arrived at the barn, my mom rode Rock in the lower arena for about half an hour to prepare him for my moms next lesson she was going to teach. After half an hour, my moms client arrived for her lesson. I sat on the railing and watched my mom give the lesson. After a while i got tired of sitting so i walked into the middle of the arena to stand with my mom. After the lesson was over, my mom had to hook up her trailer to her truck. We had a little bit of time before my mom had to meet with her next client. So we went to Roberts market to pick up some lunch. I got california rolls and a lemon bar. After that we drove to Web Ranch to teach a horse how to get in and out of a trailer. That took about an hour. When that was finished, we drove back to the barn, fed Rock, and put him to bed. On the drive home my mom asked me if i would want to come up to the barn about once a week to get a lesson from her. I’ll definitely consider it. I cant wait to return to the barn.

New Adventure

This weekend my long time friend Taylor and I went hiking on a trail in Los Gatos. I was excited when she invited me to go on the hike with her but I was a little discouraged because I’m not into physical activities and working out as much as she is. So her mom dropped us off at the beginning of the trail and we started walking up. I expected a level gravel trail, but it was a trail with steep hills and lots of rocks. At first it wasn’t so bad, but after a while I started getting really exhausted and my legs started hurting. Taylor and I talked about how school is going, friend drama, and our relationships. Our conversations were distracting me from the exhaustion. The trail was about over two miles to get to the top which showed a view of Silicon Valley. We rested on a bench and enjoyed the view before walking back down. The walk down was a lot easier and wasn’t nearly as tiring. As tiring as the hike was, I would definitely do it again.

Adv. 5 Fury Movie

Today I saw Fury. I know I'm late to the party but it was worth it anyways, Fury is a great movie in case you haven't seen it. Yet, its not a movie that you would go see for fun, if your looking for a shoot em' up action war movie or the like, Fury isn't it. It makes its theme very clear from the beginning "War is hell, and history is violent", and isn't afraid to show the graphics of it. It's a hard movie to stomach, and certainly not for everyone, but it is good movie and nothing less, one that I would highly recommend for any adult. I'm not exactly sure how the movie has affected me. As an aspiring historian I've heard many of the stories, of crews burning alive in their tanks, commanders getting their heads ripped of by shells that were just a tad to high, child soldiers and more; but Fury really makes images and stories of it. If lots of people dying in graphic scenes makes you feel extremely uncomfortable or does something else to you, then it might be good for you to skip Fury. But if interested in what some of our grandfathers and great grandfathers went through fighting in the name of freedom, I couldn't recommend Fury enough. As Mr. Collier (Brad Pitt) said "Ideals are peaceful, History is violent". Please, if you can, go see Fury before it leaves theaters.

Adventure 6?!

On Halloween, I went out with my friends to Hicks Road, a place I have never been. My Halloween started out extremely boring and ended in sadness, the in between is what I will discuss. It might have been eight o’clock when my friends picked me up. On the way to Hicks Road, we listened to music and the boys tried to frighten me with stories about the well-known street. When we got on the road, Eric kept freaking out for no reason because he kept thinking he saw something trippy. Enjoying his fear, I screamed to scare him and screamed back. We continued up the winding road going kind of fast. When we reached maybe half way up, we realized the car was smoking so we stopped. At the time, we had thought it was just the tires. Unfortunately, we later discovered it was both the tired and the engine smoking. This is where the sadness came in. Before noticing it was the engine, we drove around for few more hours which probably only worsened the situation. This car is actually now destroyed from this night. Although the car is destroyed, all involved agree it was worth it for the night and memories. I didn’t take any pictures, so here’s Eric’s celphie. 

Adventure 7?!

I went to the ranch as usual this weekend. But an unfortunate event occurred, I fell off. This has happened many times before as does when you ride a lot bareback. This almost exact scenario has also happened before.  My friend Andrea who took the picture often dares me to to do things my horse and I are not prepared for but we attempt it anyway for fun. Also when we are successful, it's fills my soul with happiness because Andrea is wrong and no one got hurt. In this case Andrea told me to do a jump, so I went at it cantering. Andrea swerved and I couldn't bring him back. Most of the time when I ride him, I only use a halter; So in situations like these I don't have enough power to yank him around. When he swerved I slipped right off into sand and partially landed on the block standard. To my surprise, Andrew stopped instead of getting excited and bucking away as usual. This also allowed me to not get dragged because as you can see, I'm still hanging onto the reins. In conclusion, I never made it over this jump on Andrew after multiple tries. I also believe I still have not learned my lesson. I will probably continue to challenge Andrea's dares and ultimately fail. This day was still fun and I didn't get hurt. But I do think Andrea's stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

This week I had my greatest adventure yet. I adopted a kitten. This is my first time adopting as we bought our two dogs. And this is also my first cat. The adoption experience is wonderful and I highly recommend it especially if you are thinking of getting a cat but you can adopt a large range of pets, different species, ages, and breeds. Adoption is an option even if you want a younger animal so you can start training them from a young age. My cat is 2 and a half months old right now. Cats are great companions and are quite entertaining. If you don't have a cat you should consider adopting one. Even if you already have a cat, cats like to have company so adopting another cat may be a good idea for your current companion especially if you have a busy schedule and aren't  home a lot with your cat. Adopting provides you with a companion and your pet with a home. And even if you’re not a cat person or are allergic to cats there are many dogs and rodents up for adoption as well. If you can’t have pets or already have your limit then consider donating to a local shelter even five dollars can have a huge impact on an animal’s life.

This week I used a classic camera for the first time. I've seen them before because my parents both loved photography. But I'm in a traditional photo class so I had to learn to use one. Everything is manual on this camera. You have to load the film, make sure you have the right settings and focus, take the pictures, and then unload the film. It went well by my third roll of film I was able to move through the whole process quickly while being sure to not accidentally expose my film. I think it's a really good experience working in a dark room is quite fun and taking pictures manually can be fun. I suggest if you haven't already to take some sort of photography class in college even if not traditional photography. Each has its perks I have done some of both. Modern can be fun because you get to work with Photoshop and you can see what you are doing more clearly while you are planning out and taking your picture. Traditional is nice because you have more control over some aspects because everything is manual. The dark room is also a really good experience. Especially for those of you who enjoy chemistry it can actually be really fun.

election polls

For this adventure volunteered to work the elections poll. Before I was working the election polls. I had to go to training. During it was very complicated because the trainer was showing us how to setup and cleanup and everything. I thought it was going to be hard but it wasn't as complicated as I thought was going to be. Because my supervisor knew what she was doing it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. But scene I chose full-day which was from 6 am - 9 pm. so it was very long. But I still had fun and it was a good experience. 

Pumpkins! Pumpkins! Pumpkins!

For my week 6 adventure, I visited a pumpkin patch. Yes, i knew the month of October was coming to a close, but I went anyway. I am not very fond of pumpkins, but I have never carved a pumpkin before and it's always good to try something new. Now, the place wasn't a very big pumpkin patch with bouncy houses and games. In fact, it was very tiny and had pumpkins the size I was looking for. I wasn't looking for a huge $20 pumpkin, but just a small to medium sized one for $5. 

I never knew how difficult it was to do pumpkin designs and such. From deciding which design to removing the guts to cutting, it was a lot more work than I thought. The guts were my least favorite part to remove. It was all squishy and stringy. Not to mention, it smelled awful. After 2 hours of carving and polishing the pumpkin so it looked clean, I completed my Cat Bus [from the movie, Totoro] pumpkin! I definitely would like to pumpkin carve next year.

Wedding

This week’s mini adventure for me was to go to a wedding in Fresno. I went to the wedding the weekend of September 20^th and with my girlfriend. I attended the wedding of my friend Tony’s mother. The wedding was a very traditional catholic wedding and was entirely in Spanish so I did not understand one word of it. I find it kind of funny that I attended the wedding of someone that I didn’t even know but Tony mostly said it was so I could have an excuse to go visit my girlfriend down in Fresno. After the actual ceremony we went to the reception in which I helped in handing out the food to everyone along with Tony, my girlfriend Fiona, and the bridesmaids. We ate our dinner there and then a mariachi band showed up after we had all eaten and went around to each table playing different songs. After the mariachi band was done playing their music the dancing was to begin but Fiona and I did not participate and left shortly afterwards. I don’t think that I would like to attend another catholic wedding because the ceremony took much too long but I would be ok in attending another Mexican party.

Adventure 4 Ag meeting

Today I went to an FFA (Future Farmers of America) meeting for an activity point (necessary to be in Ag). It took roughly 75 minutes and it was mostly about the upcoming events (so we can get more activity points, of which we need three for 20% of our grade). There was also a corn husking race to see who of five contestants could de-husk corn the fastest. There were also the opening and closing ceremonies at the beginning and end of the meeting. Cookies were given out at the end as well :)

Adventure 3 History of The World

I played a new board game History of The World (its not new its just new to me). It takes players through the rise and fall of empires throughout the world. The game I played lasted from 7:30 to 1:30 in the morning the next day. My dad won, as always, although I was close at second.

Adventure journal #6


This past week my friend Jose and I decided to go to Santana Row, to take pictures for our Photo class. We went to Tea Zone and got some Oreo blasters which are really good. Then we went straight to Santana Row. We took about twenty to thirty pictures. It was a beautiful day. All the pictures lightings came out great. We spent about half and hour to take all the pictures. We walked around all of Santana Row from the 5th story of the garage to the Cinema and all the way to the Valley Fair side, but it was a very exciting thing to do.

Haunted Trail

For my week 5 adventure, I volunteered at the MEF Pumpkin Patch hosted by Latimer and Moreland Middle School. I participated as one of their actors for their Haunted Trail. 

There were other volunteers at the Haunted Trail ranging from 6th graders to freshmen. Behind-the-Scenes, we were all rushing to find spots along the Trail to scare people, communicating with each other to find out who is staying where. As a volunteer, I got to experience new things. While volunteering at the Haunted Trail, I got to act for the first time, as a clown. I have never been inside a Haunted Trail and I was fascinated by the decor. There were graveyards, mirrors, jail cells, coffins, weapons, and of course, skeletons all throughout the trail. Through volunteering, I got to experience things that I probably would never have done myself. If it was me, I probably wouldn’t enter the Haunted Trail because I hate people scaring me, but since I volunteered, I had to opportunity to see the hard-work put into making the Haunted Trail a success and all the chaos behind-the-scenes.

Adventure #6

On this adventure, rather than storming through the night cloaked in ghoulish garb and receiving scrumptious treats from ordinary people conforming to celebrate a goofy holiday, I traveled to a nearby Denny’s to eat some great tasting and exceptionally priced sustenance and spend the night away with close friends.  I went with my brother and three other friends, Chris, Joshua, and Miguel.  Although we had a slight mishap driving our vehicle to the restaurant, (our assumed trustworthy friend misinformed us of the location) we arrived at the Denny’s located on Bascom Avenue near West Campbell Avenue at around 7:00.  Upon entering the fine establishment, a kind waiter seated us in an extremely oddly designed booth.  After gazing at the colorful menu for an appropriate amount of time, we ordered our delicious meals.  I ordered two pancakes, two scrambled eggs, two bacon strips, two sausages, two sides of hash browns, and an appetizer consisting of 4 cheese quesadilla slices and two chicken strips, and chocolate milk.  The meal fully satisfied my taste buds and cravings for breakfast food.  After paying for the affordable dinner, we headed out to return to the dwellings we call home, but once out in the parking lot we ended up joking around and telling stories and engaging in deep conversations about life for about two hours.  Eventually, we went our separate ways, but all in all experienced a wonderful Halloween night.