To live

By: Gabriela Yareliz

It was a gray, humid day. I was out for a walk with my dog, Bunny, in the rain. It is one of those rains where everything is green and alive. I was trying to stroll while she would occasionally stop and try to make a feast out of acorns.

We are living another year. Praise God for that.

To live is a fantastic thing. The older we get, the better we are able to combine the fractions of who we were at certain points into a large masterpiece. When we look back, we realize that the person we were was only a piece of who we are today. We change.

It is a sad thing to go through life burning corn fields and leaving a heap of ashes. When we are afraid to face our mistakes or who we are, we stay the fraction of who we were meant to be. Fortunately for us, God is merciful. Every day He gives us breath of life, is a chance to trun things around and keep growing.

I like being outside. I am not a gardener, like my mom, or some crafty person who makes tree houses or anything; but I do like to walk and just be outside. This is a difficult thing in New York in the winter. Throughout the exam period, my dorm pal and I would go and take sanity walks; walks all the way to midtown or almost Chinatown and back. We would walk 40, 50 blocks, and not feel tired or bored. These walks are for no wimps! Keep in mind, some factors may be the fact that my friend runs like 10 miles a day or more, and I have a masochistic, endurance-is-everything streak.

Anyway,
each window sill is a new world; each block is a universe.

Sitting in a dorm room with fluorescent lighting makes you feel like you are still in the classroom or like you are some trapped lab rat in a failed experiment, which means you will be there for a while.

No matter what your New Year resolution list is, and I hope that by now you have not given up on the list, make living one on your list. Live, really live.

Step away from technology, fluorescent lighting and chairs, and live. I know we all have school or jobs, but take time for silence and introspection, and time to be outside– even if it is freezing cold. New Yorkers should take more time to walk when they can… haven’t you seen those terrible subway deaths? Walk people. Sometimes people get on at one stop to get off at the next two, where they could have walked.
It isn’t just about walking, but just breathing outside air.

Here in Florida, because it is so warm, and I am not as concerned of the rain being acid or a collection of sidewalk dog pee like in New York, I enjoyed a warm, humid and rainy walk with my dog  Mist, cows, trees, the smell of leaves and dirt, it is life in every breath. I love it.

It is in those moments, with no phone in hand, that we are left to our conscience and God. Let us take time this year to pray, and continue to have God’s plan for our lives, and who He wants us to be, unfold daily.
This year, pay attention to the people who surround you. Even if they are so different from you, whether you work with people where no one is in your age group or people whose personalities are miles away from yours, take the time to learn from these people, see what they care about, what moves them, what makes them smile; for of such things life is truly made up of.

This year: If you are near a lake or an ocean, visit it. If you live by a forest, explore it (stay on the trail please). If you live where it is warm, expose yourself to the sunny day. Walk barefoot. Walk in the snow (don’t walk barefoot IN the snow…). Talk to someone you’ve never met. Be an angel for someone who is lonely. Try a new dish. Walk in the rain. Leave a bad or destructive habit. Spend time with your family. Write a letter. Drive with your windows down and sing out loud. Join a cause you believe in. Learn 10 words in another language. Collaborate on a vision or project with a friend or someone from the past. Give thank you cards. Forgive. Try a natural remedy. Sanitize your cell phone (it gives you acne, I am not kidding). Take a photo you are proud of without Photoshop, Instagram or any alteration. Have faith. Set fear aside. Seek truth.

Make 2013 a year that you can look back on and say, I lived.
I truly lived.

The best and worst of 2012

By: Gabriela Yareliz
The following list was compiled from notebooks where I did my articles, class journals, news outlets, etc. 2012 was great, 2013 will be just as wonderful I hope. Like every year, it had its ups and downs.

The Best of 2012

Cricket: In January of 2012, I walked onto the field by the Southwest Rec Center, and began jotting down names and phone numbers of the members of the cricket team. Some asked me if I was taking attendance. Little did we all know, this would turn out to be a long and awesome friendship. I learned how the game works, even though I suck at it and still am terrified of the ball—and I met the awesome adviser, Dr. Hill, and many cricket club presidents around the state of Florida. Cricket team and community, I will always love you all.

Court reporting: I interviewed the Senior Staff Attorney, I followed a crazy sentencing, and I learned to search the docket.

World Hum: For a class project, I interviewed the co-founder and co-editor of World Hum. This site is amazing; excellent for world travelers, or those who can’t travel but travel the world through reading.

What is Love?: While walking to Anderson Hall, Gator Wesley was tabling and they had a sign that said, “What is Love?” When they showed me the sign, I said “Baby don’t hurt me?” and we all had a good laugh.

Gator Wesley Foundation Pastor Dan Wunderlich, Casey Zych, 21, Sydney Jones, 19, and Jessica Johnston, 21, sit at a table with a banner that reads “What is Love?” on the Plaza of the Americas. The table, which will be set up until Friday, is part of the Gator Wesley Foundation’s Love Campaign, encouraging passerby to share their ideas on love on a big piece of paper above the banner.
http://www.alligator.org/news/photo/image_0f903792-52e8-11e1-ba96-0019bb2963f4.html%5B/caption%5D

Cemetery: I followed a cemetery show down from years ago, and documented how it is trying to become a nationally registered historic site.

El Nuevo Dia: I interviewed Victor Pillot Ortiz. Award winning sports journalist. It was a Spanglish interview. He has a fascinating career.

International Students: I wrote a piece on international students and why they came to the University of Florida. People do some amazing things and come from amazing distances.

Good-eats: I discovered Reggae Shack Café and Bahn Thai after a veggie fest at the university.

SAVE CISE: So I joined forces again with Beto, Brant and the GAU people to protest, this time not administration or Rick Scott, but the university threatening to cut the Computer and Information Science & Engineering College completely. We saved it after marches, sit ins and town hall meetings. I even somehow ended up stopping traffic during one of the marches. Don’t ask. The movement even ended up in Forbes Magazine and CNN iReport.
[caption width="504" align="alignnone"] CNN iReport

Social Justice Class: We had some heated debates and provocative readings in this class. I loved our professor who is a graduate student. We went to the Bo Diddley Plaza and saw Dr. Cornel West. It was a sunny perfect day. I was eating gelato and chilling with Christian D., this very nice ROTC gentleman and Puerto Rican friend from my class.

Pool: I learned to play. Thank you Bhargava and Yash.

DILLLIIIPP’s Birthday: It was a good time.

French Presidential Elections: Sarkozy was out, and Hollande in. It was fascinating.

TIME: An undocumented Latina made the Time 100 list. She founded the DREAM Act Coalition in Arizona.

STADIUM PHOTOS: Felicia and I went to the stadium on a cold and sunny day to take photos. She even climbed the wall with the sign that says: DO NOT CLIMB.

Graduation: YES! I got a Bachelors of Science.

Law School: Started law school. Super awesome.

Prayers: My friends praying for me during Hurricane Sandy. Thank you guys. Every prayer and phone call means a lot.

Prateek: He came to NYC!!

Boba and Aloe: I continued my fascination with chewable drinks.

Central Park: I found my bridge and went ice skating.

Comedy Central: Saw the Daily Show live, and bought a Steven Colbert T-shirt.

Torts: We fell in love.

Selena Gomez: Broke up with Justin Bieber on New Year’s Eve. She can do sooo much better.

The Worst of 2012

Interviews: I always did interview around campus, and something would happen… the man with the blower would show up, a rain storm, a man hitting a metal staircase with a hammer, you name it. No silence. I learned to interview through adversity.

Henna: on the International Day by the International Center, I finally tried henna. I walked barefoot to class and it was so hot outside that it literally melted off my feet. Henna destroyed= sad me.

I-75 Smoke Accident: There was a pile up accident on I-75 after some fires because of no visibility. Eleven people died and at least 2o went to the hospital.

Pakistan’s women suffering: Fakhra Younus, an acid victim, committed suicide in Rome. Malala, was shot by the Taliban, and today she is being released from a hospital in the U.K.

Latina: Sofia Vergara did the dumbest interview with Esquire. She made Latina’s look really dumb and air headed.

Paolo: My car, he died 

Moved to New York: It was so hard to say good-bye. Sigh.

Fever: Fought a fever and was really sick, all while doing legal writing and the TA was passing out candy I couldn’t eat.


Kosher: Ate Kosher pizza, and vowed to never do that again.

Hurricane Sandy: a week without power in the cold and darkness and the disaster it wreaked. Not cool. Plus, we had to make up the time and reading. Classes and reading were twice as long.

Skype: Attempted to do a Skype interview with a person in another time zone. FAIL.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR: EVA LONGORIA

Merry Christmas!


By: Gabriela Yareliz

Hi! Hi! Hi!

One more exam to destroy. I want to wish everyone an amazing Christmas season. Spend time with family, reflect, have some introspection, get some safe sunshine, thank God for His amazing gifts and our incredible lives, relax, drink tea, do something new, spend less time on your computer or phone, LIVE IN THE MOMENT IN A WAY YOU WON’T REGRET.
XOXOXO.

Week’s Picks: Dec. 17, 2012

By: Gabriela Yareliz

1]

2]
“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only the past.” -Virginia Woolf

3]

4] Theodore Roosevelt

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

5] Whom God Chooses

When God wants to drill a man, And thrill a man, And skill a man; When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart; To create so great and bold a man; That all the world shall be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally elects! How He hammers him and hurts him, And with mighty blows converts him

Into trial shapes of clay which Only God understands; While his tortured heart is crying And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks; When his good He undertakes; How He uses whom He chooses, And which every purpose fuses him; By every act induces him To try His splendor out- God knows what He’s about.

– Anonymous

Study break: Bollywood style

By: Gabriela Yareliz

After Barbri… some entertainment…real people, dancing. I love it.

The first one if from a British TV Show…Britain’s Got Talent? Maybe… I don’t know; I don’t watch TV. It is brilliant though.

Staff at an Adventist College (Flaiz), I believe, in Narsapur, India.

Get it guys!
Meanwhile, elves, Santa Clause and all of his little helpers are crawling all over New York because it is Drunk Santa day in NYC. Who ever thought of that one? Sigh.
I will stay here studying and dancing… Bollywood style, of course.

As a nation

By: Gabriela Yareliz

As a nation, we must come together and pray for all of the families who lost loved ones, not only today (in the school shooting in Connecticut), but in all of these terrible and recent tragedies, shootings and suicides.

President Obama sums it up so well.

Our prayers are with you.
In these times, it seems people are giving into desperation. People are so broken, they not only hurt themselves but others.
Today, the nation lost many bright children, caring teachers and a broken young man. May God help us to always rest in Him. To not give into sadness and anger, but to always hold on through the pain, hoping for a brighter day.

Just Man

By: Elie Wiesel

“One of the Just Men came to Sodom, determined to save its inhabitants from sin and punishment. Night and day he walked the streets and markets protesting against greed and theft, falsehood and indifference. In the beginning, people listened and smiled ironically. Then they stopped listening: he no longer amused them. The killers went on killing, the wise men kept silent, as if there were no Just Man in their midst.

One day, a child, moved by the compassion for the unfortunate teacher, approached him with these words: ‘Poor stranger, you shout, you scream, don’t you see that it is hopeless?’

‘Yes, I see,’ answered the Just Man.

‘Then why do you go on?’

‘I’ll tell you why. In the beginning, I thought I could change man. Today, I know I cannot.

If I still shout today, if I still scream, it is to prevent man from ultimately changing me.’”

Because you’re worth it (wink)

By: Gabriela Yareliz

You must give yourself value. The value you believe you have, and the value you believe God places on you. If you do not, the world will not place this value on you. Instead, it pulls you and stretches you. It surrounds you with destructive habits, numbers, labels and beauty, which in the beginning make you giddy but leave you feeling robbed and broken.