Tag: spanish

Summer School

I’ve had two successful semesters at Arizona State University and two more await.
En serio, que no lo puedo creer.
Have you ever worked so long at something that it felt like it would never get in front of you? A distant dream realistic enough to hunger for but never close enough to sense it?

I have been chipping away at my bachelors degree for ten years.
Una década completa, yo.

Poco a poco compartiré mis experiencias y reflexiones durante esta etapa de mi vida, but today I wanna talk about la escuela de verano.

SUMMER SCHOOL.

I’m currently taking two online classes through Rio Salado Community College. They are the two missing courses from my associates transfer credits to ASU.
Ya me lo esperaba desde hace años, pero ahora que estoy aquí… there’s been quite a range of self talk this semester.

There’s the naggy voice that says, “Come on do we really need to try this hard? They are lower level summer school classes…do we need to be this disciplined? ENJOY THE SUMMER.”

My empowered-educada y firme-voice typically steps in and responds, “Pleba, you’ve worked hard to get here. Finish strong. Finish proud. Don’t leave anything to question. Te lo mereces.”

But honestly its the,” I’m tired. Where do we have to go this week? What do I bring? I should probably stay up after the kids go to bed. Oh look, piles of dirty clothes. ¿Cuanto tiempo tienen ahí? I just want to binge watch Netflix. Never mind I’m sleepy” voice that I really have to keep an eye and ear out for.

DISCIPLINE.

What does that look like for you?

My current version is somewhere in the in-between of extremes.
I work on projects and assignments mostly durante el día cuando entro en mi hora de almuerzo and occasionally por las tardes, si lo necesito. My professors are communicative, creative in their approach to assignments and engaged through the messaging center. Needless to say no ha sido fácil mantener mi motivación pero, I’m getting it done.

I passed both of my midterms with A’s so I am making an effort to maintain high expectations with myself.

I do this because I can. Despite everything else I have going on in my life currently. Despite the family events, birthdays, birth of my scrumptious nephew, holidays, anniversaries, responsibilities, summer fun and curve balls he podido mantener este nivel de enfoque, y por eso lo hago.

I am learning that by gauging the support I have and my abilities I can keep my education in line with my priorities. The next two semesters will challenge me in ways I’ve never seen before. I will have to take 5 fast track courses a semester, broken into two sessions a semester, in order to graduate in May 2020. I will be working full time and we will be entering my husbands first season as a Head Football Coach for his high school. On top of keeping up with a home and trying to establish a semblance of balance with our children, life will be busier than ever before.

I am grateful for summer school.

It’s keeping my education goals and study habits fresh and close. Come August I’ll be in the endgame for my degree and I need to be sharp and ready.

Y lo estaré.

I understand that it’s bold of me to make a statement like that, “I will be.” but really, at this point what choice do I have? I’ve set the bar with myself. I will follow through. Don’t get me wrong, as my husband reminds me, “C’s get degrees”. I will take a C to survive. If that’s what comes with my best effort I will be proud nonetheless.

I’ll be ready.

What I’m learning about affluence, poverty and sustainability-(pt.1)

“La pobreza es la falta de capacidad para cubrir las necesidades economicas propias.”

In my Spanish for Sustainability class I am learning about the correlation between our, mankind’s, use of natural resources and its impact on those resources and our environment. One of the topics that keeps coming back to me, even though we have since moved on, is how economic disparity impacts our ability to make this ecological relationship a more sustainable one.

That just means, that the larger the gap between a rich persons lifestyle and a poor persons lifestyle effects the way we amend our relationship con nuestro medio ambiente, with our environment.

When a person or family lives in poverty that means they’re economically incapable of covering their most basic needs. Efforts of daily living are centered on finding or maintaining food, water, and shelter for basic survival. This includes buying the cheap- processed-high-calorie snack foods because its what you can afford versus shopping in the organic foods aisle. Therefore, access to good health and productive living conditions are nearly non-existent. They don’t have the privilege of concerning themselves with thinking: about GoGreen initiatives, their impact on the quality of the environment or long term sustainability.

I couldn’t tell you how many families I have interpreted for, in my career as a Spanish medical interpreter, who have either been scolded, laughed at behind their backs or shamed for their lack of accountability for their poor health.

“Do they just not care?”

I had a nurse ask me this after we finished discharging a patient from the emergency room. The patient would recurrently end up in the emergency department every few weeks for diabetes flare ups and a history of slow-healing lesions.

So if you’re asking me “do they just not care… about being alive?” The answer is, of course they care about being alive.

Do they have enough financial security to provide for their families needs while simultaneously affording their own physical, emotional and mental health? No Susan, they don’t. They live their lives to provide a roof over their families head, meals on their table and clothes on their backs.

They can’t afford to care any more than they do.

Literally.