Community- the common unity life style.

 I work in family restaurant called '' La selva'', which means the jungle in spanish. I have work there for almost a year now and I consider them to be part of my family. I  heard once that friends are the family you choose and that concept is one of my favorites. In La selva we not only serve food with our biggest smile, we enjoy the time that we work together.We laugh, dance, talk, help each other and sometimes even have teraphy session in the kitchen.I dont think that La selva is like any other job out there, what makes la selva special to me is that is a place of unity. We celebrate hollidays together, for example we do a romantic night on valentine's day, we wear costumes in halloween and in christmas we give toys and presents to our costumers. La selva is of course a jungle, our boss loves decoration and he allows us to add a monkey  here and there once in a while.which means that the decoration of the restaurant could be  a piece of art from the chef's artistic talent. Our boss is very supportive he is not so strict, but he does expect the best from us . We are open to give a ideas to improve our service or invent  a new plate. We do suprize birthday  parties to eachother,and sometimes when the restaurant closes we go to the park and have barbeque to spend more time together. Unfortunately the restaurant has not been doing so well for the past months and I'm  afraid to say that our boss is almost facing bankruptcy. Which means that he has to pay us once a month, and he even pays us in payments sometimes. Amazingly no one has quit the job, instead we try to come with more ideas and plates to make our restaurant a better one everyday.
I think that community is a place where persons share a commong goal , and their passion for that goal unites them so they can act as one. One community which could act as one for many, and many for one. A  community also makes me think about the importance of every single individual in the world.  Today  I  thank the farmer who cultivate the food  I  ate,the person who sew my clothes , the person who builded my house. We all depend of eachother to live even when it feels like we are alone in this world . we always had somebody that cared for us and helped us live through the day. I think that no matter how small the work is, it is important, for me and for all the world. Today  I want to be the change that I want to see in this world and give my best because I know that  I  dont have to be famous and rich to be important for the world. I  just have to be me and give the best of me every single day.

Plus/Delta . Evolution is a change!

PLUS:

• I did all of my assignments on time.
• Time management.
• I did not quit the program when I was frustrated.
• I woke up early.
• I made new friends.
• I  learn to be more professional.

Deltas:

•  I need to improve the quality of my work.
• I need to be more patience with myself.
• I  need to study more.
• I need to participate more in class.
• I need to bring more leadership skills to class. 

During my first module at Year Up , I learn a lot about myself. I enjoy to learned new skills in order to improve my professionalism. I believe that I have to keep working on my growth areas, and discover myself even more. My first module inspire me to be a better person and also inspire me to choose my career.I am more confident,t and I learned that I only need to be myself in order to stand out and be notice.

Richmond souls: high dreams, talent and ambitious for success.

Richmond California is a ‘’hood’’ community, most of its habitants are Latino and African-American. Richmond is a city that holds a history of hardship and commitment to the community. The Richmond harbor once was use to repair battle ships from world war two, now a days the harbor is abandon and very few people work in there. Richmond is not a wealthy community but it is rich in so many other aspects. During the pass years of the economic recession, part of Richmond is been re-possess by the banks and home owners had been kicked out. Properties and buildings are now abandoned as a result   more homeless and more criminal activity in the city. Many outsiders think that Richmond is a horrible place to move in; with remembrances of murder victims on street corners the city life looks tougher than it actually is. I believe that all the people that lives in the city would like to move to another community and improve their lives but to get out of the ‘’hood ‘’ a person has to be determinate to change and embrace new concepts and life styles but at the same time represent with honor and respect the place where they came from. Escaping from a community where maybe your family has been living generations is not impossible but it is hard. Improvement is a change and change is evolution. I can't think about a reason to stay there in the hood with all this wrong conceps and stereotypes of me. I love Richmond, I love my home but just like every proccess of nature there is a time to fly away from my nest. Unless I win the lottery my only chance to improve my life is trought education. I found my wings in YEARUP, these program is empowering me to change, I realize that in order to be successful I have to be able to change my defects and correct my mistakes, it would not make any sense to me if I come to year up and not follow the rules and adapt to them . if I want to be a professional I need to learn to act like a professional. My best friend once told me ''fake it to make it'' and that to me means that I have to pretent first in order to be.At that point keeping an open mind is essential for personal growth, for example I can not be stuck at my old habits of being irresponsable. It would not make any sense of come to year up and behave like if I am in a street in Richmond competing with others to see who makes the loudest noise.I do not think that escaping from a community like Richmond is imposible I believe is a challenge, and that challenge is to accept the change in our lives and take advantage of every opportunity that life provide us.I think that persons stay in the same community for decades because they are scare of change. I'm gifted and I'm very proud of my roots, but the world goes beyond the walls in my room , the world goes beyond my imagination and discovering the world and what is out there is the best thing that can happen to me and that is what would make me escape from my own fears and my own liltle world.

Stealing a broke man's pocket.

Interest rates, credit scores, financing, loans, are terms that not everybody understands. Falling into on bad investment can ruin your life and make you a slave of payments during the rest of your life. Some interest rates can actually double the amount of money you initially borrow. When you borrow money banks try to take advantage of the situation, most banks make their costumer sign a contracts that are unclear and inconsistent to literally chain the costumers to rates that go beyond their imagination and financial capacity. Avoiding this kind of contracts is almost impossible; most bankers don’t give their costumers many options or opportunities. Banks make huge profits out of interest rates that are based on credit scores and the credit scores are given by financial institutions. This cycle is control by banks and in my opinion is unfair and is meant to create a fair advantage to banks. Credit scores are supposed to be given every time you pay your bills on time in order to make you an accountable payer and gain bankers trust to borrow money. I believe that in this process bankers have all the control they need to do whatever they want to people. I feel that if they control the credit scores they can control the interest rate. I feel like the banks take advantage of persons with limited resources, especially with people with a lock of financial knowledge , banks target this persons because they are the ones that don’t understand the terms  and contracts . Sadly banks  target the most vulnerable individuals in society , mostly low income persons not well educated and with no other financial option available in this world. I had never thought about how rich people want to keep poor people miserable .  I’m  conscious that when people sign the contracts, they agree to the terms given but most of these terms are unbelievable.