Rapid Change of Opinion

For the majority of my life I viewed roller coasters as a pointless and dangerous. I had many trips to Six Flags, Universal Studios, and Knots Berry Farm between the ages of 7-15, but not once did I get on a roller coaster. All my family and friends, including some that were younger than me at the time, loved roller coasters. That made it embarrassing and frustrating for me being the only one afraid of them. 

        Once during a trip to Six Flags when I was 11 years old, I had in mind that I was going to face my fear and ride Colossus, one of the smaller roller coasters at the theme park. So I waited in line with great fear. As we got closer and closer, my fear grew greater and greater, and when it was finally my turn to ride, I was so scared that I was shaking. I climbed in to the cart, and in less then 1 second, I jumped back out. I ended up chickening out and let my family ride without me. That gave me the idea that I would go the rest of my life without ever riding a roller coaster.

        As 4 years went by, I had gone to amusement parks several times, but no longer thought about riding a coaster. Until one day while my mom and I were at Knots Berry Farm, she called me a “little girl” for not wanting to get on Ghost Rider, a roller coaster at Knots. As any 15 year old boy would respond to being called that, I told her “Oh hell no! Lets go!” So we got on the ride. It went by so fast, that I felt as if it hadn’t even started when it was already over. That was the biggest thrill of my life! I suddenly fell in love with roller coasters. My opinion about them had completely made a 180-degree turn and I am proud that it did.

Brittnay Arce Interview

            Brittnay Arce was born in Lancaster, CA> She has been living here in Oxnard for 13 years and she graduated from Pacifica High school. She has a younger brother and was raised by a single mom. That fact that she was raised by a single mother and saw the struggles that she went through is one of the things that motivates her to attend college. She has a son of her own which is another big motivation in her life. Brittnay’s goal is to become a teacher, and from what I saw in this interview, I think she would be a great teacher. The fact that she is a stay at home mom makes her schedule not that hard to handle, but taking care of a child is not an easy task. While taking care of her son, she still has to make time to complete the two online classes she is taking. There is no lack of role models in Brittnays life. She looks up to her mother, son, and her boyfriend. She said to me that her mother and boyfriend always support her and back her up with what she wants to do. Just as her mother is a role model for her, she mentioned that she is a role model to her mother. When I asked her to describe herself in three words, she said: “nice, hardworking, and open minded.” That was actually four words but nonetheless, they describe her. Brittnays motto is, “work hard, die trying,” and from what I got to know about her, it is a motto that fits her well.

Family

            Family, in my opinion, is the most important thing that we need in our life. We have a connection with out family that we cant have with a friend or a significant other. Personally, I don’t know what I would do with out my immediate family, especially my parents and sister. I spend about 40% of the week with my parents and if I could I would spend even more time with them. We have such good communication with each other and we can talk about anything.

            My mom is the most important person in my family. She comforts me whenever I need comforting, she gives me advice whenever I need it, and she is there to help me whenever I need help. My mom is the person I tell all my personal experiences and dilemmas too and she always understands me. Since day one she has been my best friend, and she will continue to be so forever and ever.

            I have a different relationship with my dad. We don’t talk about very many personal things, unless it is super important. We do however talk for hours about what is going on in the world and community. The relationship between us Is almost like the type of relationship two guy friends would have. Without him I would be a much different person than I am today.

            The person in my family that fills me with the most joy is my little sister. After being an only child for 15 years, she brought a lot of fun into the family when she was born. She always puts a smile on my face, even though she doesn’t even know she is. I love playing with her because she makes me forget about all the problems we face as adults and lets me bring out my inner child. Babysitting her makes me think about the true meaning of a family: taking care of, and being there for one another when we need someone.

            Not all of us have the same relationships with our family. We may not all be able to get along as well us we would like too, but we all truly need to have a family that can look out for us and communicate with. Luckily, I have that family, and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

My First Job

                                                                       My First Job

It was a typical Friday afternoon in November 2012; I was at the movies watching a Twilight movie with my girlfriend, Melissa. All of a sudden, my phone started vibrating. Angry that I was being interrupted, I look to see who is calling. It was my friend Richard. As any courteous person at the theater would do, I ignored the call. A few minutes later I get a text message, also from my friend Richard. “Call me ASAP dude,” read the message. I was shocked and curious about what he needed to tell me. I replied saying, “ what happened bro?” Thirty minutes went by and I received no reply. All I could do was imagine what he needed to tell me.

The movie had just ended when Richard finally replied. “ I got you a job interview here at Subway!” read the message. I quickly replied asking when? He then said “ Today! Come over as soon as you can.” So I quickly drove home, flying recklessly by all the other cars. After I dropped Melissa of at her house, I went home for a quick wardrobe change. As I drove to subway, fear and doubt about myself came across my mind. Then it was as if Mother Nature felt the same way I did. Rain and wind started pounding and rocking my car while I was driving. All that did was make me question my ability to do well in the interview. When I finally made it to Subway, I walked in, introduced myself to the owner Peter, sat down, and waited for the interview to begin.

I looked around and saw the dining area absolutely spotless. The floor looked as if it were sparkling, the tables looked like they had never been used to eat on, and the chip rack was full of perfectly organized bags of chips. I took a look at the workers, and at the big line they had and thought to myself, “ How will I ever be able to serve people that quickly?” Then, Peter walked towards me..

“ Hello Mr. Irvin how are you?” asked Peter, as he sat across the table. 

“ Fine sir, and yourself?” I responded.

“Good, Good. Okay, first question: what qualities do you have for this jo?”

“Hmm, I used to help my uncle cater tacos at parties, and I feel that has taught me how to treat customers well and not to overreact when there is a difficult one.”

“Wow that is some good experience for this job.”

After that response he gave me, I started to feel a lot more confident about myself and went on with the rest of the interview.

The interview then ended, and Peter told me he would give me a call within a week or so. So I eagerly waited for a whole week. After the week went by, I did not receive a phone call from him. I was so disappointed in myself and thought I definitely did not get the job. Although I was nervous about the interview at first, I really thought I had a chance at getting the job after the performance I out up in the interview.

Another week went by and on a Saturday morning, I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize. I answered with curiosity and was surprised to hear who was on the other end of the call. It was Peter calling to inform me I got the job. He told me to go in that day for an hour or two of training and I joyfully agreed to go in. As I hung up the phone, I screamed with joy and told my parents I got the job. “That great mijo, congratulations!” said my mom and dad. The feeling of knowing I was finally going to help out my parents by working after they have been taking care of me for all these years, was the best feeling in the world.

I have now been working at Subway for about three months and I am happy working there. All of the employees are friendly and I think I have gotten the hang of all the things you have to do as a Subway employee. The best part of me getting the job is that I can learn to be responsible and get ready to start living my life as an adult.   

Texting

I think that text messaging has made our life a whole lot easier. Before text messaging was invented, you were not able to quickly get ahold of someone to ask a simple question. You would have to call them and hope they were not too busy to answer your call. It also made it faster for us to get a hold of more than one person by allowing us to send out the same message to more than one person. In my personal experience, texting makes it a lot easier for me to ask my friends where they are at, let my parents know where I am at, and also allows me to have quite a few laughs with the funny pictures that my uncles send me. 

       Text messaging is really great, but it can also get us into trouble. When I was in high school, I would always get in trouble for texting in class. That’s all teenagers want to do because it’s an easy way to get distracted and not pay attention in class. It also affects when we are driving.  Although it is against the law, we still text while driving. Just like teenagers in the classroom, we see texting as a simple task that cant get us into trouble or cause is to make a mistake, so we do it all the time.

Fast Food

            Growing up I didn’t really eat a lot of fast food. The main reason for that is because my parents couldn’t afford for us to go out to eat, and when we did go out, I would share a meal with my mom. So up until Jr. High I was pretty good at not eating fast food. Then once I entered Jr. High, for some reason I started eating fast food more often. It was a mixture of McDonalds, Jack in the Box, Burger King, and a bunch of Mexican restaurants. Then all of a sudden I started gaining a little weight. I didn’t think much of it, and neither did my parents. So we kept out bad eating routine going, and as the months went by, I gained more and more weight. Pretty soon I was a five-foot tall seventh grader weighing 125 lbs. I can honestly say that for a while there I had no neck. I started eating not just a lot of fast food, but a lot of junk food at home as well. I didn’t think it was a bad thing but looking back now, it most certainly was. Then when I entered high school, I started getting a little healthier with my eating habits. I never completely took fast food out of my diet, I just tried eating it less often and throwing some healthier foods in my diet.

             Now that I am older, I try even harder not to eat a lot of fast food, but sometimes it’s hard. Being a college student and having a job doesn’t really give me a lot of time to whip up a meal at home. So I do rely on fast food a little more then I would like to. The fact that I am earning my own money now doesn’t help either. Sometimes I wish I had bills to pay so that I wouldn’t be able to afford going out to eat so often. But despite eating out every now and then, my eating habits are much better than they were when I was a child. I ate a lot more fruits and vegetables and drink a lot of water. If I could just get fast food out of my life, I think I would be a much healthier person.

My Life

           Hello classmates, my name is Irvin Robles. I was born on November 7,1994 inside St. Johns hospital here in Oxnard.  I am 18 years young and my life is full of 18 years worth of wonderful memories. Throughout my education career I have attended Mar Vista Elementary School, Ocean View Jr. High School, and just this past June I graduated from Channel Islands High School. Elementary school was the best time of my life. Not having to worry about anything other than not getting grass stains on my pants from playing soccer. Everything changed in Jr. High. All of my old friend found new friends, so I had to do the same. Then in High School, all my Jr. High friends found new friends, and again I did the same. Its sad how now when I see those old friends its like we never met, but its no problem. My life has been nothing less than perfect to this point.

            I am currently in my second semester here at Oxnard College. My major is Business Management but I am first trying to get my general education out of the way so I can better focus on just my major classes later. I work at Subway and I have been working there for a little over two months now. My girlfriends name is Melissa and we have been together for almost a year and two months. She is an amazing person and I don’t know what I would do with out her.I still live at home with my parents and don’t plan on moving out any time soon. Luckily, I have the luxury of my parents letting my live at home for free, some people my age may not have that. I can proudly say my parents are what motivate me to be the best person I can be. They support me on everything that I want to do. They even bought me a car to help me with my transportation. Every day, I make sure to tell my parents how much I love and appreciate everything that they do for me.

            In the near future, about five years from now, I will be 23 years old and I plan on being on the verge of graduating if from CSUCI with a Bachelors Degree in Business Management. I plan on still living with my parents, owning a new car, having a job at a bank, and being close to marrying Melissa so that we can start a family. Further down the road, about 10 years from now, my hopes are that I will be living in my own house, own two or three nice cars, and having worked my way up in the banking industry and closer to reaching my employment goal, being a private banker. Being a private banker means that I will have a small number of clients, mostly small business owners, so that I can help them with their finances. Hopefully I can achieve all of my goals, and maybe even exceed them.