Cristo Rey Boston

At the beginning of this year I started volunteering for a catholic high school specialized in admitting underprivileged kids. I work with the business development director to look for corporate sponsors for their work-study program. If you are interested in finding out more about the program, please contact me! =)

Anyway, two weeks ago they had a networking event and asked me to be the photographer. To be honest, I was quite skeptical about how the pictures would turn out. As you all know I'm horrible at capturing people. I think it turned out just ok. People really are tough to catch, especially in indoor lighting. I think my best snaps are the ones not focused on people. LOL!

Corridor leading up to the event venue

Poster for the event

Reception desk & the 2 lovely ladies from CRB playing receptionists for the event

Prize for raffle draw: gift certificate from Gargoyles on the Square @ Davis Square

Details of this event will be published on a Boston local Spanish newspaper, El Mundo. Not sure which pictures they end up choosing to be published but I'm stoked to find out! =P

A Little Bit of Innocence on Tuesdays | Blessing

A Little Bit of Innocence on Tuesdays (Part II)

Leadership is the most common theme amongst all business school applications. Describe a time when you have exhibited leadership, tell me how you had led and motivated others blah blah blah, but I say the ultimate display of leadership is when you can hold undivided attention from all, I repeat, ALL 20 five-year-olds for more than five minutes, actually three will probably make you a rockstar (to kids that is).

If you fail to lead a group of adults, it can, to a small extent, be attributed to someone else's lack of responsibility. We inherently assume that everyone is a responsible individual because we have been taught to be for years. Your failure is partly a result of someone else's inadequacy in following through with his/her responsibilities. This also holds true the opposite way. Your success as a leader stems from your team members' diligence in completing their allocated tasks.

On the other hand, your success and failure to hold a group of five-year-olds' attention is entirely based on you. They have yet to learn to be responsbile individuals, which is to sit still and listen. Their short attention span is not a consequence of ADHD but purely because of the nature of being a kid. They start talking about chocolate when you are telling them about flowers is simply because you are b-o-r-i-n-g.

After my 2nd meeting with the class, I quickly learned that not only must I go with the flow of their questions and remarks, otherwise I lose their attention, but must also steer their focus to the scope of our activity, otherwise the activity would go nowhere. Easier said than done, just like everything in life worth doing.

I know it sounds cliche but what they say about how much you learn from working with kids are all indeed true. I learn how to be truly innovative, none of the thinking outside of the box crap, as in the sky is the limit type of innovation. I learn how to really flex mental agility, with 10 million questions ranging from how come the sky is blue to are you going to bring us candies all coming at you at once, well you get the idea. But honestly, best of all, I learn how to indulge in being a kid again. And boy, did that feel gooooood! ^____^

So have I become their rockstar, you ask? Well I got them to do this...


which is rockstar enough to moi! >_^

(Took me almost 3 months to post part II partially because I haven't upload the picture above to my computer until, well, today and partially because, as always, laziness. =P)

Blessing

兩個多月不見，怎麼中文的標題是英文"Blessing"？是否忘了怎樣寫中文？說真的，要我用中文寫作其實是件很困難的事，我是在國際學校長大的"西港女"喔！(如看見錯別字，請告訴我，多多指教!^_^) 用"Blessing"是因為最近小女子對一段陳年往事有些新啟發。

好心和愚笨的我，好玩唔玩，玩做媒人，結果變成兩男一女的局面。（我已說了"愚笨的我"，這點你不用再提醒我。）得米的男子對我說想得到沒得米的男子的"Blessing"(祝福)，如果可以舊事從演的話，我會這樣回答他...

得米男: I want his blessing.
小女子: Blessing? Why is that even necessary? You are already dating her. In fact, the best blessing that YOU can give him is not to happily show up with her in front of him to make him feel like a loser because you got her and he didn't. Give him some time to recuperate his now hurt ego.

中文版

得米男: 我想得到他的祝福。
小女子: 祝福？需要嗎？你已得到美人歸，幹嘛要人家的祝福？相反，你不在他面前大搖大擺地和美人一臉幸福的出現是對他最大的祝福。
(看，中文一句，一針見血，能代替英語的好幾句，這是我一直以來堅持要學寫中文的原因。)

要是當時有這樣的智慧，坦蕩蕩的告訴他，他這樣的想法害人又不利己，無聊到極，能否讓他想清楚第二日就歡喜地帶著美人去找沒得米男要他的"Blessing"是多麼的無聊和殘忍？

你想說，往事已過，何需從提呢？因剛過去的週末碰見了得米男和他的"美人"，撩起了這段一直讓我有點遺憾的往事，總覺得整件事情可以處理得有體面一些。我是一個習慣反思的人，會在自己的過去找出能做得更好的地方，好讓未來遇到類似事件時，能處理得更恰當。經一事，長一智吧！智慧是從經歷裏磨練出來的，就如下次要我做媒人我也會三思、三思... =P

Numero VIIsix - VIIIzero

What is Project IIIone3?

Numero VIIthree - VIIfive

Standpipes & Jibsy

Numero VIIzero - VIItwo

A Little Bit of Innocence on Tuesdays | 幸福

A Little Bit of Innocence on Tuesdays (Part I)

I used to be a teaching assistant back in college. Standing in front of a lecture hall full of students to conduct review sessions before exams sounded scary but was really neither intimidating nor difficult. More than half of them barely went to lectures and probably hadn't even cracked open their books yet, so for sure I knew more than they did. As for the diligent ones who could actually call you out on your mistakes and God-forbid your stupidity, they didn't attend review sessions. LOL!

With the confidence from my TA experiences under my belt, I proudly trod into a classroom of 20 five-year-olds. As I hear myself happily articulate, "Hello class, how are you all doing?", my brain came to a striking HALT. I had absolutely no clue what to say next. My job was to teach this kindergarten class the concept of money. What I didn't realize was that for the past 10 years of my life, my language surrounding money had been checking accounts, credit cards, financial crisis, sugardaddy (joking!) etc, none of which a five-year-old could comprehend.

I smile.... , and smile... , and finally reluctantly admit defeat, "I am the volunteer who will be talking to you about money for the next five weeks. I'll be back next Tuesday. See you all then!" and swiftly left the classroom. I thought I could wing the introductory meeting without looking at the volunteer manual, like I could when I was a TA. Never thought a bunch of five-year-olds could crush my ego in a way that a group of twenty-year-olds couldn't. O such irony...heh =P

As the next few weeks progressed, I grew to wholeheartedly luvvvvvvv my time with them. They probably taught me more than I did to them. I was surprised at how I had completely forgotten what it was like to be a kid. Gestures like openly expressing likes/dislikes, saying whatever comes to mind, crying when you don't get what you want, yelling to grab attention, had long been suppressed in my adult psyche. I felt carefree and, in a way, safe to be around them. It made me ponder a lot about the adult world, the amount of emotions that we suppress, the amount of lies that we deceive. Is the so-called adult world really the more "mature" way to live? ~_~

(To be continued...)



幸福

(有看開我的博客都知道，我通常用中和英語講同一個主題，但這次有點不同，因為英文的主題想不到中文該怎寫，中文的主題也是一樣，所以這次就張兩個不同的話題拼在一起。)

我沒有看臺灣偶像劇的習慣，我唯一看過的就只有"流星花園"，所以看"下一站，幸福"真的是因為無聊，沒有太大期望，完全想不到會讓我如此著迷。

忘了聽誰的訪問說過，壞人的角色要夠狠毒才能讓觀眾看得投入。"下"裏沒有狠毒的壞人但就有可憐得很的主角，相信是"下"成功的關建吧。(不是因為我喜歡便算成功，wiki 說它是臺灣偶像劇史上最高平均收視第二位，僅次於"命中注定我愛你"。<-- 沒有看過，不知有多好看。) 故事想帶出幸福來得不易的信息，雖然下站是幸福但這一站的距離其實很遙遠，中途還有突如其來的停 站。其實情節沒什麼特別，經過許多波折最終還是大團圓結局，但不知為何仍害我哭得很厲害喔！=P

二十幾歲、快到"中女"年齡的我，開始明白幸福的背後原來是許多無可形容的忍耐、辛酸和堅持，淚水、汗水流過、灑過才能握得住一點點的幸、一絲絲的福，但我享往這種過程， 不失落過、氣餒過、跌過、痛過又怎能珍惜最終獲來的幸福呢。

要不是光晞從醫院逃跑出來苦苦哀求含著淚的慕橙留下來，要不是小樂嚎哭呼叫著他的外星人爸爸不要離開，到結局看到他們幸福快樂地嬉戲又怎能讓你由心裡開心地笑起來呢！

幸福不是必然，但我相信只要努力地，堅忍地朝著自己的夢想走，必定找到我們幸福的天地。

大家，努力吧！無論多遠，下一站便是幸福！^o^

Numero VIseven - VInine

Can you see Jibsy?

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