Living Physically and Mentally in Boston

Today has been amazing. My mind is bursting with ideas for this post. I realize that my last post sounded somewhat defeatist and I was ready to come back to California. The financial strains were weighing heavily on me, and the fact that I had two jobs but no place to live was almost too much to handle. But now that I have a roof over my head and my financial aid has been reevaluated I am in a much better position to think analytically and make the most of my education. I came to Boston for a reason. I got here early enough so that  I could handle the struggles of finding work and a place to live before school started, and that paid off, though I'm finding it difficult to eat at the moment, but in a few months, I should be okay. I owe this attitude today to a friend of mine who warned me not to live physically in Boston but mentally in Arcata because such a mentality would be severely detrimental to the productivity of my pursuit of history. After I heard her say that, I realized that I was indeed leaving much of myself in Arcata, anticipating the day I could go back to California rather than enjoying the days I have here in Boston, the city of my dreams. Taking her advice to heart, I spent most of that evening studying. I hit the math book and didn't stop until all my problems were done. When I finished, I read as much of the required readings for the next day as I could until I realized that I would only get about 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up to go to school. But this didn't discourage me. I have been sacrificing my studies in order to try and get enough sleep, but I realized that this was flawed logic. The only time I should be worried about getting enough sleep is on the weekends when I work late at the Pub and have plenty of time afterwards to do homework.

So I stayed up late to do my homework. And it felt good.

For the first time this semester I felt accomplished in my studies. I didn't feel like there was no way I could keep up with my studies and still make the money I needed to live while getting enough sleep. I realized rather casually that I just needed to cut back on sleep. Homework is more important. How many college students can say that they got a full eight hours of sleep every night the entire time they were in school? I dare you to give me even one. Staying up late and sleeping little are a necessary part of a college student's life, especially one who is putting himself through school. I felt good about myself. I woke up reciting passages from the book I read three hours before. My subconscious mind was working and I was learning even in my dreams and I loved this feeling. Sleep is nothing compared to the feeling of accomplishment that comes with actually completing as much homework as possible.

So I went to school tired but vitalized at the same time. I would stop living mentally in Arcata and focus my life and energies here in Boston. I'm here to learn about history and cultures and humanity and I'm not leaving until I do. Today was the perfect first day for my new mindset. It started off with some interesting history, I learned a little bit about math, then more history and the transition of humans from hunter-gatherers to sedentary agricultural communities and the importance of the command of fire to the survival of a tribe. One of the books I read last night is called Growing Up in the People's Republic and it's written my one of my college professors. It's a conversation between her and a colleague about their experiences growing up in the Generation of Mao's Communist China. Except for the fact that I had to sleep, I couldn't put the book down. It was captivating and helped me understand a lot about the mindsets of people of the time, as well as some unknown links between how a family conducts their home life and the development of independent thought. In my class we discussed this book a lot and next Tuesday we get to meet the author in person and have a class discussion with her about the book. I gained so much insight into why Chinese think and act the way they do and I would recommend this book to anyone. This course was the first of my really stimulating discussions today, but not my last.

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening I have a Native American Women Studies course in which the professor never uses the chalk board. It is a lecture/discussion only class with some videos and we have to take notes ourselves. Today very few notes were taken as the entire class room was involved deeply in the discussion at hand that covered many topics from the importance of ethnic studies as a lense through which to study history to the impact film has on enforcing and breaking stereotypes and influencing the thoughts and actions of the culture. My professor even said that in the ten years she's been teaching at UMass Boston, this was the best class session she's ever had. We were so engrossed in the conversation that we ran out of time too soon, but we did get to see one video that I have posted below: the first Native American to ever appear on a major TV entertainment show.

After class, I had a long discussion about a variety of topics with two of my class mates that was one of the best conversations I've had since arriving in Boston over two months ago. It helped me look at the world in a new light and I've realized some more things about life that I want to share, especially with my friends that are or want to be teachers. I am more determined than ever to teach and being at UMass Boston is giving me so much insight into the problems of the education system and ways in which it actually can be fixed on a classroom level by teachers willing to do so. I'm so stoked about life and teaching and learning that I can't wait to do homework!