I like the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. It tells us that we are responsible for our lives and responsible for the end product. She is telling us regardless of our upbringing we have the ability to become who we want to become in the future. I think this is encouraging, especially for those brought up in bad neighborhood. I do apply this to my everyday life. Since I come from a first generation family, my parents did not have the chance to go to college in the U.S, and always remind us that we came to the U.S so we can take advantage of the opportunities of bettering our lives. I apply this quote to my everyday life because I know I have the opportunity to take advantage of resources my parents didn't have in their country.

On the last reflection meeting, that took place on February 22nd, I had lots of confusion. I enjoyed the experience of the conversation but I also felt confusion. I think it was because I still don't know what to identify myself with. 

I found the matrix of oppression depressing. This is because most of the social categories I identify myself with are either the targeted group or the border social groups the targeted. According to the matrix of oppression I should as a target group but I feel this to be true mostly with race.

I can relate this to my leadership experience by encouraging others to not fall into the idea of oppression. I could encourage other to not be discouraged if they fall into a targeted social group. I believe many of us in STARS fall into 2 or more of the targeted, but we do not allow it to stop us from achieving higher positions. All of us as leaders can encourage other to become involved in movements and to achieve higher aspiration, regardless of if we fall into a target or border social group.

After reading the article, I felt that I should start meditating. I have tried to meditate before but I find it difficult. My reaction to meditation is exactly what the article described, I begin to panic and feel as if I'm wasting my time. I also do not see a benefit and feel like a hippie. When I was in cross country our assistant coach tried to make us mediate during practice as we began to go into our competitive season. I did not like it at all, and refused to do it. I felt that our time could be better spent. Some of the girls did like it but these were the slower lazier girls on the team. So ever since then I think I've associated laziness with mediation. I also did not understand how our assistant coach expected us to just sit there while our competition was working out on the track or doing core. Luckily, our head coach understood and only forced us to mediate once and then allowed us to work on other core when the others meditated. Although the article mentions makes it seem as if ten minutes is not much, in reality it truly is. In the ten minutes, we would have meditates we could have ran  a warm and then began our workout. Here at school, in ten minutes I can type up this blog, finish half of a reading assignment or have lunch. The closest thing I have gotten to meditating is to listening to relaxing music while I get ready on day I have late class.

Last week at Family Matters my mentee and I continued looking at high schools. I also learned about the selective high school process from my mentee. The process put lots of pressure on these students at such a young and i don't think that is healthy for them, because it makes them feel like failures at such a young age. I did my best to encourage her and tell her she could easily get into the school if she worked hard and continued to pay attention and respect her teacher. I have also noticed many of these kids feel the need to be against authority or appears as if they don't respect them. My mentee talked about how much she hated her teacher and talked back to him. I told her regardless if she liked him or not, she had to respect him. I tried put it in terms that made sense to her but I still don't think it went through to her.

For my spring break I don't have plans other than to rest and study for the test I have right after spring break.