Youth Interns’ Journal – December

POGGA Interns

Jessa Marfal

December 6, 2009

In exactly six days, it will be my sixteenth birthday. I don’t really understand why it is such a big deal for some people. I suppose it may be because I will get my license, which will be a nice benefit, but other than that, things aren’t really going to change at all. I will be looking for another job; I need to make more money so I can buy myself a car! In SIYAC, my committee, the Life After Graduation Committee, we are pushing for a bill to be passed that would raise the age that students can choose to drop out from sixteen to seventeen. Hopefully, by congress passing this bill, the graduation rates across Iowa would go up. At my school right now, the graduation rate is roughly 49%. By the time a graduate my goal is to make this go up.

November 2009

School has been getting pretty hectic lately. At Central it seems like the teachers expect us to not have any form of social life outside of school. They give us these assignments that they expect to be done when they say, sometimes, without giving any direction as to how to go about the assignment. I’m starting to get frustrated with the teachers that have us reading 50 pages of books, in 2 days, expecting that I am going to be able to comprehend everything that is put in front of me. I cannot learn like that. I want to be able to take my time, and talk about the book with others, that is the best way for me to learn. When you stress these issues to the teachers, they basically tell you that it is not their problem and that you’ll have to deal with it. It’s extremely frustrating .

Helen Dao

December 6, 2009

This week went by so horrible. I had so many arguments in little times. My relationship with my mom went downhill. Boys are just not worth it to me anymore. I experience things that adults should have. I’m too young to be in these love arguments and just argument that just drives me crazy. I don’t think I changed but everyone saying I have, I don’t even know anymore. I try to be all good but my mother just doesn’t see it. I know she hates me right now but there nothing I can really do about it. I really try to be my best but my life is just a roller coaster right now. School is such a hectic! There so much homework now a days, and also finals are coming up, that mean lots of studying I’m going to be doing. I barely have any free times now. As of right now I feel like the only place I like being at is at work. It the only place where I can just relax and not be bother. Also there no drama here at work. School is just not great; sometimes I just want to give up. I have a hard time dealing with people. I get stressed out a lot. There so many girls out there who I don’t get along with. Anyways I’m doing great even though I don’t like it. I still get straight A’s just like I promise my mom. I try my hardest ! well I don’t really know what to write so I’ll get back next week.

Diana Inthaboune

December 6, 2009

    Have you ever thought you did something but really you didn’t? Well I just had one of those about thirty seconds ago when I went to our BLOG section of the Monsoon website and realized that I never blogged about what all happened during November. So just to catch everybody up here’s the November 2009 edition to my life story.

   The beginning of the month consisted of practicing hard core for the State Competition. The day of State I was pretty excited being my first competition but once I got there the butterflies got to me and I started to get really nervous. The squad sat together and waited until it was our time to go get ready. First we had to go through a inspection which consisted on checking for no hair-ties on wrist, bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings, tongue-rings, and any other type of danger issue items. Then we went to another room and took a group picture, stretched, went over the dance portion of the routine and waiting some more. Then the last practice spot which was stunting before we went on.  We practiced for what seemed like 2 minutes and we stood behind a curtain watching the squad before us compete. We walked on and competed. The adrenaline was going through me and I was out of breath but I knew I couldn’t stop yelling or jumping. Then our twist basket (where we throw a girl in the air and she spins around) didn’t go up. So we definitely had to kick it up for the dance. The routine was over, we spirited and we were off the stage. Time was slow waiting for the Award Ceremony. When it was finally the ceremony, it ended up that we didn’t place but we also didn’t get last place. So that sucked. Oh well, more practice for the next competition!

 It’s the last Thursday of November and of course it’s THANKSGIVING! Lots of great Asian-American food! Uncle made the turkey with an Asian flavored flavoring! Aunt and cousin made the mash potatoes. And many other great food!  Such as papaya salad, deserts, and lots of other food that I don’t know the American names of. LOL. But the only dislike about Thanksgiving is that I feel really fat after eating and end up lying on the floor for an hour or so. But it’s usually worth it!

So there was the November Edition to the Diana Inthaboune life story! Thanks for reading and I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving with your families! (:

API Youth Council Intern

Johnny Truong

December 6, 2009

This week I helped facilitate in the sophomore meeting and in the Hiatt meeting. In the sophomore group we talked about what’s hot and what’s not. In the Hiatt meeting we talked about boundaries that we set for our self and what are some that other people set up. They tell us if we can determine if they set boundaries for themselves or not. I do set boundaries for myself. Some boundaries are like get good grades. Some boundaries that the government makes for us are basically like the laws. I’d say I have learn a lot from our meetings this week.

Tony Thonesavanh

December 6, 2009

So the semester is two-thirds of the way through first semester and after that, I’ll be seven-eigths done with school. It’s pretty scary, knowing that I have to make it on my own pretty soon. I’m also pretty excited though. I get to live away from my parents and I begin to explore life in a whole different town by myself. Its inevitable, so I decided that for the next few months I’ll try to have a reverse case of senioritis and start to make my life super productive for both my school and work life. We started planning a party for Valentine’s day called ‘Love is Not Abuse’ for Monsoon and friends. If anyone attended the fundraiser in April, I assume that it’s going to be almost the same thing except COOLER. Also for the youth, we have planned a film festival showing films that show issues in today’s world such as domestic violence, trafficking, racism, and etc. I hope that the project turns out pretty good. If so then it shows how well the youth can handle a project since the film festival is being ran by the P2P interns.

New space – Suite 101…

In addition to three new employees (two in the Des Moines office, and one for Iowa City), Monsoon also moved to a new space.  Our own real office space!  We are still at 515 28th Street but moved across the hall – Suite 101!  Come visit us if you are in the Des Moines Ingersoll district!  A sample of our new space….

November 15th Youth Interns’ Journal

I think our interns are very inspired in writing their journals.  And please welcome, Johnny Truong, our new API Youth Council Intern.  Johnny began working with Monsoon on November 2nd and he’s been doing great work! 

POGGA Interns

Jessa Marfal

November 15th 2009

In the last API Youth Group meeting, we spoke about the gang rape that occurred in Richmond. The students seemed pretty shocked that this happened; especially that it was at the school. When they were asked what they would do if they were the bystander position, a lot of the male students said they would use violence to stop it. Things like “beating them up” and “fighting them” were mentioned. They never thought about going to get the police or getting a teacher. I think that boys compared to girls, would rather have more confrontation than solve the problem in a more rational way.  In the end I think they did realize though that the best way to stop something like this is to just prevent it.

Diana Inthaboune

November 15, 2009

So the month of October is finally over and I guess a couple of interesting things happened. What’s been happening inside the office has been chill and but it’s soon about to get really busy. I’ve been working on a project called Digital Photography. It tells a story through pictures, words, music and anyway a person wants to tell their story as. But I really haven’t been in the office all that much because of school related things. So for my life outside the office obviously has been pretty busy. Our football team was doing great, got into the playoffs. Beating Lincoln during overtime but lost to Dowling. But it was still a good season! Sad it’s over, there’s no more Friday night football games to cheer for. I guess it’s time to start practicing for basketball now. State Competition is just around the corner and we’ve been practicing non-stop losing two of our members just the week before. My Mom’s birthday was on the 12th so Happy Birthday to her!  Of course at the end of October is Halloween.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE! (:

API Youth Council Intern

Johnny Truong

November 15^th, 2009

For the past two weeks I have been helping out facilitating and helping out at the clinic and getting ready to start digital storytelling with others from East High School. At the clinic I was a runner so I helped copied for other volunteers. I was also a copier. I learned how to copy two sided paper and learned new skills for copying. During facilitation at East we have talked about a girl that was raped in Richmond, California after a homecoming dance. She was raped for two hours. We are now about to start Digital Storytelling. Digital Storytelling is using pictures or videos and telling a story about what happened to you. We are getting a MAC and cameras for people that want to participate in digital storytelling at East.

Youth Interns Journal! I know you are all waiting for the updates!!!

POGGA Interns

Jessa Marfal September 2009 – October 2009 Journal

September 2009

On September 24th, I facilitated the first Asian Pacific Islander Group at North. At first, I was sort of nervous because I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. But after Mira helped me a little, I became more comfortable.  I think the group is going well so far. Only 6 kids came to the meeting, but it is slowly growing in size, I think soon we will have to get a new room to meet in. A few kids seem like they are out of their element, and don’t want to talk, but I’m sure by the end of the semester they’ll feel comfortable enough to not stop talking! I’d really like this group of kids to become a big group of friends, almost like a family. I think it’d be very good for students to have a strong base at school because they may not necessarily have that at home. I’ve also been working on the cook book, putting recipe pages together and such. I think that these will sell very well!

October 2009

Work is really starting to pick up now. We have moved offices, hired more people and started more projects, all being a step in the right direction for violence prevention. I am still facilitating the group at North, it is becoming very successful, more and more students are coming every week and I feel very accomplished. I’m finding it slightly harder to get the upper classmen to come, so far it’s about 85% freshman attendance. But, as Mira put it, that’s good because when they get older, they will still come to group and bring younger kids with them.

We are going to start the digital story telling project soon, I’m excited to start something new! I’m not exactly sure what we are going to be doing, but it’ll be nice for something new.

I’ve also been working with the State of Iowa Youth Advisory Council. I am the chair of the Life after Graduation committee. My vision for this group is that we will create a program that prepares students for college, or whatever it is that they want to do after high school. It is now more important than ever for students to realize how important their education really is. Some kids think that they can just attend the required years for school and be ok, but that’s not necessarily the case anymore. Hopefully with this program, students will raise their expectations of themselves and really strive to do their best.

All in all I feel very well about where I am at in life. I am very proud to say I work at Monsoon.

 

Helen Dao September 2009 – November 2009 Journal

November 2009

Last Saturday (November 7^th), I volunteered to help out at the Refugee Legal Clinic.  That day went amazing ! Well eventually I’m not good with direction so Johnny and I got drop off at the wrong YMCA. We thought it wouldn’t be far so we walked and walked till 12 st from 2 ave. haha Finally we got tired and didn’t know where we were going so I finally gave up and called my mommy, and she came scoop us up and brought us to the right one. It was pretty funny ! So when we got there we was only half an hour late, so it was all good.  I was assigned as a runner – a runner is a person who goes get the  paper that needed  to be copy. HA I thought it was pretty fun when Johnny, Jessa and I was fighting over who is going to get them. Also I help out with cleaning the room downstair. It was sucha mess at first. Ha’ well I had fun there. Also I meet some new people, ha and it was funny because this kids say hi when I didn’t even know them. Well I had such a great experience and I’m looking forward for another thing like this.

September 2009 – October 2009

So for the month of September, I will write about being in school. I was really excited for my first year of high school but it turned out really boring. It basically the same thing as middle school. I always been so happy to go to high school, but I really don’t dig it anymore. Well at least my freshmen year been so lame. I hope sophomore year would turn out fun  ! so ninth grade been wack  ! we can’t go out to eat so we have the nasty school food. We have to be in the freshmen building which is lame ! I’m so glad I go to central or I never be out of those building ! well central been really fun ! My Chinese teacher is really nice and understandable ! He makes everything better ! Also  that my favorite class ! I’m finally learning a new language haha ! so happy ! but yeah I’m passing all my classes with A’s so that good. I haven’t really got into any trouble. I been having good attendance and yeah ! I haven’t skip classes yet ! so I’m doing pretty well in school. Well lets see also I have a new cousin. Ha he the cutest little thing I seen ! His name is Aaron ! haha so? Lets see ! what else should I say about the month of September ! nOthing really happen on this month ! so lets go on to October, this month is going to be a good month ! My favorite holiday is on this month ! ahha Who doesn’t love Halloween? I love it ! I can dress up as whatever I want to be ! and also two day after Halloween is my special day ! haha so this should be good ! Mira ! I don’t knoe what to write about ! you should give us a list of suggestion next time ! haha I love you

Diana Inthaboune – September 2009

Hello! This will be my first blog since I’ve been putting it off for a while. Sorry Mira. But anyways, September was a very busy month for me. It was the beginning of my sophomore year at East High School and classes were starting to give out more and more homework. Also having practice three days a week, and getting my power point done for my presentation in D.C. The highlight of the month was the trip to D.C. I left on September 6th bright and early. Actually, the sun wasn’t even up yet. It was 5 in morning. I was amazed I didn’t sleep on the airport chairs again like I did in Chicago last year! But anyways, the first stop we had was to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Still too early to do anything I got a Iced Mocha like always and waited for the next plane to D.C with Adriana and Derma from Luna. Once we landed to D.C the adventure started. WHOOOOT. Stayed at the Hilton, wasn’t so great. There was ANTS everywhere! And I was kind of sick and Mira was always HOT so the air was on. Since we got there so early we had tons of time to go walking around and see things. We went to the Smithsonian Museum, Chinatown, and other places I can’t remember the name of. The second day Mira had a couple of conferences to go to so I stayed in the room for a while. After that we went around D.C again. Did I mention how we rode on the subways? They look so cool! LOL but it got dizzy at times especially when we went backwards. But it was a new experience. Something you don’t ride on everyday here in Iowa. Then again, why would we need one? The third day was the day of my presentation! I attended a three hour conference and then it was my turn. The presentation was okay. We only had a couple of people in there but it was all good cause I was really really NERVOUS! But after I was done I happy. It amazes me on how people react to how old I was. I was the youngest presenter there. And I had a couple people crying. *cough *Mira *cough. But I think it’s good that me and the other interns are starting at such a young age. Other people are starting to see that too. After  my presentation I went to the White House! I seriously didn’t know my geography because I thought the white house was in Washington State. HAHA! But the next day I had to wake up early again to catch up the plane back to Des Moines. I was extremely tired. Right after I landed I went straight to school. AH. I’m surprised that I didn’t fall asleep! Well I had an interesting September. That’s all I got to say. OH! And the food was GOOOD. (:

API Youth Intern

Tony Thonesavanh – September 2009 to November 2009 Journal

November 2009

11/3/09

Hi, its me again. Feels like I haven’t been here in a while. Last weekend I went to a leadership conference in St. Charles, Il. It was a very different experience because the majority of the population at the conference were minorities. What was cool about that was that we were trying to achieve a common goal and that goal was to become better leaders for the future. Of course they mentioned President Barack Obama and how anything is achievable if he could do it. The rest of the conference consisted of leadership and teamwork classes. All of the classes I thought were really helpful. Like for example, we had to build a tower out of notecards and tape and together in my group, we all thought of an idea and we each took our share of notecards and made pieces and then at the end we combined it all to make the tallest tower there. It made me realize that together we can always achieve more than if we did it solo. At the end of the conference, we had a dance and I had a blast. I even made a few friends from Kansas on the way. The ride home was pretty interesting because we had a whole bunch of jokes on the way back.

The Asian Life Skills earlier today was different. I completely forgot about what I was planning on doing but Mira saved me by taking over and we were going to discuss a different topic.  This session’s topic was about the Richmond, CA gang rape. I haven’t heard about it until Mira gave me the newspaper article. For those who don’t know, the story goes like this. A girl was waiting in a spot for her dad to pick her up after a homecoming dance, when a group of guys asks her to drink. She said yes, and when she was drunk enough, the guys asked her if she wanted to have sex or not. She declined, but they sexually assaulted her anyways. About ten guys were assaulting her while even more were watching.

It disgusts me to hear about things like this because no one should ever go through that. Like, sex is something so personal. It should be only between two people who love each other and if they both consent to it. To hear about a group of lowlifes just violating some girl’s body for their enjoyment and to treat her as an object makes me mad. That’s someone’s daughter, or cousin, or friend that they violated. What’s just as bad is that the bystanders didn’t do anything. They could have called the police or even tried to break it up but they just sat there and watch. It makes me angry that someone could do that and it depresses me to think of how it felt for her.

After everybody read the article, we discussed about what factors could have led to the event.  Even though the session wasn’t as good as I thought it could be because people weren’t completely focused, I heard a lot of well-worded answers. Two of them came from sophomores and one came from a junior. Mira even talked to them for a little bit after the session because she was very interested in them. Anyways after we talked about the article, they all took pledges for what they would do in that situation. A lot of the guys said that they would walk away and a lot of the girls said that they would help the girl out of the situations. It’s kinda interesting to hear people’s honest opinions.

October 2009

10/21/09

It’s been a long while. A really long while since I’ve written a blog. I just have been so caught up with school and everything. Lately I have been trying to fit in so many things because it is my senior year and I want it to be the one to remember. I’ve been so busy with chamber and show choir. I was also busy because I was coaching the girls for powderpuff football but now that everything is starting to slow down, I feel like writing a blog.

We started facilitating Asian Life Skills this year maybe a month ago. Things are going pretty good. We are getting a lot more kids than what we had last year. A lot of them are sophomores so I’m hoping that after I leave, we will have a class full of dedicated youth to the Asian Life Skills program. Of course things have gotten out of hand since there are a lot of people but I can tell that some of them are actually interested in listening. I’m pretty excited for this year because I feel like we’ll have a lot more people doing stuff.

One thing that’s been on mind is growing up. Everybody wants to grow old and start living on their own but really I don’t want to at all. I feel that life right now is perfect. I’m having so much fun with just my academic classes. Extracircular stuff make it even better. I don’t have to worry about paying for my own housing or food. I have my mom for that but someday, I’m going to have to leave the house and begin being an adult. I already filled out college applications for ISU and Simpson. I’m still undecided on whether I want to be in business or teaching. Its just so hard choosing between the two. If I chose business, I would probably make a lot of money and get to use my creativity but I would have to move out of my hometown that I love so much. If I chose teaching, I know I would have so much fun teaching high schoolers but the pay isn’t that great. Whichever choice I make, I still want to be involved in the Asian American community. By the time I’m in my mid 30’s, I wonder how big Monsoon will be. I want to feel like I was apart of something bigger. Its amazing how things grow right before your eyes. No matter how amazing the future is for me, I still don’t want to grow up. I don’t really have a choice though. I just hope that life has something good for me.

September 2009

I’m finally a senior. I get to roam the halls knowing that I’m one of the big guys on campus. I finally get to run the student section without anyone questioning my authority. I’m pretty excited for this whole year. Since I am the only Lincoln student that works at Monsoon, I also get to run a lot of the Asian Life Skills meetings this year. I’m really excited for that. I’m just excited to just teach my fellow peers about Asian history and culture. Hopefully someone has the guts to pick up after me after I graduate. I feel like I’m going to have too much fun this year. However, being a senior doesn’t mean that I slack off. I want to but I have to finish this year strong so I can get that scholarship at ISU or wherever I plan on attending. Since it is my last year, I planned on keeping myself busy all the time. I think I bit off more than I could chew. I have show choir/chamber choir, I am co-chair of together, Wednesday’s nights at the church, and Friday night football games and work. I might even find a second job because when school started, the hours for Monsoon went down. Way down. But I have a feeling that if I can stick with everything then it will be well worth it.

 

Monsoon Growing….

Monsoon Growing…

When we officially opened as a non-profit organization last December 15^th, 2007, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault provided us a space/cubicle or a “made-up-cubicle” in their office.  From that small space, we moved to a rented room in the Geez Louise office last July 2008.  And finally last month (October 2009), we moved to our “real” office space.  Our success in obtaining two grants from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women allowed us to move to our new space and to hire two full-time employees and a part-time employee who will be based in Iowa City.  We grew from one full-time employee to four full-time employees, one part-time employee, and seven youth interns.  We definitely had grown and prepared to effectively provide services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.  The new employees with their own passion, expertise, and strength will continue and sustain the work rooted in the community and informed by feminist/social justice theories.  Interested about our organization, our projects, and opportunities to assists us in this growth, contact us at contact@muawi.org or 515.288.0881!

MUCH PROPS!

Every month we will begin to give “much props” to our staff, youth interns, volunteer, board members and supporters!  Here’s our very first MUCH PROPS!

Monsoon Project Organically Grown Girls’ Activism Youth Intern: Helen Dao

Helen Dao is one of the six youth interns working with Monsoon since July 2009. She is a 9th grader at East High School. I met Helen last September 2008; she is one of the participants of Monsoon’s after-school program at Hiatt Middle School. Helen always made everyone laugh and was always smiling. She actively participated in the discussions and had excellent questions. In addition to Monsoon’s after-school program, Helen was also one of the members of the Hiatt basketball team. When the Hiatt team had a game at their school, her after-school colleagues attended the game to support her and we found out that Helen is one of those individuals who are too nice to be competitive. She will be the first one to pass the ball to her opponent and will keep on smiling! When Monsoon began its Project Organically Grown’s Girl Activism (POGGA) internship and announced it to the youth, Helen immediately took advantage of the opportunity and applied for the position. At her very first interview, she was very professional and was confident although she was a little nervous. One of the current interns found out that Helen applied for the position and was hesitant in working with her because of her age. But to everyone’s surprise, Helen is dependable and conscientious about her work. She is the youngest among the interns but she leads and works the hardest! Hence, she is now called the “secret/closet” worker for everyone underestimated her skills and her ability to finish her work. Helen has been working with another intern, Megan Say, in planning and implementing to continue the program at Hiatt Middle School and probably to establish programs at the other middle schools. Helen is very dependable and will always include Megan in the decision-making. Again, Helen’s inability to be “competitive” (in a negative way) allows her to work very well with other interns. It is through the work of both interns that Monsoon discovered that the best way to “enter” a school a program or to get the approval of the school principal or administration is to allow the students to contact the school requesting a meeting to discuss establishing an after-school or in-school programs that interest them. Monsoon has been very privilege to work with a youth like Helen Dao! And to conclude, I would like to quote a sentence from one of the Helen’s blog. This quote epitomized the goal of Monsoon’s youth internship program – “When I was in middle school, I was also a part of Monsoon and the activities Mira plan was fun so now I want to take over her job with one of my co-worker Megan Say.”

POGGA Intern Blog: Helen Dao

Helen Dao Week Seven and Eight

While reading the story called I Love You, Dad (unsent letter), I felt really bad how she has to hide stuff from her parent. I mean like I know I do sometimes but like I tell them most of the stuff I do so it isn’t like that I hide everything. Also I relate to her a lot because my parent are also sometime strict. I hate them at time. Sometime I feel trap inside a house like being in jail, but at times my parent lets me out and have fun! They always encourage me to get straight A’s !  or good grades. I also think that my parent are losing trust in me each and every day. They don’t want me to go down the wrong path I guess. They always talking about how I used to be good and smart when I was little. They think that I can be a bad influence toward my little sister and brother, but anyway I don’t really know what to blog about! So later !

The people who work here are really nice and fun to be with. I’m currently working on a project that will be giving positive influence toward middle school students. When I was in middle school, I was also a part of Monsoon and the activities Mira plan was fun so now I want to take over her job with one of my co-worker Megan Say. We had been trying to contact school and plan out schedules. I also had my first meeting with one of the school, and I was really scared even thought I been around those people for three year now. I also have been trying to contact soup kitchens, but most of them need volunteers that are sixteen and older so I couldn’t sign up for volunteering because of ages. Some of my future plans are that I stick with this job till my senior year, because I really love this job. Other plans I have are getting to know kids better because when I grow up, I’m planning to be a pediatrician so this job is kind of a perfect fit because I also work with younger kids than me once a week. I learn that there all sort of violence in the world. I always thought like arguing or fighting is violence but like there’s all type of them. I learn that I need to be careful in this world. I learn a lot of stuff about people getting rape and also harassed by touching. I don’t want to get hurt by someone I don’t know. Well if I tell you guy everything I learn, it would be millions of pages so I’m done for now.

POGGA Intern: Jessa Marfal Thoughts

This week Mira gave us the story, “I Love you, Dad (An Unsent Letter)”, some parts of it really hit home for me. Especially where she talks about her father pressuring her to do well in school and getting in trouble when her grades dropped, unlike Grace, I know my parents are doing it because they love me. I also feel like I have a better relationship with my father and my mother because of this. Part of this may be because my mother is from the United States, and didn’t have the traditional customs that come from being an immigrant. It doesn’t make me think any less of her though, because she had many different struggles growing up as a child in America, that she learned from, and taught her children to learn from. I really think that Grace was so focused on seeing what her parents didn’t let her do or what her parents didn’t do for her that it blinded her from seeing what they did for her and how they loved her and wanted her to do well. Although her father’s approach was a bit tough, you can clearly see that he only wanted the best for her. If he really didn’t love her, he wouldn’t care what she did, or who she turned out to be as an adult. I believe that there was proof of his love, and in the end I think Grace finally realized that.

Very recently a member of my community has passed away. Upon hearing the news, I was completely shocked. I didn’t see that coming at all. This made me realize that life is just too short and you can’t ever really be sure when it is going to end. It’s too short to spend your time arguing with people; instead you should be doing what you love and surrounding yourself with the people you love. There isn’t enough time to spend your life obsessing over whom you hate and who you want to fight and all that nonsense, you should spend your life working toward a better future for yourself and your family. I’ve done a lot of thinking about my life, and I’ve come up with a question everyone should ask themselves, “If I died tomorrow, would I be happy with where I’m at and what I’ve done in my life?”

I have been informed this week that I have been selected to be part of the State of Iowa Youth Advisory Council. I am extremely excited about this, I think this will really open up a window for me to make a real change. What I would like to do with the council is create a campaign within the schools of Iowa, that would explain to kids, mainly high school age or middle school age, why it is so important to go to school and get a good education. A lot of kids don’t realize how important school really is. Most of them think that they don’t need to go to class because they aren’t going to be a rocket scientist. What I hear from kids at my school a lot is that they are going to be a “famous rapper one day”, or just “hustle on the streets.” Most of them don’t realize that unless they have a true musical talent, they aren’t going to be recognized. Even if they do have true talent, a lot of people don’t get recognized. As far as the “hustling on the streets” that won’t get anyone anywhere besides jail. I think kids need to see the other side of skipping school all the time and exactly where that will get you. Also, students don’t realize that in other parts of the world, kids in 3^rd world countries start working at a very young age. They would do ANYTHING to go to school. For them, as well as everyone else in the world, knowledge is power. This is what the students that skip and drop out need to realize.

API Youth Council Co-Chair Blog on Weekly readings….

Grace Song by Tony Thonesavanh, API Youth Council Co-Chair

The article that I just read is about a girl whose parents emigrated from Korea and her struggles with her parents and everything. In the article is a letter that Gina wrote to her father because he has liver cancer and she wants to give it to him before he passes away.

In the letter, Gina talks about how she had the trouble of living with Eastern and Western cultures together. Also she talks about how her father pressured her into doing the best in school so that she could become a lawyer. Eventually she got sick of the pressure and started rebelling against her father. She would experiment with cigarettes and alcohol. She would also date behind his back and hang out with the wrong crowd. He got so sick of it that he kicked her out of the house and she ran away. When her mother found out where she was staying at, she asked Gina to come back and she agreed. Her mother told her about how Gina was destroying her father because whenever he would come home, he would drink liquor to soothe the pain. He would continue to drink even with the condition of his liver. Sometimes she believes that it’s her fault that her father has liver cancer but she says it’s pointless to dwell on the past. In the end, Gina and her mother take care of her father so that he is healthy for tomorrow.

I love this story because it makes me wonder how my parents feel whenever I go out a lot or how they work so hard for the things that I overlook. I love my parents so much. I usually don’t do anything wrong but I just feel that they deserve way more of me. I know of so many kids that over look their parents work and they just walk all over them sometimes. This story just makes me want to give my mom a hug and a kiss when I get home.

API Youth Council Co-Chair Blog: Spirituality Issue

by: Tony Thonesavanh, API Youth Council Co-Chair

I came into the office today and since I haven’t been here for two weeks, I’d thought saying hi to Mira would be cool. She asked me about how my bible camp was and how it made me a better person. I offered the idea of me writing it in a blog so here it is.

Recently, I have started going to church and started becoming more religious. I wanted to grow more spiritually. I heard that this camp called CBLI (Central Bible Leadership Institute) would be good for me since there would be people my age around me. I decided to go since I wanted to learn more and also my girlfriend is a lifeguard there so I could see her more since she lives so far away.

Camp was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I met so many friends and had so many laughs. We even had a 50’s dance one night but the whole point of camp isn’t for friends but it is to become a better Christian. A lot of the things that they taught make me want to become a better person. Stuff like how we shouldn’t be easy to criticism and that we should be resilient. Also how we should fight bad habits that keep us away from God such as drinking, drugs, pornography, and lying. Ever since I’ve left camp, I’ve been trying my hardest to fight these temptations and I think I’m becoming a better person because of these. One of the things that CBLI taught was leadership. I feel like I can lead people a lot better now whether it is at presentations of facilitating or just during class. I’d say it made a better person spiritually and mentally.