The Bridge

The bridge here at SBCC is what connects our campus together. We have a West and East campus and this bridge really shows the growth of our school. All along the bridge there are signs that say were are the number one community college in the nation. It can sound cheesy, but I honestly believe it. Not just for our beautiful scenery, but for the way our school grows and treats us like students who have more than just a general education in mind. We have dreams SBCC. If it wasn't for this bridge, our campus would either be a lot smaller or separated. Whether you're walking to West Campus and look to the left, or walking towards East campus and look to the right you see the beautiful ocean or the crazy madness of people trying to find parking. Either way, it's a very thankful thing when you walk across this bridge that you're either that close to the ocean or not in the parking lot. Last semester I had no classes on West campus. This semester I have most of my classes on the West side and one on East. Without this bridge you'd probably have to walk up and down those hills we have more often. This bridge is a very useful touch to our school.

Also, on each side of the campus as you walk off the bridge you notice this. It where people post events such as clubs, concerts, classes, or jobs you might be interested in. I myself take a look at this every week or so to checkout if there is anything cool. Might I mention that club day is also tomorrow if any of you are interested in joining something. I know I might be. It's always nice to make friends who have the same interests as you. Last semester I joined the dance club, which then I ended up joining the dance team. You never know what opportunities you might have!

Monday Madness

Holy Homework

What does this look like? You might say it looks like about a week's worth of homework. Yes and no. I did this all last night. My math teacher assigns us homework and worksheets each day of class. However, she doesn't make it due till all on one day, which is the day of the quiz. I believe she is trying to teach us the art of avoiding procrastination. I obviously have not mastered that art yet. The fact is, as a freshmen I have to take a few courses that aren't transferable. Since I've found out which ones aren't transferable, I've had less motivation in those classes. That still doesn't exclude the fact that I have to get it done though. It being due Tuesday, I did it all last night because today is my full day at school. Personally, I'm still adjusting to my new schedule! This was all done with a dose of melatonin about halfway through last night. With all the stress I've been having lately, I've had a hard time falling asleep. Melatonin is the most natural choice I can rely on. 

Last night's sunset

Even though I had all that homework to do last night, it wasn't nearly as stressful as today was. Whenever I drive to school, I make sure to leave so I AT LEAST have half an hour to find parking. It's crazy, but believe it or not sometimes that isn't enough. The annoyance can be very real because most of us students pay for parking, yet we can't even find a spot! This morning I had to park closer to State Street and pay for parking. I was so far from my class, but this teacher puts you on the spot if you're late. I was late last time because my bus never showed up. It's a stressful thing when both traveling resources can't be reliable. All I knew to do was park there and pick up the pace. I came into class with my heart beating out my chest and I was all overheated from walking up the huge hill to West Campus. I told the teacher what I had to do to make it to class in time. Nervously, I asked her if it was okay if I left ten minutes early to move my car closer to a student parking spot actually at the school. I also didn't have enough time between her class and my next to walk that far, move my car, and find a spot again. She let me this time, but I really need to find ways around this parking problem. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of spots here! There's just a sufficient amount of students who go here. Hey, I can't blame them.

On top of all this, this is my crazy Monday where I'm at school literally all day. The end of the day is getting better as I write. I found out my new camera came in the mail, which I will get when I finally get home. Also my handy-dandy parking pass should be there as well. However, I wouldn't exactly call it a life saver. 

Mornings in IV

Yummm

Good morning Isla Vista! Even though the nights can be crazy here, the mornings don't have to be. They can be very relaxing by grabbing some Starbucks and taking a stroll on the beach. It's the last day of January and the temperature here was right below 70. Like always I find interesting this to bring back home from the beach (no I did not bring the lobster tail home). I noticed I got a bit of my tan back today since I lost it being in the cold for over a month. I definitely feel more like myself with my California tan going. Usually when I go on my morning runs before school I don't see much people on the beach. However this Saturday morning I saw people painting, tanning, standing on roofs, picking up trash, and throwing around footballs. If you ever see a girl at the beach staring down at the sand, it's me. I always feel like people might think I'm sad or something but I'm just really into finding cool looking shells and rocks!

I love the picture of my Starbucks drink below , but that was just taken with my iPhone 5S.  I'm very excited to inform you all that I spoiled myself and bought a new camera which is coming in the mail on Monday. I also got a video editing program on my laptop so I can put more videos together for you guys. I think what I'll do is publish them to YouTube and attach them to here. Writing and film production is what I love to do and I'm excited I will be able to start doing both very soon!

Decide it's Time

Wrote day-night. "Keep Calm and Write a Book"

I've never forgotten how much I've been through. As I start to work on my book and realize it even more I think, "Holy crap I deserve to be happy!" Years and years I've been drowned in negative events and thoughts. I needed to get them all out. That's what I decided to do yesterday. I grabbed my laptop and started walking through IV. Sushi sounded good at the moment, so that's what I decided to get. I walked into Starbucks which was filled with students working on homework. That's not the kind of environment I wanted to be in while writing my book. I decided to take everything to the beach. I sat in between DP and UCSB at the picnic tables and took pictures so I could remind myself how lucky I am right now. The colors in the sunset brought out the creativity in my mind. It was time to write.

I found this shell when I walked down to the beach.

This morning I woke up from another bad dream. A dream that only brought me back to the past. Obviously, everyone knows that Angela's past is not a good place to reminisce. I decided I needed to run away from these thoughts. As soon as I opened my door I saw my roommate Dorsa. She told me she was getting ready to go downstairs and have breakfast. I realized I either haven't had breakfast or haven't had a good one for the past week.  That's not fair to my body, my body has gone through enough destruction as is. I decided to go get a good breakfast in before my run. It consisted of water, eggs, and and an apple. Instead of being too lazy to find the pepper, I made myself find it. I found it and the eggs on my plate tasted so much better. After breakfast I grabbed my things and took off. When I had to stop at a light I realized some bug was on my shoulder. So I decided to just grab it and throw it off me. Not till after did I realize it was a BEE. I am terrified of bees. I wouldn't have thrown that be off my shoulder if I put too much thought into it. I walked to the gym and saw it was closed and that was okay because it gave me a better opportunity. I didn't know where I was running, but I decided to keep going anyway. I ran through UCSB and through this hiking trail along the shore. Then I walked down to the beach. I didn't want to because it was a steep hill up. But heck, I decided to anyway because that's what I wanted! I've never gone on morning runs, but here I don't mind. I have enough time before class starts, and it's a great way to start the day.

My point of this whole "I decided to" spiel, was to inform you that you have to decide to be happy and know that it's time. Sometimes it may take work, but it's always worth it in the end. Decide that you deserve what you believe you do. You know yourself better than anyone, so you can't be wrong.

Writing the Write Way

Mondays are usually the longest days that people dread. Mine sure is long considering I have classes between 11:10 and 9:20 pm. I recently dropped my biology class after finding out I didn't need it and now I'm taking a class that will actually go towards my major and that interests me. It's a Film Studies class that only meets once a week. It's four hours long, but since it's going toward my major I don't mind. Since I knew my day would long here at school, I knew I wouldn't want to wait for the bus after my last four hour class. Today and probably every Monday for now on, I will take the daring risks of driving my car solo and try to find a parking spot. I left home an hour early just to make sure I could get a spot. Of course, the one day I do that I found a parking spot almost right away, but hey I'm not complaining.

Katrina fed the birds, I guess they like poptarts

Just like last semester, I got recognized for my creative work by my English teacher. He didn't say my name, but he mentioned how I reminded him of this song which he played at the beginning of the class. Score on the second day!! I ended up getting out of my English class an hour early because over half the class doesn't have their books yet. After that class I met up with Katrina at the bookstore, returned my biology book, and bought my English book. I got back $100 just to spend it again, how exciting!


Katrina has an hour between her classes and she is also a writer. So we decided to walk to west campus and write right in front of the ocean view (the right way). She wrote freely while I worked on my book. I realized I almost forgot to write about when I first got Guinni (my pug) and that would've been a tragic loss to my story!

Wish me luck in my four hour long class! I know my butt will hurt. TMI? Sorry, BUTT my circulation can be off sometimes.

Blown By Life or the Wind?

Birthday dinner with my new roommates.

What a happy birthday to me. I woke up on my Thursday, January 22nd like every other time. My phone was blown up by messages and posts wishing me a happy day. Well... their wishes didn't exactly come true. That day I received no presents except to live in the present of the moment of a break up. I swear the only reason I didn't go ballistic was for the fact that I was at school with the view of the calming ocean. I had just spent over a month in Virginia every day with this guy and received a promise ring guaranteeing a future that now will never happen. Long distance is only for the strong. The fact that I was didn't matter. I've been told I deserve more and the best by everyone including him. I know that, however I'm surrounded by crazy college guys which doesn't give me much hope. I'm just going to try and focus on writing my book. CAUTION: A writer's heart is not one to be messed with.

Moving WRITE a long... (Haha, get it? Write instead of right. Yeah? Okay.) The next day I woke up with my right arm dead asleep. When it woke up, that's when my emotions did. I realized I was feeling more alone than ever. I did what I needed to do at school and drove to Ventura to see my family. I needed the support that only family can give. The whole day I went back and forth trying to convince myself  that it's for the best, I am the best, and I can achieve the best. It took until today to convince myself. I woke up by the wind outside, which was odd because it was ridiculously strong (like me). I went on a walk with my Aunt and her dog Buddy. Out of nowhere a strong gust of wind blew and almost knocked me over. Buddy wanted to keep walking in this adventurous weather with tumbleweeds blowing at our direction. You could say the walk woke me up. Later on I went to one of my favorite stores (Target, which they don't have in Santa Barbara) and I went to the delicious Stone Fire Grill with my cousin. Afterwards I headed back up to Isla Vista, and here I am writing this interesting blog post. You're welcome. And thank you, because now I feel better.

Semester of Second Chances

Hello all! I have arrived back in beautiful Santa Barbara after a month in the cold and it feels so good! Warm Angela= happy Angela. My flights to Virginia sucked because I was sick, my ears didn't pop until the morning after I got there. I was there for over a month. It was nice being able to see my family, friends, and my pug Guinness. However, it was time to come home. I missed this beautiful place filled with opportunities and dreams that I'm more than ready to achieve!

As you can see by the title of this blog, things are about to be different this semester. In fact, things have already changed. After 15 hours of travel time, I arrived back to Tropicana Gardens Monday night after 9 PM to an empty suite. Not only was the $16 cab ride for a few miles ridiculous, it took over an hour to figure out my new key situation and my car keys were in my friends room. As soon as I leveled out my key chaos, I knocked on my new suite's door and got to meet my new roommates. Since all of my roommates left, Trop gave me a room to myself in a different suite with no extra charge. I'm very excited to share a suite with these nice people! In fact, we already have plans to go out for my birthday tomorrow :) The stressful part about everything was that I started school and had to move my stuff on the same day yesterday. No further complaints about that because I'm couldn't be more thankful to have my own room.

Walked out of class and....

On the first day of school yesterday, I was on time to the bus stop even though my car wouldn't start correctly after leaving it here for over a month. However, the bus filled up quick and I wasn't able to get on. Within a few minutes, another bus came and it was like no other I've seen before. Apparently when I was gone they made the buses longer so more people could fit. Good thinking bus people! I arrived at SBCC to go to Biology of Human Sexuality and my Intermediate Algebra class. Obviously my first class was more interesting, my teacher wrote in big letters P***S and V****A and told us all to yell it out loud so the other classes could hear and so we could get more comfortable. I have videos of it but I don't think I can put that on here. Very funny on My Snapchat Story though!

Today was the second day of school but I had two new classes to attend, including Sociology: Marriage, Family, and Intimacy and English Composition. My Sociology class was so full people were sitting on the floor, hopefully that will change. My teacher said she was married for 42 years and I led the class in applause for her for that. After that class I went to get food real quick at the cafeteria. Of course to make my day even more busy I noticed a wallet left on a seat outside. I once lost my wallet and got it returned to me with everything in it, so I felt it was my duty to bring it to the lost and found. Next I had my English class where I already wrote an essay in class, but he seemed like a chill teacher. As soon as I took ONE STEP out of that classroom, I saw a pug!!!!! It was panting with it's tongue out. You should've seen the smile that brought to my face! Haha.


Here's to the second semester of second chances. I've got a new room, new roommates, new classes, and new attitude. So far the best part about second semester has been seeing people that I recognize around school. I definitely feel at home now :)