FIFA World Cup 2018

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The World Cup is this summer, and my family could not be more excited. My cousins play soccer, my siblings play soccer, and even I played soccer for a few years. Those in my family who don’t play  soccer still closely follow it. I have to admit that I don’t follow it too closely, but my brother definitely does. So, this summer is such a big deal that we are even planning our family vacation around the World Cup because he does not want to miss a second of it.

It may seem like a lot to some people, but I absolutely love the intense love that my family has for soccer, especially when it comes to the World Cup. I am looking forward to spending the summer visiting all my family members so we can all watch the games. It’s the best feeling to see everyone get excited about a team winning and to just be able to feel the passion they have for soccer. I’m always happy to spend time with my loved ones, and the World Cup will ensure that there will be a lot of family time this summer.

Where am I?

I was inspired by the multimodal we had to do for class, so I decided to do another one based on where I am with myself and with my life now that it's the end of my freshman year.

Complaining

There are about two weeks left in the semester, and stress levels are at their highest for most students. I've found myself seeming to have less time than ever and little motivation to do anything, which just adds to the stress I'm feeling. The end of the semester always brings countless of things that need to be done with little motivation to get these things done. I often find myself complaining about everything I need to do instead of actually working on those things.

When this is the case, which is often, I try and remind myself of a quote I saw on Instagram a couple of months ago. "Encourage instead of complain." It really is that simple. Instead of focusing on all of the things I need to do but don't necessarily want to do, I should be encouraging myself to get these things done and out of the way. Complaining isn't getting me anywhere. It's actually just leaving me with less and less time to do the things I need to do. So, here's to complaining a little less and trying to encourage myself to put my all into these last two weeks of the semester.

Friends that are Family

I could not have made it through the school year without the people I'm picturing below. As a commuter, I found it a little bit harder to make friends and get involved on campus than I had expected it to be. This is probably because I'll go to my classes and then come home. I try and go to different campus events, but I live so far that sometimes I don't think it's worth the drive. Don't get me wrong, I've made some amazing friends this school year, but I really cannot thank the friends that stood with me when I was struggling to do so enough.

This group of friends means the absolute world to me. It seems as if they are always, always there the second I need them. They also never fail to make me laugh, and they're always up for adventures, no matter what time of day it is. I am very grateful for them and consider myself lucky to have such a supportive group of people in my life. I cannot wait to add to our adventures and create more memories with them this summer.

Traveling

A picture I took from the plane on my way to Mexico last summer.

I absolutely love traveling. Seeing different places and escaping home is my favorite thing to do. Although the only other country I've been to is Mexico, I think the greatest thing is being able to experience a different culture. I've found that most people don't ever really understand a culture until they experience. For example, I belong to a very proud Mexican family, and our culture is everything to us. My parents constantly tell my siblings and I about the places in which they grew up and the experiences they had. I've always been intrigued by their stories and love hearing them again and again, but I didn't fully understand them until the first time I visited Mexico that I was at an age where I could remember it. Visiting the places in which my parents spent a big part of their lives is incredible, and I honestly prefer it over visiting a touristy place like Cancun. I've been to both and love doing both, but visiting regular little towns in Mexico feels so much more real.

I'm hoping to be doing some more traveling this summer. My family usually takes a trip to Mexico every summer, but this year there has been talk of maybe visiting Europe. It's something we have always talked about doing, but we never get around to actually planning it. There's still no set plans because we are trying to work around some other events we have here at home, but hopefully we'll go somewhere.

Hispanic Ministry at Saint Michael Parish Orland Park

As mentioned in a previous post, I do a lot of volunteer work. I do all of this work through the Hispanic Ministry at Saint Michael Parish in Orland Park. Saint Michael’s Hispanic Ministry had only been around for a couple of years when I first started attending this parish. They established it because of the growing population of Spanish speaking parishioners who wanted to be able to attend masses and church events in the language they fully understood and were comfortable with. So, as this population continued to grow, the Hispanic Ministry did too. Now, we are a really well established group that participates in any and all things that occur at Saint Michael’s.

One of our biggest goals as a group is to celebrate our culture. We do this through countless of events like the Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Las Posadas, tamale fundraisers, and so much more. Each year the events we host are attended by more and more people. So, each year our events are bigger and better, and I could not be more proud. I love that the Spanish speaking community at Saint Michael’s is proud to participate in the celebrations and traditions of our cultures and that the non-Spanish speakers are more than happy to join us too. I think Saint Michael’s is doing a great job at making sure its parishioners all feel comfortable and welcome, and I am proud to be doing what I can to help make this happen. I am proud to help keep our culture alive.

"Las Mañanitas" for Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th