My Life in Bright Colors

Hi everyone! My name is Alessandra Torres and I'm twenty years old. I came from Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Providencia in Río Piedras in which I studied from fourth grade to Senior year of high school. Before that, I coursed first to third grade of primary school at Colegio San Pedro Mártir in Guaynabo. I was born in San Juan and I have the pleasure to be the daughter of extraordinary and lovely parents who are the ones who have been always there for me and still helping me to design my own script. I have two siblings that I love too much: Camila, who is seven, and Fabián, who is thirteen years old.  Being the oldest sister is a special title: it means that I'm their role model. Fabián came to the world when I was seven and I have to let you know that I was very excited and I still was after his birth. I begged my mother to give me a   little brother to have someone to play with. He was like my "baby" when I played to be the "mom" of my dolls. Camila came to my life when I was thirteen and I got thrilled too. I'm also pleasured to have a stepmother and a stepfather  because my parents got divorced when I was just a baby.  

I started taking ballet classes since I was four years old and jazz classes since I was seven.  I really loved it, but when I became 10 years old I decided to leave the dance and to take tennis classes. My tennis affair lasted only one year. Then, I wasn't doing anything! When I was fourteen years old, I started dancing with the Folkloric Ballet of Guaynabo and the Ballet Folklórico Nacional de Puerto Rico directed by Tony D'Astro. Dancing is my passion and it is also one of my hobbies. During my school years, I participated in many activities and one of them was the Talent Show. I have a twin whose name is John Travolta. It's joking! I did the Travolta's character in Grease's performance on a Talent Show. It was a little hard for me, but I did it! Otherwise, I have been in some places like New York, Orlando, Arizona, Dominican Republic, and Culebra. Someday, I will like to visit Europe. That's one of my life goals.

My family and friends are very important for me. About that, I suffered my first and only big lost with my grandpa's death. If I were asked to point out the most saddest day of my life, I will definitely answer that it was that day. My family, specially my parents, were my support in such difficult situation. They have been for me through my life. I can proudly say that I'm the person I'm today today because of their dedication and guidance to my life; their interest in gave me a good education and prepared me to college life; and the respect they always show at my own decisions. Therefore, I graduated from high school and got accepted at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus where I'm a Cellular & Molecular Biology major student. About my future, I want to be a  forensic pathologist. That's my biggest life goal. Getting a bachelor degree is my short-term goal. "If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

Reflection on Billy Mills (2)

As I mentioned in my last post about Billy Mills, he was very focused in his principles because that's what defines him as an Indian. Today, we saw a Billy whose determination was being affected by his own decisions. But we can't just blame him for that. We have to put on his shoes and think about it. We have to move back in time to those days Billy was a college student. What if your family can't accept your 'new life'? Does it will going to affect your academic and extracurricular performance?

For Billy, the response was clearly affirmative. Just after the visit of his family, he started to be the last in the racing practices. Those days he wasn't focused at all. He was floating on his internal journey. "I want to be back in the reservation. The reservation is my home. I don't know what's happening." This is not all. Unfortunately, his brother, Frank, committed suicide and this situation devastated him a lot. He didn't wanted to go back at the university nor stayed at the reservation. Therefore, he joined the Marine because "I have to find my own place in the world" as he explained to his sister in the letter he sent her. After all, he started training again because he was focused in accomplish his dream: be the winner of the 10,000 meter Tokyo Olympics. His external journey is reflected again after he established his principal objective. Billy's determination to win the Tokyo Olympics made him to clear his mind. He wanted to make history for his community...and he did it. At the end of the movie, spectators can see a happy, successful and proud Indian athlete, Billy Mills.

"It doesn't matter who you are, or where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always." -Oprah Winfrey

Reflection on Billy Mills

Running Brave is a movie based on a true story about a Native American, Billy Mills, who won the 10,000 meter Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics from 1964. Throughout the movie, we can see how Billy has to deal with "both worlds": his internal and external journey. The movie shows up racism and marginalization taking from the point of Billy's origin; of Billy's way of being. Billy was raised in an Indian Reservation in South Dakota and he encounters with the opportunity to go to the University of Kansas because of his marvelous performance in running. As he arrived at the University, he started facing his external journey. Everything was different from his life at the reservation. He started to dealing with racism for being an Indian. Something that caught my attention and relates to this racism is the scene where Billy was asked if he was from Puerto Rico. Why did that student asked him this? I think it's all about the racism not only with the Native American people, but also with people from other countries and ethnicities.

Do people must change and leave back his feelings and emotions away to try to fix in a group? No, and this is what specifically Billy teaches us. Here is the point when both internal and external journey merge together. Instead of the request from the coach to play dirty, he was convinced in himself and on what he can do and therefore he followed his feelings and emotions. Billy's decisions shows how his principles were defined.  It's not about to live and survive the unexpected situations from the external journey; it's about to deal with the feelings from the internal journey to succeed in the external way. 

"But my thoughts changes from 'one more try, one more try' to 'I can win, I can win, I can win'." -Billy Mills

About Billy Mills: http://indianyouth.org/billy-mills

Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5iCsymMj0