| Best viewed in 1024x768 32-bit color, IE 5.x+ flash-enabled browser |
|
|
Journal Entries for 2001 |
|
» Back |
12.27.01 - Harlo It's been a while and I have experienced many different things since I last posted. I already graduated bootcamp about 3 months ago on September 27, 2001. I am now currently attending Apprentice school as an Information Systems Technician. I am scheduled to graduate on January 31, 2002. I am the Class MAA which stands for Master-at-Arms. I am considered the "Enforcer." Basically backing up and stepping in when the Class Leader and the Assistant Class Leader can't handle the class. I am also in charge of the Field Day task at the end of the school day. It's been an awesome experience so far, I miss bootcamp. Good thing they have such publications such as the Cruise Book. Navy's terminology for a bootcamp yearbook material. It contains the pictures of my fellow shipmates in my integrated division. I really miss it I don't know why because it was a lot of hard work but also teamwork, brotherhood, and mutual respect for one another. On another note, I will be working on this site when I have the time which I think I will be able to during my liberty hours at the Naval Training Command. I will probably adding some images knowing that I will be trying to learn Photoshop and Flash 5 and maybe Dreamweaver. 06.25.01 - Holy Shit Today, we have a mandatory school graduation rehearsal starting 11AM sharp. Today was also the day you find out whether you graduate or not. I had my share of doubts and also some confidence about the Math Regents. I had some doubts because I never passed a test in my Math class so why would I suddenly pass the Regents? My 'pros' side of this was that I answered the part 2 questions with somewhat little or no guess. I awoke knowing only yesterday through playing CounterStrike on the same server as one of my old friends, Juan. I asked him there if we go to school on Monday. He said yes, at 11AM then he left. So I spent some time wasting time to leave for school. I rode the bus, then the train, then transferred to the subway. At first, I felt like I was tricked since I saw absolutely no one I knew in the subway. I then walked up the hill towards school and still no one I knew. I finally reached the rear of the school and I saw the cafeteria was filled with seniors. I walked in and some guy called my name, it was Mike aka Skinny White Mike. I sat in front of him, we conversed a bit and some friends came over and blah blah. I arrived there around 10:45AM. Time breezed by and 11AM came. Mr. Broncatello came on the microphone and started telling us to simmer down. He said he was going to announce the list of names. That list was the people who were to attend to the auditorium after all the names have been said. It took about eternity till he got to the letter "J." It started off with Jacksons, Johnsons, then Jones, then finally, I heard it - Joesay. Sure, he meant to say J-ew-say (Jusay) but I was VERY happy at that point. After all the names were said, he then said, "The people I have just called out, are the graduating seniors," followed by a rowdy applause from us. 06.19.01 - Judgement Day Actually, Judgement Day would be tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day I take my Math and Physics test. I have studied all week and hope to pass this test. Wish I had a tutor, that would have made it a sure shot at passing the test. In other news, man I was stoked when Vanessa told me she read this!!! I couldn't sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I mean, I've never had a girl read what I really felt about her, ever. Also, tomorrow would be the last day I see her in my life. I will miss her very much. I think she was the only girl that I really liked in all of my high school years. Hmm. 06.15.01 - One week to study Yea so as you probably know by know, I have one week to study. My past, present and future depends on the grade I get for the Math Regents. I won't be able to update everyday until after the test so I wish you wish me good luck. I know I am wishing me good luck but luck has nothing to do with passing or failing...most of the time. I just don't want to spend 2 more summer school and be in a whack job or anything else but Information Systems Technician for that matter. I just read the Feces Manifesto and I just had to post the link because I think this is very true and also it was a very amusing read. You should check it out! - Feces Manifesto 06.14.01 - A test Regents, New York students' most hated test of all only because only 1 other state besides ours have to take it. Today at 9:00 AM was my Technical Shop Regents examination. Our shop class had to answer one-hundred questions in multiple choice, draw two drawings, and write an essay. Starting from 9AM I probably finished around 11AM. Ashley, Pria and I finished at the same time so we all went outside. Ashley and I headed for the park and bought a handball. I played for about an hour and a half and then Duane and I walked to the train together. Duane is finally about to enter a relationship - his first. He showed me the letter that the girl wrote to him and her name was Erika Vega. From what I heard from Mariela, she was very pretty. 06.13.01 - Second Chance Everybody deserves second chances...right? About a week ago, I already received a letter from my school with a summer school form notifying me about which class I will be taking, date the summer school starts/ends, location of the summer school I will be attending, and also asking for my parents' signature along with my printed name. Anyway, I went to my eigth period class, MQ6, and Ms. Eisenberg said she wanted to speak to a couple of students about their grades. I knew I was one of them and I thought that she was confirming that I go to summer school or something of that nature. She called me outside and she said that if I pass the Regents exam, I pass the course despite the fact that I earned a grade of 55 on the first AND second marking period. If she passes me, it's because she is doing me a favor and doing it out of the kindness of her heart. I have one week from now to get at least a 65 to avoid months of torment from my parents, humiliation from my family of my failure, losing my job in the NAVY, and to avoid two months of torture. Good luck to me. The Last Day Of School was today. I will truly miss Edison High. I had my highs and lows, the pros and cons, the plus and minuses during my stay in that school. I met many different kinds of people, learned from my mistakes, learned how to deal with different people, learned to overcome my shyness, learned to prioritize, and etc. Today I collected my yearbook and my senior shirt. I must say, I'm quite impressed with it regardless of what others thought of it. The cover was great, the picture of the senior class was awesome and had a nice touch to the yearbook, the overall theme of the book was stunning visually and looked very professional at the same time, the "mugshot" section was put together nicely, and there were many decent commemorative pictures I will miss. I remember talking the people I talked to in freshman year, sophomore year, and junior year whom I didn't talk to during senior year. There are, however, some people that I talked to all four years and those are the people that I will really miss for they were true friends. Aldrich Ramos has been a good friend since freshman year. I met him while I was walking on the ground floor towards my Global History class taught by Ms. Hosten (left school since then). He broke the ice and before you know it, he would help me out even in grave situations such as confrontations in my gym class during sophomore/junior year to inviting me to his excursions. I'll miss you, man. Take care. Bhav and Prapti Basnet were pretty good friends. I knew Bhav since freshman year and I still remember meeting him in my second term Biology class with Ms. Sun. We met in a weird way but after breaking the ice we were mad cool. I met Prapti on my sophomore year and remember seeing her first as I walked down on the last row of tables in the lunch room. I think she was wearing a colorful striped top that day. I remember how Prapti tried to set me up with Eloiza (haha) and how at first I never would but turned out I eventually did go to that Winter Festival Concert at Bryant High. Pria Seenandan is always kind-hearted. You are a good friend and faithful to your friends. You don't side to one between two of your friends fighting simply because you are too kind and don't want to hurt neither. I'll always remember when I used to come early to the auditorium early and you would come, and say "I'll sit with my friend" instead of sitting somewhere else. Take care. William Schoniers is always down to earth. You were always cool to me and never have I seen you mad. You're a good guy and I hope you do well in life, man. I'll never forget the days we had during Electronics class. Peace. Safraz Persaud was my best bud. I don't know why we stopped talking on our senior year but we did. We used to be the bestest buds and laugh together while coming home from school. Like you wrote in the yearbook, "It's been a while but I still remember the good times." Good luck in life. I know you are a very hard worker and I know you will succeed. Duane Parker has probably been the most unique person I met in the school. He is very sarcastic, funny, serious when he needs to be, doesn't resort to violence, honest, and an overall nice guy. We had our heated argumental times but we were mature enough to apologize to each other. I'll remember the times we had and sorry for all the things I have done to bring you down. I am, hands down, the bad friend in our friendship. Good luck. Ashley Serrano has been my friend since freshman year. I remember when Chink Danny introduced me to you on the Union Turnpike subway station. You were always there for me if I ever got in trouble and we shared some thoughts about life that we wouldn't share with just anybody like about what's up with our family and etc. Thanks for being a good friend and I hope you don't resort to getting a GED. Vanessa Ganga has been my crush since my junior year. I, off course, am always too shy and so she will never find out about it. I just hope that whatever she does in life, she is happy with it. I want her to be happy because she has the most beautiful smile I've ever seen (do I sound like some air head or what?) and I know she will always make the right decisions and even if she don't always make the right ones, everybody learns from their mistakes. I know she will because she is a very smart young lady. Aajay D. has been cool sometimes. But lately, you've changed and I don't know what's up since you keep to yourself all the time. How do you write three question marks (???) and your name and date to sign someone's yearbook? Either you are trying to prove something to the world or you're just being an ass. Good luck to you. Mr. Venezia and Mr. Manus for saving me from Broncatello's brutal decision. I'll always respect you guys for having second thoughts about suspending me AND convincing the white-headed tyrant, Broncatello. You two saved me from a very serious mark on my permanent record of suspension. I would take four days of detention over suspension anyday. Mr. Pryce for being one of the most understanding teachers I have ever met. You have very good techniques of teaching students and you are very fair to students. You have taught me well and I hope you keep teaching and improving over the years. You made me like Physics. It's been a pleasure receiving enlightenment from you. 06.10.01 - Don't be fooled by those who say such things, for "bad company corrupts good character" - Corinthians 15:33 Lately, I've been thinking about the past. Don't you just wish you can go back in time and correct your mistakes? I have been thinking about the past. The good and the bad things. I wish I can start on a clean slate again, like my freshman year of high school at Edison High. I remember not caring if I had friends or not. I remember when things weren't so serious as they are now. I remember wide leg jeans were the "in-thing." I remember being so hooked on MechCommander the summer after my freshman year. I was practically living a nightshift life that summer. I would sleep 5-6 am and wake up around 2 pm. I remember my taste in music changing as my brother constantly played rock music. I liked hip hop less and less as my like for rock increase. To take it even before high school started, I recall some things I regretted. Like when I met Chelsea, I just realize how dense I acted around her. I hope that it was because I was young and stupid but here's what happened. I first saw her at 6th grade. It was when one of my teachers was absent, so a dean came and split my class up by putting 2 to 3 people in each classroom he passes. So I was put into this classroom at the end of the hall. It was the last class of the day so near the end of the period, everybody would line up and get ready to leave the class/school. I see this beautiful girl and I couldn't get my eyes off her. I saw her talking to this guy but I didn't even care. I thought to myself "Man, girls like these, you'll never even be able to talk to." So time moved on, and it was up to 7th grade now. I still remember the very day I talked to her. It was a Sunday, I went to some "old people party" with my grandparents. After spending about 30 minutes inside, I couldn't stand it anymore so I went outside and headed to the park which was practically just across the street. I passed by three girls, one of them I knew from having same classes, the second girl was the girl I liked and couldn't get my eyes off since sixth grade, and the third I later learned was her cousin. As I got closer to them, the girl I knew, stuck her arm out as to give her "five." So I did, and I kept walking pass them, trying to hide that I liked one of them. I looked back and I heard the girl I liked say "Who is he?" I then moved deeper into the park and saw one of my other friends. He asked if I wanted to play basketball and I said yes. So we start playing against these other guys then the three girls, sits and watches the game so I said to myself this was my chance to impress her. So I try and we lost anyway. So Im there trying to cool myself off and she comes over and puts her elbow on my shoulder. She then asks me, "Do you want to go out with her [Grace, her cousin]?" I weakly said, no. From there, it went kinda smooth. She finally noticed me in school and would walk beside me to class and ask if I would go to the park next weekend. Every weekend would be awesome, since then. She was very flirty and liked to touch my ass (hmm). She would buy power ranger ice cream and stick the stickers on my ass and I would peel it off and stick it like on your lower back. Then we would walk home together. She would be more aggressive and I'd be passive. She would like put her arms around me while we walked home and then after a few times, she would always say the same thing when we were near her house - "I can't believe you aren't going out with anybody, I would go out with you but you're too good for me." I would say "No, I am not too good for you." She would be like, "Yes, you are." I swear to God I didn't know to say "I'll prove to you that I am not too good for you" then she would probably say, "then prove it" and I would say "would you go out with me?" 06.05.01 - A thought A thought of the past and future. Ever hear of that famous quote "Where others fail, you will prevail?" I really wish I had that sense of attitude in me, but I really don't. Everyday, I'm getting closer and closer to my U.S. Navy DEP Ship Date which is July 23, 2001. I am getting closer and closer to being forced to do everything I'm told. Forced to live the way they want me to, act the way they want me to, eat what they will give me, and have the same mental principles. Like they say, "There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy way." 05.31.01 - A date which will live in infamy Today. Today is May 31, 2001. Today is the day my Journalism Class went on an excursion. We went to Manhattan to the TV & Radio Museum. I am mostly pessimistic, making me partly optimistic. I thought this class excursion was going to be boring. In my mind, I pictured walking around the interior of some museum showcasing television/radio sets from the past, present, and future. I thought wrong. The day started with me being late for school. I didn't care that day. I met up with a few friends when I exited the train station - Danny, Ramon and Brian. We walked up the hill towards our school, Thomas Edison HS. We were climbing the hill on the block across from Jamaica HS. A car pulled up, the passenger window being on our side, slid down, revealing an old friend - Angel. We hoped in, as I would say, excitedly or hurriedly. We turned left on the first intersection, towards our school. We pass the school and I was asked if I wanted to get off at school. I said "no" and so we kept driving. We went on the Van Wyck highway and at that time, I didn't know where we were headed to. We played loud music and sang the lyrics. Ten minutes into the ride, we reached our destination - John Bowne HS. We turned up the volume even more and low rode on the sidewalk of the John Bowne HS front entrance. We saw some girls and just about everybody looked at us. We made a U-turn and made our way back to school. We arrived in school about 8:38 AM - 30 minutes late. The school policy on lateness was any student arriving later than 8:20 AM, is to serve detention after your day is over. No one wants that. We asked Angel to talk to one of his friends in Auto Shop, Anthony, to open the back exit for us. We sneaked in and that was that. Danny, Ramon, and I roamed the halls a bit to pass the time until the first period ended. Danny and I entered our shop class and about 10 minutes into the period, we have a fire drill. We leave and reenter the school and the rest of the period breezes by... The plan was to attend our regularly scheduled first and second class then meet at the school lobby. As I round the corner to the lobby, I didn't see any of my classmates instantaneously. I passed the staircase leading directly down into the left side of the lunchroom and finally saw them. The first person I saw was Vanessa Ganga. The girl I liked since my sophomore year. The first time I saw her, was in the lunch room. I remember sitting on the second table to the left of the door we use to enter the cafeteria. She always sat on the first table with her friends. The first things I noticed about her was probably her ravishing eyes, her lovely smile, and later on her cheerful voice voice. She has one of the most prettiest smiles I have ever seen. Her eyes looked so dreamy, so beautiful. I would just look at her, not say a word and look away if I thought she might catch me looking at her. Two years pass and I am in her Physics and Journalism class. Even in the beginning of the semester, I never said anything. The sight of her just enthralled me. From what I remember, the first time I talked to he was when I was assigned as one of the five layout editors of the Edison Light in the second semester. The layout editors each took a section. I was assigned the Features section. It turns out Vanessa was one of the Feature Editors. I introduced myself as being the layout guy doing the feature section and asked for their priority list and hard copies of the stories listed. She replied saying she'd have the list ready by tomorrow. Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to be her partner since we had to pair up. Sandy also asked me the same and they had a dispute. In my mind, I wanted to be with Vanessa. I have been waiting for such a long time to get to know her better. However, Sandy was a bit more aggressive and so I sat the bus ride with her. Vanessa sat with Andrei, instead. I didn't want to sound like I was stuck with Sandy or anything so I just talked to her, anyway. I tried to talk to Vanessa every chance I got. When we got off the bus, I walked with both Vanessa and Sandy. We looked for a place to eat, and Vanessa pointed to the direction of McDonald's which turned out to be underground. We thought it would suck and smell bad but actually looked pretty decent. I ordered the same thing Vanessa did and sat in front of her (after waiting about 10 minutes for my Crispy Chicken Sandwich). We ate and made jokes and as for me...I just wanted to look at her eyes and pretty smile. We finish eating and head to the museum. We met our teacher which stayed with us practically most of our museum time. We stayed in this classroom for about 2 hours and change. I sat next to Vanessa, longest I've been in the same room with her. I think the best part of this trip was when we started talking. Only the two of us talking to each other on the train. As for now, I want to get to know her even more... I am still contemplating on how I should approach her. I wish to tell her that, maybe, although it may have not meant anything to her I wanted to let her know that I enjoyed talking to her and being with her that day and ask her if we can do it sometime again. It is very difficult, at the moment, because she speaks to me about another guy. I mean, I want her to be happy, too. Well if she finds him better than him, I would totally understand. Who am I to judge a person I never knew nor saw, right? |
 |
Site
created May 2001 by Angelito Jusay |
|