For the past week, I’ve been reminding everyone on my social media accounts that the live-streams for TNTH will begin TOMORROW, April 8th! They will all start at 12:55pm EST (so if you’re not from America or on the East Coast, check your time settings and see when that is for you).
Make sure that if you will like to be a part of these live-streams this next week that you are FOLLOWING ME ON INSTAGRAM!It isn’t public for many reasons, do you will need to request to follow me and I’ll accept!
Thank you guys for following and supporting TNTH! Look out for more updates on new content and because planning for the summer content of TNTH has commenced!
I will be explaining a new topic that will be coming to TNTH in the near future, so I’m excited to share that with you all as well.
People tend to think selfish people are these narcissistic people who only care about themselves and don’t have any regards to anyone else around them. Yeah, that’s what selfish people do, and it’s a shitty thing to be, but there is a way to be selfish without having the “selfish stigma” smacked on your back.
In other words, being selfish with yourself is not a bad thing.
The lack of knowing and speaking the language makes me “less” of a Latina. The lack of complete knowledge and embrace of my culture makes me “less” of a Latina. My skin, my voice, my style, makes me “less” of a Latina.
Society sometimes forgets that I am half Puerto Rican because I am not “Latina” enough, and because of that, people tend to classify me as being the part of the group of white people who are internally racist and arrogant without even knowing it because of their whiteness. You know, those “reverse racism exists, all lives matter, I don’t see color, I see humans” type of whiteness?
That part of whiteness is whiteness that I even I say white people are stupid as hell.
I will admit that because I am half white, I do have “white privilege” embedded in me. I’ve had friends in the past, of different ethnicity and race, in light of the Trayvon Martin case, tell me they feel safer around me because “they wouldn’t be suspicious and shoot down and kill a white girl.”
It saddens me to think that the beautifully diverse people I call my friends are targets in today’s society, but people will assume I don’t think like that because to the outside world, I am just “white.”
It’s really crazy to think that 2010 was 7 years ago. People who were born in 2010 are turning 7 this year. People born this year are in the 1st grade. In 2010, I was a sophomore in high-school experiencing tons of new things and was introduced to what it was really like to be a teenager. No seriously. Before 2010, I was this innocent child that didn’t do teenage things yet. This was a different type of year.
This is 16-year old Liz. A little, naive, curious teenage girl who wanted to explore every aspect of life. Regarding school, this was my first year being a part of the vocal program’s highest-ranking choir, Performing Choir. I was one of 6 sophomores to be put into the choir during this year, and the adventures I had this year with my choir members were amazing. We traveled to many places, such as various churches all throughout the borough, we went to NYSSMA and received the first ever “Gold with Distinction” award BHSA got within all of the performing arts program, and we performed at Albany for Music in Our Schools Month.
Just notice how awkward I looked standing in the front row. This day and performance was memorable because this was the first time that I noticed just how powerful we were as a choir. 25 of us sounded like 60 people singing, and a lot of these people had soul and passion in their voice. I am still honored that I was a part of such an amazing bunch. Performing Choir ’10 wasn’t just the beginning of a tedious vocal adventure and exploration I went on, but it was solely the reason how I met my best friend, Obie.
Fetus, Afro Obie. (He’s going to kill me for it.Lol)
I met Obie unofficially during my freshman year when I was in the same math class as him. Of course, I wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings, so I vaguely remember him talking to me and making me laugh a lot. I was intimidated by him; he was a junior when I was a freshman and at first I wasn’t interested in making friends with the upperclassmen. Once I started my sophomore year, Obie was in my Physics class. I was in Physics as a sophomore because I was actually really good in science, so I was put in classes that most seniors took, and Obie was a senior when I was a sophomore. I still remember the first day of Physics, we were talking about what “e=mc²” stood for, and I remember answering most of the questions, and Obie said in the back of the class “Okay, Liz!” It made me smile, I can’t front. Later that day, I found out that he was also in Performing Choir, and that’s how we began to know each other. On October 9th, 2009, I gave him my AIM screen-name, and the rest is history.
When he gets into this pose, it means he wants his picture taken.
Obie, now 24 with a head full of dreads and a nice scruff on his face, and he’s still my best friend. He’s actually more than just that, but he’s… how do I say this without sounding like a complete cheese-ball… honestly he’s my everything. Obie and I’s friendship isn’t your typical friendship and it didn’t stay platonic for long. As mentioned in my post The “I love you” Story, our friendship developed into something more serious and connective. He’s been there through the ups and downs, the very good and very bad, and nothing has changed since. I think back at all the times we traveled together to Performing Choir performances and back, I remember sitting next to Obie, who was yelling out of the B44 bus window after NYSSMA saying, “I got gold with distinction, I don’t need this!” I remember all the trouble we got into during that summer, and all the adventures we had during it too. We’ve had a really great first year of friendship in 2010, and I wouldn’t change anything about it.
Summer 2010: Poolside in Staten Island, NY
Towards the end of 2010, I had to start my school year without my best friend being there. I managed to actually spend some time with old friends, such as my Pershing (JHS) friends during a reunion we had.
Lmfaoooo, Bianca’s face though.
As well as hang out with some new friends from my high-school (I was even invited to my very first Sweet Sixteen party!)
Nina, Angelica, and I during gym.Racquel’s Sweet Sixteen.
All in all, 2010 was a great year because I honestly thought that I grew up as a person. I had many firsts this year, and I experienced a lot of new things that I never experienced before, and I believe this was just the start of the person that I am now, aka the girl who isn’t all uptight and close-minded about things that are “bad” and “life-altering” like sex and smoking weed.
Man, I’m glad I’m not that girl anymore. Thank you, 2010!
Due to grad school being immensely demanding, today’s post isn’t about a specific year. Sorry for those who really like to see year-specific TBT’s.
Instead, I wanted to share a favorite memory of mine.
This memory takes place in the summer of 2016, aka one of the hottest friggin’ summers ever. I had just graduated college and got myself together to start grad school in the fall. Over the course of my senior year of college, I took two Acting classes to fulfill my drama minor requirements, and I met some amazing people throughout my time in that class. If you read my post about friendships, you would know that throughout my college career, I didn’t make friends. At all. I was excited to finally call these people my friends.
During the summer, we all decided that we needed to plan a hangout day immediately; we really missed seeing each other twice a week for school. After a month of getting everyone on the same schedule, we decided to have dinner in Chinatown.
This right here, is the Acting Squad. There were more of us in it, but we were the ones who were able to make it to our night out in the city. From top to bottom, left to right, it’s James, Tori, Yashira, Me, Liz, and Jalika. I met Tori, Liz, and Jalika in the first level of acting class, I met Yashira during a drama class we took my junior year of college, and I met James in the second class for Acting. Because we had an amazing professor (shoutout to Jed!), we were able to connect and become really close with each other inside and outside the classroom.
This night in particular, Tori had recommended we eat at this Ramen place in Chinatown. Definitely the best ramen I’ve had in my life. That’s not even an exaggeration.
Look at Jalika in the cut, tho.
After literally dying of laughter in the ramen place, we decided to extend our night and explore the city. We walked, a lot, and on the way we took some pictures together. (Funny story: we had a Chinese couple take one of the pictures for us. That’s how bad we all wanted to be in a picture together.)
This was totally the picture.
We walked all the way to Union Square, where I saw a #BlackLivesMatter protest happening there. It’s one thing to see it through social media, but to see it in person makes the effect of it feel more real. Instead of stopping, we just continued to walk some more, joke around some more, and stop in any place that appealed to us. Can you tell who picked to stop here?
Tori’s real love: Deadpool.
Even though we only did this once that entire summer, I will forever cherish us all being together. These people are the reason why my 2016 was amazing. These people allowed me to be myself and allowed me to be friends with them. They liked me for who I was, and I liked them for who they were.
Unfortunately, the group disbanded, and a lot of us are doing our own thing, dealing with our own classes. Tori and Jalika are wrapping up their last semester of college, Yashira transferred to a college closer to where she lives, while Liz and James are both dealing with their junior year of college. And then there’s me, dealing with grad school. Oddly enough, we all still attend the same college, but because of grad students being mainly night students, I only get to see Tori, who drives me to the bus stop on her way home. Out of everyone, I’m the closest to Tori; she was like my best friend of the group and we ended up just clicking. As for the rest, I see them doing their thing through social media, wishing that sometimes we could go back to sitting outside of 1P-218, talking and laughing and crying and rehearsing for our acting class.
This memory will forever be one of the biggest highlights of my 2016 because it’s something I will cherish for a long time. Whether we all grow apart or not, I will always be cheering them on in whatever they decide to do.
Friendship.
Love you guys.
Side note: I still wonder who wrote the tomato fantasy secret about Jed!
This is going to be a different kind of #TBT post. Originally, I wasn’t going to post one today (as said in the 1st Month Milestone blog post, but I figured that since ironically today is a snow day, I found some pictures of a snowstorm that happened 7 years ago on this exact day.
Hey guys, sorry for no #TBT related post today, I just wanted to take the time out on this special milestone to personally thank you all who have been supportive of me and this blog since it launched one month ago.
In celebration of the 1-month milestone, here are some of my favorite posts I published since the launch of TNTH:
Because of you guys, I’ve been able to showcase my writing and show you guys just how passionate I am of doing so. I’ve had many of you write to me personally, expressing your interest in certain posts (definitely the #TBT ones) and letting me know just how much my writing helps them. It truly means the absolute world to me to know that there are actual people viewing my content and reading what I have to say.
Unfortunately on my side of things, this month of TNTH has been quite an eye-opener for me.
Letters From Liz. 