B U

Most people think that money is everything in life and these people probably have a logical reason of why they buy into this idea. Even somebody as my father would once in a while joke with me and say “money is not everything in life, but it is neck-to-neck with oxygen,” which I found this very funny. I mean, I could see why people say that money is very important; money equals power and, for some, it represents salvation from their “problems.” But thinking about this delicate subject I found out that money cannot buy happiness and that financial problems are just a front for some issue buried deep inside an individual’s world.

Ever since I understood the concept of is neither what you are nor where you came from that matters, is who you are and where you’re going to in life. This view on my peers lets me focus on what’s important for them as people and not as objects. I found that is not about not judging other people because let’s face it, it is nearly impossible to not judge, but rather than avoiding judging let’s take another approach and directed towards judging on a different level. What I mean is that we should judge people by what they bring to society and respect their point of views and tolerate their personalities.

The message is simple, yet there are those that make it difficult for themselves and for others around them. Enjoy what you do in life and please be yourself and not an obscure image of others around you.

And no… I am not a hippie! Lol… I just look around my school and it is as if I could smell fakeness on some people. I feel sorry for these individuals because there is nothing more satisfying in life than to be YOU!

Motocross

Ever since I was a little kid I loved motorcycles. I remember living in the slums of the Dominican Republic and dreaming of becoming a professional motocross racer and admiring people such as Ricky Carmichael, Troy Bayliss, and the incredible Travis Pastrana. I loved anything that had to do with racing like Rally Sport, Formula 1, Moto GP, and Motocross. This passion leads me to get a bunch of friends together and with the help of my uncle, who was the local mechanic in town, I put a mini-dirtbike together. With this mini-dirtbike I went on to participate in some events. In one particular regional event that I was participating in, there was a Yamaha Team D.R. scout who liked my aggression and my style and offered me a position as a backup racer in the 125cc division. I had scored the biggest opportunity in my life. Even though I was a “backup” I still trained as if I was the star. A year later I went to participate on a race that is only for Yamaha Team pilots and I scored 1^st place in my division. After that I went on to participate in over 35 races and scoring in the top three 13 times, in the top five 7 times, in the top ten 8 times and not finishing due to crashing or technical difficulties for 7 times. My dreams soon died after migrating to the USA due to school and lack of support from my family’s economic situation. This attitude of win-it-all or die trying has gotten me into a lot of physical injuries over the years, but it has given me the courage to face extreme situations and be fearless.

The reason why I decided to talk about this in this week’s blog is because last week my friend Wadney invited me to go on a motorcycle ride down i95 and south beach and boy I had a blast.

Here are some pics:

Nice Bikes!

Give Life, Donate Blood

Why is it important to donate blood? I’m not going to say much… just take a look at these pics:

This could be someone you know. Please donate blood and save lives!

Firefighter

This week I spent some time riding with the City of Boca Raton Fire Rescue Station 8 in south Boca Raton. Being from New York City, I expected to find myself in an exciting situation where I was going to see some crazy fires and rescue some children from the burning debris. At least that’s what I was hoping for, but then I realized that 1)if that was the case then I couldn’t ride in the fire truck because it was too dangerous for me and 2) this is Florida were life is not that hectic. This, to say the least, was very disappointing, but nevertheless my curiosity took on another mission, which was to observe what a Boca firefighter really spends time doing.

To start off, a lot of the firefighters are volunteers with the exception of high ranking officials in the station that get a fixed salary. When I say that the majority of them are volunteers does not mean that they don’t get paid, it simply means that they sometimes have other jobs on their free time. Four hours at the station and not a single call came in. In fact, the only time that the fire truck was used in the entire time I was there was when the guys got hungry and went to Publix to get something to eat. Since this was not an emergency for the firefighters I got to ride the truck, which was a really exciting moment for me. After munching on a sub sandwich, we had a “session” of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Gears of War. Although I didn’t get to see any “NYC style” firefighter action, I did enjoy the time spent with them and I appreciate and admire the work they do for us.

Here are some pics:

Kite Surfing

One of my favorite activities to do is kite surfing. I’ve recently caught up with it and now I can’t get enough. As I have been surfing for a few years now I have never thought of trying kite surfing, but let me tell you that I am obsessed with this sport. My friend Amancio from Spain got me into this sport and I loved it since the first time I tried it.

Some of you might be thinking why is this sport so cool and here is why. As we all know, South Florida is surrounded by water, meaning that a lot of people enjoy water sports. I really liked surfing when I lived in Melbourne, Florida, but coming down to South Florida there weren’t any waves to really surf on, but then I discovered that you don’t need waves to have fun surfing and that’s when kite surfing comes into play. Kite surfing consist on having a kite, usually 8-11 meters wide, that’s attached to you via a harness around your waistline. You can control this kite by swinging a bar on your end of the line and on top of that you have a board to control and surf on top of the water. This might sound a lot to take in and that’s because it is hard to learn this sport, but after a few hours of pure agony and fear by crashing into the water you should be ok to try it on your own.

Here are some pics:

If you are wondering where you can get into this sport by going to classes over in Key Biscayne for 50/hr, which in 2 two hours you would be alright, or buying the gear yourself and then just trying it out.

Get active! Its fun and healthy!

Spearfishing Time!

This week I have been very busy. Between traveling and midterm exams, I have not had a lot of time to do any activity, but when my friend Patricio called me to go spear fishing I just couldn’t turn it down. We went of the Highland Beach shore by swimming to about a mile offshore to catch sight of the reef. My friend, Patricio, gets very intense and is a way better swimmer than I am. The depth was about 55 feet, which is my maximum to go down. This is because I can only hold my breath for about 2.5 to 3 minutes at a time, so this depth does not give you a whole lot of room for error, but, nevertheless, I went down and took a couple of shots. I took my Go Pro camera with me and took a little video and some pictures.

This video was shot another day:

Sticking to your word!!!

I’m a very competitive person, especially around my friends. We could play sports, watch soccer games, play video games and even in “beer pong” we get competitive. Last month we went we were playing “call of duty” and one of my friends decided to make a bet, which consisted of the following: if he won I was to do anything he said and if I lost he was to do anything I said. Fair enough, I thought!

After a few hours of playing the video game we were neck-to-neck on the score and I’m thinking victory, but then it happened: I lost!

There was a religious convention going on at Mizner Park and these is what I had to do:

As humiliating as this was, I had to suck-it-up and stick to my word. I learned that sticking to your word is, most of the time, more important than anything else. Don't be afraid to get humiliated in order to proof a point in life.

Help: Hoplophobia.

Shooting range

There are many people that have many phobias and I recently found out that one of my closest friends, Belen, had hoplophobia, which is simply an irrational fear of firearms and/or weapons. So being the person I am, I confronted her about it and after an extensive amount of arguing, I decided that the best way to settle this issue was to take her to the shooting range. This might seem an extreme measure, but there is some logic behind it. I figured that if I could show her around the range and the shooting instructors she was going to be a little more open to the idea.

When we got to the shooting range, she was very nervous and as we are coming into the store two guys were shooting high caliber guns that made a lot of noise and she was really scared. At this point even I got a little scared, but with reassurance from the instructors we calmed down. After going through the instructions o how to operate the weapons Belen became more comfortable around guns. And below are the results:

After the first shot she was comfortable shooting and holding a gun in her hands, which is a good thing. The lesson I wanted to teach her was to always confront her fears in life and I guess I was successful at it.