Past week, Channel Islands again, Choreographing

Hello friends and readers and readers and friends,


I've been extremely busy the past week if you guys were wondering where I was... I've been at school. So this week I have two midterms, a presentation, and a monologue. Its stressful, but its manageable. I decided to take a train and visit my sister at Channel Islands this weekend because I really needed a break from the stress here. I was able to get some work done in their beautiful library. (picture to the right, curiosity of my snapchat)

I've been helping my sister choreograph for a dance piece for an upcoming performance. Her dance piece is about cultural identity and the awesome part about it, is her music was produced by my friend and I. I went to one if the practices and saw her dancers interpret the choreography my sister and I have been working on. Its amazing! I'm so excited to see the finished product. I also get credit for helping choreograph the piece, I can't wait to put that on my resume next to driving school receptionist and Halloween store sales associate.

I'll keep you guys updated and I promise not to take such a long break from blogging :)

-KIKI REYES

Tim O' Brien, Halloween, Pumpkin Patch

It was a little over week ago, when I went to see Tim O' Brien speak here at Santa Barbara City College. After my sociology class and long hours at work, I headed back to school just in time to see the author of The Things They Carried. The room, in which it was held, was packed; People had to start sitting on the floor. What I really enjoyed seeing was a room of students and English Professors all eager to see this inspirational Vietnam veteran. 

He introduced us with a brief background of where he came from, which helped us understand what influenced him to become a writer. Raised in the dull town of Worthington, Minnesota, the Turkey Capital of America, he began to escape his town in books he read. He said, one of the few things young boys could do in Worthington was play baseball and unfortunately he wasn't great at playing. 

There was many laughs in the audience when, O'Brien explained that his first novel he wrote was a baseball novel. There wasn't much of his own writing in this book because he copied it from another novel he read; He just rewrote himself as the main character which was a talented baseball player.  My favorite part of his introduction was when he explained to his audience that, "You don't need to go to wars or climb mountains to be a writer you just need to breathe," basically implying that anyone can be a writer. The rest of his time he was able to answer questions from the audience members regarding his Vietnam experience. 

Santa Barbara City College really enjoyed his visit; We are lucky to have such influential writers and speakers come, which is another great reason to come here. 




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On a different note, Happy Halloween to everyone! I hope everyone has a fun, but safe Halloween. Yesterday my sister and I were able to go to pick out our pumpkins at Lane Farms. Yes, it was last minute and were going to crave them today, before the trick-or-treaters knock on our door. 

In this particular Pumpkin Patch, there is a corn maze my friends and I go to every year. I suggest you go at night because it's more challenging. I remember when I was a sophomore in High School, my friends and I went during the day. My guy friends decided it would be fun if we all ran through the maze. I was the only girl who agreed to this, so I ran after them in the maze. We were going at a really fast paste and soon they started sprinting.  I couldn't keep up so I stopped and was left in the maze alone. Of course I was laughing the whole time because I thought this was a stupid idea and why did I listen to these idiots, but fortunately I stood where I was for a few minutes and I found my other friends. After we got out of the maze we went on a tractor ride, which is aimed for the younger kids and went to see the farm animals in their cages. Good times.

Anyways, I hope Midterms went well for everyone!

-KIKI REYES 


 

Flashback to Senior Year Before SBCC, Why SBCC, Struggling Songwriter, English Major

I was the female role/dancer in Percussive Theatre/Drumline

As a senior in highschool I was indecisive about my future. I applied to San Francisco State, CSU Channel Islands, and CSU Northridge. I wasn't going to apply to four year universities because I felt like my application didn't stand out as much as I would of liked to. Here was I a senior with a 4.33 GPA involved in programs in school (AVID, AP/Honors, and Drumline) and outside of school (Santa Barbara Teen News Network and Santa Barbara Youth Music Academy) thinking I needed something more. After I applied to those schools I started doubting myself so much that I ignored the all deadlines to further the application progress. 

On set with the Santa Barbara Teen News Network

My sister, a year older than me, was enrolled at Santa Barbara City College. Although, she was accepted by CSU Channel Islands, her dream school, she decided to attend SBCC. I told myself I would not follow into her footsteps... Until I started waiting for her classes to get out at City College. I didn't mind it because I would bring my guitar or go run at La Playa Stadium  while I waited  for her. I started thinking it wouldn't be so bad if I went here. The ocean was across the street, it was near downtown, and I could continue running at the track. I think the main reason I didn't feel confident about my college applications was because one, I wasn't sure if I wanted to major in Journalism, Songwriting,or Creative Writing and two, I wasn't ready to leave home. I couldn't leave this beautiful place, a city in which tourists come all over the country to explore. 

Capitol Records in Hollywood

I consider myself as a songwriter and back then I thought it would be easy to pursue this dream.  My plan was to move down to Los Angeles and personally hand producers my demos and have them listen to them assuming they would automatically be impress with my lyrics and hire me for their record labels. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, I know this for a fact. I tried out for two singing competitions, thinking if I get in I could perform my own songs at the showcases. I never even got a callback. It wasn't until this recent singing competition that assured myself that I'm going to keep songwriting and auditioning, while still attending school. Some say that one can easily learn from being on the streets, but I love being in a classroom listening to professors lecture about different subject. Skipping a year to see if I could make it as a songwriter is an incredible risk and I applaud those who do it, but I think having an education is beneficial as well. If people in the music industry saw that I got a bachelors degree, they can think wow this girl is serious about her education, maybe she's as serious with her music. 

My Journal

I decided that since I enjoyed reading and writing so much, I could improve my writing and discover different forms of literature by becoming an English Major. Although I've been getting average grades on my writing pieces in Creative Writing, I'm leaning away from resisting to revise my work. I need revision, otherwise how else would I improve? I visited my Creative Writing professor during his office hours and he said that I shouldn't stay in the same nineteen year old writing perspective, I need to grow as a writer. I took it a bit farther by considering to become an English Professor. I can still be both a Professor and a Songwriter. 

My advice to you is don't doubt yourself and a fail is not necessarily a fail because you gain something from it. Motivation.  

-KIKI REYES