To fight a war

Ok bloggers, this is a long story so bear with me...

I remember this time when I had to miss class because I was sick and unfortunately, the final biology test was that day; the teacher gave me the option to do an oral test on the next class but with the amount of stuff that entered on the exam it seemed like an impossible task.

The first thing I did was asking around my classmates what the topics on the test were or if they remembered a difficult question to have as my reference, but when I explained that I was taking an oral test they almost gave me their condolences and honored my brave effort in facing such a thing. I already knew that she was a strict teacher but apparently, there were rumors about people failing her class because of her extremely difficult oral tests, I was shocked…and afraid. I needed to take this seriously, so I began my studies.

Days passed fast and I wasn´t learning fast enough, I read and read but couldn´t retain as much information as I needed, on the last day after the exam I was a mess, I had all the info, the diagrams, but mixed up on my head and I was unable to explain it through. I remember being like this on lunch break when my best friend snapped, she looked at me and said “you could draw it…like that time in 8^th grade where you helped me with history and made up all sort of funny situations with the historical people, why don´t you do the same and draw it?”. Never up to that moment it occurred that I could just combine drawing and science, these two things that seem so far apart… so I began drawing, not just reading them in order to memorize them, but actually analyzing the topics as I tried to explain all these phenomena with just comics and drawings, and slowly I began to understand the notes, that they had a reason and it was all connected, that night I finally felt like I was ready.

The test was after class, on the 12^th year classroom (I was on 10^th) and I was nervous, but I forced myself to go in… the teacher was talking to a few students and, as they were curious about what I was doing there the teacher happily explained my situation and let them stay and watch my torture.

But to their surprise, I was answering correctly, again an again while the face of the teacher changed, and with clear excitement stopped for a moment to better think the last question, saying she will make me fail at least one. The last was the toughest but even, I answered correctly.

The teacher stared at me and after a moment of silence said with a smile “congratulations young lady, you have a 7.0” (highest rank) and the senior students applauded me (like, for real).

It wasn´t that big of a life achievement but for me… it was the sweetest victory, and ironically, biology ended up becoming my favorite class.

Mirror mirror on wall...

Ten years…that´s pretty far from now…

My first thought was “hopefully I’ll be a graduate by then”, but thinking further what I really want for the future is to be working abroad (that is, in fact the reason why I´m so eager to learn and improve my English). I think that in the U.S I have more possibilities to become an intern at an animation studio, so in 10 years my goal is to be living there.

I haven´t thought about family or children yet, I definitely don´t want to be a mother so that´s one less thing to worry about… but I do want a dog though (and a cat and a rabbit and a-). I think it´s because we used to have dogs and cats at my home in Cartagena and I really liked to have them around, but the last places I’ve lived in doesn’t allows pets at all so in ten years I will certainly find a place big enough for me and a big fluffy doggo.

If I have a partner by then or not is not on my vision, but if I have I hope it´s a lasting relationship at last. And about my family, if I live abroad I´m sure I´ll miss them to death but I´m sure we will manage to make video calls and thus from time to time, and I would save money for going back to Chile for Christmas or on vacations.

So just for the sake of adding details, I would like to have my driver license and my own bike at that age, but I´m terrified of driving and I always think I would end up killing someone and/or myself so we´ll see if that comes true.

Looking at the big picture, I realize I have so little faith in humanity that I only hope that in ten years the air is still breathable, but because this is a positive vision of the future I´ll say I´m hoping for the future inventions to help solving the problems that we´re facing today, I´m sure new designs will be developed for this and we will live on a better place uwu.

An unexpected happiness

Hi everyone!

When I think about a memorable birthday, many come to my mind, but I think that ironically the best one yet have also been the most stressful.

It was my 17^th birthday and I had everything planned, but things didn´t go my way when the same day my cousin invited her friends over to my great grandma’s house. We had to improvise and move everything to my aunt´s yard; there, we went from one problem to another and finally decided to connect everything from extensions and made this kind of outdoor cinema, and of course, in between my friends arrived and helped with the arrangement.

I remember that my friends gave me many “wearable” things like a necklace, a cap, and sunglasses; they even brought me a paper crown! (Because I told them jokingly once that I wanted to be a queen for my birthday) I was so happy at that moment that I putted on everything and spent almost all day switching form the cap to the crown. With that weird look we decided to go pick up a friend who was late (the problems he had are for another story), and celebrating the fact that on the same week one of my friends finally got his driver license. I think that on the road back home I realized that I was having a good time, laying on the back of the pick-up truck, chatting and laughing with my friends, feeling the wind on my face. We came back just in time for the cake and I already had forgotten all the trouble we went through the day, I was just happy to be there with the people I cared about.

From there everything went nicely, we watched movies, played videogames, and because my birthday is on summer it wasn´t chilly even though we were mostly on the yard.

A sister for an only child

Hi there bloggers!

This time the topic is about a family member, and I would like to talk about my cousin Camila (Cami), she´s 24 and is currently studying agronomic engineering in Valparaiso.

When we were little, she moved with her family to La Serena, but that never meant that we didn´t see each other often. When they came to our hometown Cartagena for the summer, we would meet almost every day, and even once I tagged along to their travel to Villarica. But weirdly enough I remember that by the time I used to get along better with her brother Cristobal, because we were the same age and used to play together, but as time passed by, we began to talk and get along just as well, spending entire afternoons talking about  everything and nothing, she became sort of a role model to me, like a big sister I could talk to about my problems knowing she has gone through similar things already.

She’s very cheerful and relaxed but with strong convictions and beliefs. She liked animals and nature since I know her, and now combines that with her passion for nutrition and cosmetics creating her own creams, oils, bath salts and soaps, everything organic and eco-friendly. She also owns a fluffy rabbit called Pacha.

Thinking again, I’m glad that I could count on her so many times in my life, in all of them. I’m an only child so the fact that I could spend the summer going to their house and even traveling with them instead of being in my house all day was incredibly meaningful to me.

Gabriel Picolo (not "Piccolo", that's a DB character)

Hi! fellow bloggers

Today´s topic is someone I'd like to have a one-on-one conversation with. Needless to say that it’s not easy to just talk about one, but if I could meet and have a conversation with anyone in this very moment, I would most likely say my favorite artist, Gabriel Picolo. He’s a comic artist from Brazil, well-known for his original book “Icarus and the Sun” and his drawings of casual Teen Titans, which first started as just fanart and now is an official comic published by DC *throws confetti*. He also seems like a nice, approachable person, the type you would meet on a café to talk about music and series on Netflix (or at least I think so).

I remember the old days of Deviantart (a page for sharing art) around 2014, when I first stumbled upon his art, he was doing the 365-days of doodles challenge. But he wasn’t drawing just doodles, he uploaded such amazing pieces, traditionally drawn with ink, fully detailed, EVERY. DAY. (little me was shocked)

I think he was my mainly inspiration from then on (still is!) and I always wished he could come to a convention or event here in Chile, but that haven’t happened yet. If I meet him, I don´t know exactly what I would want to ask but I wanna know about his journey as an artist, what are his inspirations? what did he study? Does he have some tips for developing such nice skills both in paper and digitally? What is his next project?

A Spooky tradition

Hi there!

As for today´s blog, I would like to rave about one of my favorite festivities, and I´m not talking about the incoming 18, no… I´m talking about “Halloween”.

I remember since I was a child I liked the idea of Halloween, both for the free candy and for the costumes, I was always craving for that spooky time; I remember that when I was little my mother would arrange a whole party for me and my cousins who were always there for the holyday.

As we grew, my cousins stopped coming for the weekend and I started to invite my friends, which without knowing, started some sort of tradition, in which we would take turns to host this “Halloween party” and the rest of the group would drop by there at night on costume and ready for a night of movies and pizzas. And every year I putted so much effort into my costumes, for me it was a new challenge every time, to do make-up, props, get the clothes; It´s definitely my favorite part (but not every year I´m happy with the result).

Things got even bigger when we met a friend that had his birthday on oct 27^th, so now it was kind of a “Halloween theme birthday” of 15 people or so. That year he invited us to his aunt´s Pub where we could watch movies on a screen and play pool.

This year is my turn to host the party, it´s been a few years since I last hosted it and I´m nervous but also really excited for what it can be!

A flawed superhero

Hi everyone! 

As today’s blog, I would like to talk about one of my favorite movies, Spiderman: Into the spider-verse and the hero/protagonist of that movie, Miles Morales.

I remember last year being so hyped about the release of the movie, the graphics were stunning and since the first trailer it had me hooked to the plot, I went to the cinema the first week upon release and was totally worth it.

Moreover, the character of Miles just…was so well written. He was a normal teenager dealing with a lot of expectatives due to all the sudden changes on his life, he was lost and afraid, and even though he had a supportive family and people who cherished for him, he needed to find his own answers, he needed to “take that leap of faith”.

Through the movie, we see his growth as a person, how he becomes more confident as he begins to know his own weaknesses and strengths, to, at the end, face the villain thanks to all the things he learned from the people around him.

I found Miles Morales to be a relatable character, even in a world of superpower and thus, he is always trying his best (and not always succeeding) he cares for the people he love and, unlike other superheroes whose always seem to be this “perfect person that always wins ”, miles is constantly failing and getting up, and learning from that, and I think that this kind of flawed superhero is way more inspiring than a perfect one.