The Beginning, or maybe the End of an era? Nah….:)

Okay, straight to it. In a nutshell. By the bye, to all those friends of mine who don’t know (the younger ones:), Chando’s my nickname.

I am currently attending Berkeley High School, Berkeley, California, the United States, the World, the Earth, the Milky Way, the Galaxy, the Universe.
About in October/November of 2007, I was moping around the house, not doing much, just chillin’ and probably stressing/procrastinating. (It’s about this time that I began to understand the power of “planning” – tribute to Papi and Cat “The Bum”). As I was grumbling and telling myself to relax, my ‘man (Mom in French, but shortened) called me over to her comp. and told me to look at the BHS bulletin that the E-tree crap sends her over email. Now, “Leute” {german: peeps, english: people} I had my misgivings. My mother has excellent taste, but sometimes the activities and stuff she finds interesting on the e-tree don’t really float my boat, in fact, they sink it and it’s like the Titanic all over again. So as you can imagine, I kind of had it set up in my head that it was something vaguely interesting but not something I would do. Well, to be fair and to give the stuff credit, it’s not that the activities aren’t cool, it’s just that they don’t pluck at my heartstrings like the reins on a stallion. Anyways… she called me over and briefly read the thing out loud.
Do you know that feeling in the theaters when that lady that supposedly’s been shrinking every year, comes on with all those stars around her, and that music blasts out like a hippo? Yeah, try multiplying that by three and inserting it in my innermost soul, right underneath my windpipe, my trachea, and my layer of consciousness. That’s how I felt when I read this thing. Well, maybe it was because I hadn’t been stimulated by something like that before on that e-tree, but it was like bam, or like George Lopez would say “Watcha!”
That thing, to which I owe the saving of my instincts, love for life, love for anything that’s present (so long as it’s a good thing:), of my belief in the generosity and good will of others, of my torment! (Okay, not that major, but let’s just say it was like hearing my philosophical inner adresses to myself and an imaginary audience, on paper, actually online, whispering the mission that I had about figured out life to be): that one way we can save our world is by international understanding, and to achieve that, through education. Leute, I know this may sound cliché, but hear me out and Kurt Hahn too. He believed that the way to go and create a more cohesive world is to bring international youth together so that they understand each other. I’ll decipher this magnificence by Hahn:

” … at that moment [we had] the application before us of a future king of an Arab country to enter Gordonstoun. I happened to have at the school some Jews… If the Arab and one of these Jews were to go out sailing on our schooner… perhaps in a Northeasternly gale, and if they were become thoroughly seasick together, I would have done something for international education. “

Analysis:
-Hahn was answering a critic who was asking what sailing on a schooner would do for international ed.
– The obvious tension between many Jews and Arabs known to you, readers, and you have the answer. If a Jew and an Arab were in a moment where they had to rely on each other, have compassion, live together, stand one another, help one another… that future king, and that future scholar or whatever, would think twice about bombs, about war, about harming that other country. Because they would have come to an understanding. It brings me back to some thing I read from a UWC student from Palestine to an Israeli, “I’m here with you right now, but if we were both back home, you can be sure that I’d be fighting you.” This is true, and it’s unfortunate, but it’s what Kurt Hahn was fighting, plus many other issues to combat. That an international education with an international setting can be the bright beacon swaying between the easy way out, the hatred, and compassion, forgiveness, understanding, and finally cooperation.
I say this all the time to people who’ll listen. The key to international cooperation is getting to know that other person, understanding them and maybe not not judging, but seeing where they come from, not being the rude person who believes the world literally revolves around them. Because we are the leaders of the new generation. A CEO who spent time living in Honduras for x reasons as a child will have a helluva harder time than a CEO who lived in Texas all her life, in outsourcing. Could be a faulty premise unless you understand that all that crap is a result of imperialism, and that the outsourced workers are paid a measly amount.

Getting back. I can talk the talk, but maybe not walk the walk, but I believe in this mission, and I’ll try. I’m sure some “americana” will spill out from me in a terrible way I didn’t even know existed. But, hopefully that’s all spilled out by now since my parents spoil me rotten, (what a brat 🙂 and I’ve traveled enough to try and conquer that demon.

Anywho (as my friend would say)- back to that morning where I had misgivings.
The announcement on the bulletin simply said something about a UNITED WORLD COLLEGE AND DAVIS SCHOLARS SCHOLARSHIP, a presentation about an international school abroad with an international baccalaureate diploma curriculum, and the totally free scholarship. In truth, I can’t even remember, but it definitely said that they’d be giving a presentation in the College Career Center. Well. It sounded awesome whatever it was, and we spent the rest of the morning attempting to figure out what it was. I was definitely interested, and I knew that I would go to the presentation. I didn’t know if I would apply, but it sounded perfect. A school abroad (10 different schools around the word). The IB. Students from about 80 different countries. A small environment. Totally free, if you got in. Something I totally dig.
You see, I’d been lamenting the fact that I hadn’t been able to study abroad in my sophomore year, too expensive, etc… And then, as if the clouds suddenly gave way and the world was rotated on its pelvis, this chance came along. I said to myself, I’ll see what the presentation’s like, and then I’ll decide. It wasn’t until after I got in the first round that I fell in absolute love. Now, I know I’m quoted as saying that the love of my life is food, but sorry darling, the UWC has come pretty damn close to beating you.
Stop it you! NO digression, STOP, and as Colbert would say, “Stop it Sánchez, stop it Sánchez!” I’ve really got to work on my habit of being thrilled when anyone listens and digress for an eternity (Probably the result of having younger siblings 😀 or maybe because I’m a freakin’ chatterbox).
Seriously, you don’t have to read this, go play golf or something, go relax. Well, maybe,… just go on, read. My vanity has been tickled at the idea of people holding on to my every word:)

Whew, back to where I was. What I found out that day:

www.davisuwcscholars.org
and

www.uwc.org

PLEASE LOOK! BEAR WITH ME, IT’S SO BOSS.

And that’s how I began this process… To be continued and you will be actually getting a lucid account of what the UWC actually is. (For purpose’s sake, I will not be translating this just yet)

This is crossposted on my blog