Monthly Archives: December 2016

Uncategorized, Wellness Projects

“I’m No F-ing Terrorist.”

1 Comment

Throughout my time as an American for 18 years now, I have seen my fair share of racial discrimination amongst each other, either for the popularity or the fear one holds inside. Most would say African Americans get the worst of it, constantly being verbally beat down for where they live, how they look, the way they speak, the things they eat, hell the list goes on and on. In a sense, yes, I do agree with that belief, but from my own personal experiences it appears to me that people who have some kind of middle-eastern ethnicity to them are automatically labeled as “terrorists waiting to blow up a school”. Have we grown that ignorant as citizens, to believe in the idea of discrimination to protect yourselves or are we just a country filled with racists.

I once had a friend back in freshman year named Majiid. Truly was one of the nicest kids there was in the school, always willing to help others no matter if it was school or life itself, truly was a real “human”. One day when I arrived to class, I noticed that he wasn’t present and knowing him he was always on time. So I decided to sacrifice attendance for one day to look around for him to see if he was just roaming freely, but what I found wasn’t the Majiid I knew. I found him on the bathroom floor in the corner crying and appeared to be done just cutting himself, so I went over to ask him why was he like this, who hurt you, you know, the usual questions you’d ask at a time like that.

“I can’t deal with this anymore Rey, Why can’t they just listen to me when I say I’m no f-ing terrorist!”

“Aye man. I know what you’re dealing with, trust me,It ain’t easy being a must like me in life nowadays.”

“Maybe I should be like those guys.. just end it here and ki-”

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

From that point on I had the longest talk in my life in effort of saving a life being taken from a state of mind like that. Racial discrimination isn’t a fucking joke to be played around with freely for entertainment, especially when it affects innocent minds like Majiids. Before I get backlash for this, saying how I’m a hypocrite of sorts, I’ll admit that I have had my own share of this type of “humor” but do I regret every single thing I said, oh absolutely. Look around yourself and stop for a minute to take in how racist and ignorant we have become as a society, shit you have 11-year-olds screaming the n- word freely like there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You have people making youtube pranks about the stereotypes of certain races, such as muslims carrying backpacks being seen as potential bombs waiting to go off or African Americans always being seen as potential robbers waiting to pounce on someone. Where’s the humor in making a race look like the worst that humanity has to offer, I don’t see it.

What I have taken from Majiids incident is that people of different color are hurting. You don’t necessarily need a baseball bat or a loaded gun to hurt another. In fact, the deadliest weapon there is around is a person’s way with words. A simple joke can lead to either that person hurting themselves or possibly harming others around them. Will the discrimination of other races end, from what’s going on with this whole Muslim Internment Camp proposal going on, it seems America will continue to live on as racists to the bitter end, no matter how many lives are lost in its tracks.

20% project, Uncategorized

Pride And Tragedy (20% #1)

1 Comment

screenshot_2016-09-11-10-01-321

Everyone has their own personality, separating themselves from the people around them to either be unique or shut them out from discriminating the individual. Everyone has their moments of vulnerability feeling as if life has given up on them, weaker than a twig in the pressure of a hand. Everyone has their own type of life at home, either having the blessing of the silver spoon or the horrors of the lower end of society. Everyone has the right to be themselves in the life we all live in, but is it that simple to just leave it as that, to go outside and be proud of who you are despite the shit you’ll get thrown at you in an effort to change you? Well, for most cases, that’s the way it goes because no one wants to feel like the odd one out. My life in general has been a rollercoaster of changes, happiness, tragedy, depression…and redemption. Have I given in to that ideology of conforming for change or Have I been prideful enough to know I’m no ones moral slave and chosen to remain who I am.

I am Rey Serrano, in terms of the life I have lived so far, its fair to say that I have received the wrong end of the stick. I’ve had my own set of moral downfalls and risings that have shaped me into a complex figure. My emotions remain bitter daily for that I have become numb to many common feelings one would get due to the constant mental beatdowns that I have received. I have changed my persona throughout these 18 years, constantly battling internally of whether I should go back to the hardened thug that I was or remain the peaceful and optimistic character that I am today, it’s not for the popularity bullshit that plagues youngins minds, it’s more for my moral beliefs that I strongly stand by. I have experienced one too many losses within my family and friends, either to the wretched cancer virus or to the bullet of anothers weapon, many of it leading to my own self destruction at one point of time. I have juggled with the idea of suicide quite a few times, closest I have ever been to it was when I nearly OD’d back up in Victorville due to depression. Football can only do so much in terms of keeping you emotionally on track, no matter how much I love it it didn’t save me from getting wired up on a hospital bed.

I was told once that My life has made me a “beautiful human being”,  saying that its rare to find someone with so much pride and tragedy that’s still standing. At first, I scoffed and walked away from the conversation but then it hit me, she was right. Usually people who have gone through that type of shit end up dead or in a mental hospital…yet I’m still alive. Maybe society has changed me, not for the satisfaction of others but rather for the better of myself. It’s mind-boggling to see where I go from here morally at this point, but wherever I go, it makes me beautiful in the end.

 

20% project, A Football Life

“…Where To Move To Next.”

1 Comment

Even through all of the havoc that I caused in pop warner for the next 6 years, there was one piece of sanity that I had in my earlier years of game. That piece of sanity was my childhood friend, since I was in 3rd grade, Salo sporting the #8 jersey. He was the reason behind why I wasn’t kicked off the team earlier, for not almost beating some kid from a different team to death, for not getting arrested for mental instability, shit come to think about it, he was the reason I didn’t lose myself to my mental. Kind of like a savior of sorts that’s a rare find in a life like mine.

I met Salo in the principals office right after getting in trouble for stirring up a fight in class, forgot what it was about though. He was the first one to spark the conversation with the funniest thing I have ever heard at the time, “If your nose gets any bigger, my family would know where to move to next.” Usually when someone says something like that to you, you would want to go over and fuck the person up, but to me he was speaking the truth, I do have big ass nostrils under my nose. After I was done laughing, I replied with ,”Ms. Watz, I thought we were going to the zoo next week, why is that monkey here?” The lady(Ms. Watz) that was in the office told me to shut up, but I believe Salo was causing more noise then me with his ugly but lovable laugh. From that point on, we became the closest thing to brothers that we wish we both had, even if that meant causing the  same amount of trouble wherever we went and getting slapped by our moms just as much as the other.

When it came to football, Salo and I were like the defensive dynamic duo. Wherever we gone, we literally brought “hell on earth” by the way we played. Whoever I tackled, he would be right there to get a crushing hit in on a different area of the body, and vice versa(with me being a bit more aggressive). Always putting on a show for the families that came to watch the 4-8 (me being #4) rip the other team a new one. At this point, it was the closest thing we felt to being like superstars of a professional team of sorts.

It all sounds good right? Like, what can possibly go wrong? Well.. Everything I knew, was about to change within my last year of Pop Warner..

 

 

Uncategorized, Wellness Projects

Vista Aid & Co.

Leave a comment

In my own experiences in life, I’ve come to learn about the cruelty of life and society as we know it. How the simplest of things can turn for the worst and become something that ends ones life, both literally and non-literally, in an instant. Money to me is like the sweetest poison there is, everyone wants all of its taste and luxury but end up destroying themselves for having too much of it. Next thing you know, society spits you out into the streets with nothing but a pair of clothes and a sleeping bag. This is what most of the homeless you see out on the sidewalks regret daily, for giving in to that greed for the green. But I have a proposition to help amend those wounds they have garnered from the tragedies money has brought upon them.

That proposition is Vista Aid & Co. Our job is to help the homeless re-realize the happiness of life again, even when everything around them is against them without any profits. We want to make them feel as if they’re part of something special, like a family of sorts. Our methods of doing so include providing food, shelter, moral support and weekly activities at brengle park if they choose to take part in them. Most of the time however, our agendas of what we’re doing is based at our home location, we embrace the idea of being homebodies fully. One may ask,” How do we get our finances for all of this?”

Our financial methods are all done through donations and fundraising activities;Cookouts, Car washes, marathons, etc. We also seek endorsements from various shops within the local area in regard to food, furniture and clothing with our biggest supporters coming from Vista High School and Filibertos. When it comes to seeking federal aid, we wish not to as much for personal reasons, but from time to time we’ll ask for financial help. Most of our funds are being saved to hopefully build a 3000 sq. foot homeless shelter in the future.

Our main staff consists of myself(Reymar Serrano), Andrew Donham, Ricardo Nelson and Christian Gonzalez, with myself being the President/CEO/Event Planner. We all pay an combined amount of $500,000 yearly to financially support the organization, with secondary staff paying $200 if they wish to work for Vista Aid & Co.