Everybody's Looking for a Hero

I've been pretty stressed out as of late. Not so much with schoolwork as with other things, like how to get home for Winter holiday and how to get back to school. I feel like I'm not going to have enough time to see everyone that I want to see and do everything I want to do for an adequate amount of time. UCR is giving us three weeks off. There are other schools who get nearly two months off. Why couldn't they just up it a week? And why does it have to be on such awkward dates? December 12th to Janury 3rd? That doesn't even seem that long. And in reality, it's not.

Last night, I hosted a highschool student from San Jose in my room, so she could get an impression of UCR. I felt like a bad host; there's not much to do and she just seemed like she wanted to text the whole time, which isn't very fun. She and her friend weren't really into any of the activities that we were required to attend, even though Kat(herine) and I were having a good time making stress balls out of balloons and flour and playing with goo. This goo was crazy! You could, like, grap a fistful of goo in your hands and squeeze it-- you know it's solid-- but as soon as you open your fist it dissolves into water. WHOA CRAZY GOO! Anyway, we ended up playing cards and Jackie, Christy, and Christy came into the room a little later and they were pretty entertaining. She said she didn't have a bad time, that she had a good time, but I don't know. We had to get her back to the bus at 6:45 this morning; needless to say, I crashed when I got back to the room.

I joined Greenpeace yesterday! While I was walking around with Stephanie (my hostee), a guy runs up to me and asks, 'Do you love the environment? I love the environment!" Yeah, I love the environment. And then he used his amazing rhetorical skills to convince me to join Greenpeace. I have to donate $15 a month to them, which I will probably do for awhile but then put my donations on pause or cancel them, for a reason that I will get to shortly, but I don't mind donating for now, especially since it's for an incredibly important cause. Then we hugged and I was off on my merry way once more.

I went midnight hiking a few nights ago with some friends from my hallway-- we were going to hike to the "C" (a big concrete C at the top of the mountain behind our school) but we only made it about halfway up because we all had forgotten water and Jackie didn't have her inhaler. It was still an adventure, though, hiking halfway. The path is very steep, and coming back down proves fairly tricky in the dark-- the trail is all sand and rock, and it is hard not to slip and slide downward. The meteor shower was pretty cool; I saw probably ten while we were up there. This is the second meteor shower I have seen since being at UCR; there is another one on December 13th, but I will be home for that one, so hopefully it's not raining or overcast and I will be able to watch that from there.

So, I have been keeping busy, making new friends, chilling out with the friends that I have made. I am officially a member of The Cave, which is part of our hallway that is sort of out of sight because of a bend in the wall-- if you didn't go exploring and if people didn't come out from there, it would be hard to know it's there. But I spend nearly every spare moment I have in The Cave or with friends from the Cave, and I have grown very comfortable with them. We are all very different, but I guess you can say that about any group of friends. They're all really cool, and I wish there were a way to introduce them to you (Mom) and you (Anna) and you (everyone else that reads this blog). They are, in no way, a replacement of my old friends; I have realized that I don't need to replace old friends to make new friends. Of course, I always knew that, but I'm saying it out loud now. You don't need to replace old friends to make new friends. I still talk to Anna, Jessica, Jessica, Zach, Yvette, Sarah, Depeche, and Cullen quite often, and there is no way, no how that I would ever stop talking to them unless Southern California split along the fault line and capsized into the Pacific. That would be quite unfortunate.

Now, for the bad news. If the UC Regents approve, my tuition is going to be raised 32% by this coming Winter quarter, and 44% by Spring. I will be paying nearly double what I am paying now for the same exact education. And WHY will I be paying more? I'm not quite sure, but I have a feeling it's so they can "generate more money in the education system and bring back blablabla..." In other words, so we can pay them for doing their crappy jobs and exploiting students. Of all people to target-- students. I know it's not just students; it's hospitals and it's small businesses. It is the groups of people who are below the elite, who cannot afford health care or higher education. Not even higher education alone! ALL education! People are always saying, "You are the future. You're children are the future!" But if they're beating us out of schools, if they're creating situations where we are not allowed to learn, then what kind of future are we looking forward to? We are the future; we have so much potential; we can do it. But right now, the future is looking pretty bleek.

There was even a proposition by the regent out of San Diego to shut down the UC Riverside and UC Merced campuses to save money for the other UCs. Just because we haven't established our names yet. Just because our established name is "University of College Rejects". Because we're the underdogs, the lower middle and lower classes on the socioeconomic scale. Because we are not the brightest, nor the strongest.

This is all crap. Maybe we're not the best at sports and maybe our students don't come out of highschool with the highest GPAs; maybe a majority of us couldn't afford to apply to more schools; maybe we're only here because we got accepted. Well, so be it. That doesn't mean we're inadequate; dumb, low, unworthy. That doesn't mean anything. We're diverse. We're friendly. Smart. A majority of our professors actually care about our education, unlike at the CSUs, where professors use their furlough days and spend their lectures complaining about pay cuts; where students have to sue because the school is cutting upperdivision classes so students can't graduate. At least we give a damn about the well-being of the state, the nation, the world; come together and fight for what we believe in.

Okay, it's true, I've officially got UCR pride. But when facing such a high mountain-- my school might get shut down; I'm going to be paying my tuition and a half in less than six months-- it's hard not to band together and fight for myself and for every other student, staff member, and professor in this school. We're a community, and communities are supposed to back eachother up, not just sit on the sidelines and watch as a few take on the challenge. We've all got to work together for this one if we want to change what is changing. We all deserve a chance, and these fee increases are going to leave most of us high and dry. That shouldn't happen. That can't happen.

We're the future. Aren't we?