Håfa Adai!
It has been waaaaaay too long since I was last writing for the Odyssey. So, what have I been doing? The answer is pretty simple: I was busy doing a multitude of other things. So where do I start?
Dorothy Day
This year, I became a member of the Dorothy Day Living Learning Community. I felt it was a great place to be in order to learn and understand more about social justice issues and have discussions about said issues. I wanted to be with people that thought and felt like me. From the start of the school year until now, I can say that I have really enjoyed myself with my floor. My floor has become more than just another place I was to stay for another school year. Instead, Dorothy Day became my family away from home, or at least one of them. Not to brag or sound conceited, but many people on Dorothy Day said that I fit right into their little group and without me the floor would have felt different in various ways.
Dorothy Day isn't just a floor to join so you can live in Straz. It's a floor where you do what majority of the Marquette community doesn’t do. You open your mind to the issues that you might not face, but that one of your floor mate's might. For example, I had a presentation for my floor on colonization. Not all of the people on my floor can relate to the fact that my people were taken over not once, not twice, but three times by three different countries (Spain, Japan, and the U.S.). But my friends sat there and listened to me express my frustrations with colonization. My floor is literally everything I could ever want in a floor. I have an RA, Andrea, who cares about us and does her best. I have people that sympathize with an enormous amount of my sentiments. I have a family that I can trust to get down if someone wants to fight me.
Pacific Islanders Student Association
Last year, I wasn't entirely comfortable on campus. I always had a sense of disconnect with people. They'd make comments that made me feel more and more alienated like, "I haven't been home since Winter Break." They'd say things that made me realized just how different we are in terms of wealth and privilege like, "I'm going to Spain for Spring Break," or "I'm going to South America for vacation."I didn't see my family for 9 months last year. I couldn't fly anywhere outside of the U.S., because everywhere else was too expensive. Furthermore, NO ONE was Pacific Islander here or it seemed that way at least. No one understood the struggles Pacific Islanders go through and no one really cares about the islands that weren't New Zealand, Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and the other islands that are popular for people to take vacations to when their home State is a frigid ice hell. That in itself was something that no one understood. People would say, "Oh, I'm going to Hawaii for break." What I would do just to get that chance to be so close to home in an environment similar to the one I spent 19 years around.
That's why I started the Pacific Islanders Student Association. I wanted to create a place where I could express my feelings, thoughts, ideas and such with the Marquette student body. I wanted to have a group that could educate the students on Marquette's campus and spread a crazy idea, what my friend Angel is calling "diversity of identity."
Desk Receptionist
I've been swiping wonderful, smart, and beautiful women at Cobeen's front desk. That is all.
Personal Problems
So much has happened. Like SO MUCH. For now, all I'll say is that I needed, and still need, a long break from everything contained in my life as a college student. I've been bombarded by a ton of things have tested my devotion to getting a stateside education. That being said, I'm sticking it out here at Marquette. Because while I do not need Marquette and things that come along with it, it just might need me. So boom, Marquette. You think I'm stuck with you? No, booboo, that is far from correct. You're stuck with me. Moving on...
What can you expect from my return to the Odyssey?
Expect articles on social justice issues and things that brings a spotlight on everyday issues people go through. I might do an article on sexual education on Marquette's campus or, more accurately, the lack of it. Marquette's STD rate is higher than the national average. That's nasty. It needs to be talked about and something really should be done to ensure my university isn't the STD capital of the world.
I might do an article focusing on a friend of a certain background and debunk myths about their identity. Pacific Islanders, contrary to popular opinion, DO NOT throw pineapple and coconut onto EVERYTHING they eat. So please swerve if you try to give me pineapple pizza and say it's a part of my culture, cause you are wrong on so many levels.
I might do an article that focuses on sexual assault on college campuses and how shitty the response to people who have been sexually assaulted is outrageously inadequate and basically working against the victim. Letting a person who committed sexual assault go about their lives with just a slap on the hand after they sexually assaulted an inebriated girl—well I have no words for that. It blows my mind at how unequipped universities can be.
In other words, I'll be focusing on things that I feel strongly about. I might take a general stance on the issue or put a spotlight on a specific one. So, look out world (and Marquette) I'm back and I'm ready to spread the good news of Jonathan Borja. It's a news about changes in my heart, at my school, on my island, and in the nation that rules over my island (colonization sucks).
