Ten years from now I see myself  with many possibilities. First if I continue to work hard  I see myself as a MLB baseball player playing for any team, preferably the Yankees so I can be close to my family and friends. Second would be working in a renowned company as an investment banker. And if all else fails I will be a porn star. Life is never what we expect it to be, and full of surprises, who knows what anyone will be ten years from now. We can’t tell the future we can only create a better chance. So in ten years from now I might be all of the things I said but I know for a fact I will be successful.

Subject Line: Missing the ENG 2100 Midterm Exam

Hi Professor X,

Due to an illness I was unable to take the midterm exam. I will be bringing in a doctor’s note the following class. Also, could you please let me know when I can make up the exam. Thanks!

Julius Del Rosario

ENG 2100, MW 2:55-4:30

For my monologue , Iwanted to speak about a question, when have i ever felt empowered? For me thats easy, the one thing that ever made me empowered would probably be video games because im a fanatic. It strengthens me be because im basically a useless kid when it comes to sports and i considerably fail at too much . I ending up trying  but it ends sourly. My own experiences told me that its best to stick with hobbies that you are better at than most people,namely video games. My own testimonies showed me 178 ways to beat the hell out of your cousins without lifting a sweat. Its funny i can cream them at NBA 2k12 when i cant even play basketball myself and there the ones on the highschool basketball team. Not only that i can wipe the floor of with my friend in my most favorite game ‘Marvel vs Capcom 3’ , i call this game a tiny piece of hell, cuz its crazy. 11 to 3  was the score i got from beating him and i have doing that ever since. Even though i rarely get to play, meaning that my mom is extremely paranoid thinking i’ll be braindead when im 20, she locked it in a cupboard far far away which actually means she sent to India. So im stuck like rock not know what makes me move, the one thing that ever made me empowered is stuck in hell. Oh mother oh mother(its more like shakespeare line) “ARE YOU CRAZZY!! YOU SENT MY BEAUTIFUL CONSOLE TO LIVE WITH PYGMIES(because Indians are petit). Her reply was killer, she said YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!! with a indian accent with basically did sound like a snake. Still i knew there is hope because every year we always go to back to the motherland and that’s usually the time when i get my groove on and i  call this period The Royal Spanking Era for reasons you probably know.  But maybe one should wonder , Why wait? and Why can’t you find something else? . The thing is ‘Video gaming’ inspires me to do the impossible- scaling of walls, killing people in midair or coming back to life, for some reason it makes me a better person because i usually felt dead in the real world and constant death and rebirth in games makes it seem that i have become immortal. And this why video games inspires me mostly and hence empowers my aspect of life.

My greatest accomplishment is getting a black belt in taekwondo. I practiced the martial art for 4 years and it was probably the longest commitment I had ever made to something. I believe this to be my greatest accomplishment as it pushed me beyond my limits both physically and mentally. From a physical standpoint, taekwondo gave me a sense of toughness as well as finesse. I could withstand hits, break wooden boards, and perform those cool kicks people see on TV. Mentally, taekwondo gave me a sense of self-confidence, discipline, and respect. It allowed me to see the world in a different perspective – a perspective in which respecting others and yourself is of utmost importance. Making me a better person, both physically and mentally, is the reason why my journey to getting a black belt in taekwondo is my greatest accomplishment.

-Julius Del Rosario

When I first came to the United States, I felt lost. I had never seen a city so large and everything was so foreign. I did not speak the language perfectly, and many of traits and habits that defined New York and its people seemed peculiar to me. It was a strange new place and one thing kept me from being completely lost. That was basketball. It was a sport that was rarely talked about back where I’m from. However, I saw the beauty of the game very quick. Basketball kept me from feeling like a complete outsider. I poured my heart and soul into playing ball because I had fun, and through basketball I got accumulated to American culture much faster than I would have. I leaned the lingo, the icons, and the fashion of the time through the sport. I also made some friends at my local park that I am still very much in contact with, which has been a pleasant surprise. I got into my first real fight because of basketball and got my nose broken. When I was 10, I also stole a basketball, the first thing I ever stole. I got my first medal in anything at a basketball tournament. In many ways, basketball has been much more than just a sport to me. Over the years, basketball has been an integral part of my life has helped me through many ups and downs. When I hit my growth spurt in the 7^th grade, I started becoming a potent player on my middle school team. That feeling of respect and adoration that I got from my fellow classmates is something that I would never have imagined coming in as an outsider from another country. Many people say it is just a game, but I would say that basketball is a lifestyle, because it helped me develop into the person I am today.

I always like to set time aside in the year to do something different, something crazy that people don’t normally think of doing. I like being adventurous and taking my limits to the next level and just when I think I cant go anymore I keep on pushing. One example I can relate to is snowboarding. I love snowboarding not only because the sound of the wind blowing as a rush down the mountain electrifies me, but also because I can always keep pushing myself and take it to the next level. Mother nature has no limit, and as the slope gets more difficult, it encourages me to continue to push my hardest to reach my goal. When I snowboard I always have the option to approach the situation the way I feel will make me happy. Sometimes I just want to slowly cruse down the mountain just enjoying the scenery and the fresh air, but other times I want to push myself and I want to reach the point where I’m making mistakes because you can never be perfect if you never learn from your mistakes. When I am on the mountain there is one saying that describes me well: I’m “in it for the thrill.” No matter to what extreme in which I’m coasting down the mountain, there is always one goal in mind and that is to have a thrilling experience. It’s the kind of experience you don’t get from everyday actions but the one you get from going out of the everyday path for a change and trying something different. I think the mountain is place where I learn to become a more successful person in life because I learn to always try my hardest and never give up in achieving my goals.

I remember when I was younger I used to hate traveling, every time my mom went on vacation, I would try my hardest to argue my way out of it. I hated it, no matter where I went I would have to rely on my mom to take me everywhere. I hated it because she never wanted to go where I wanted to go, I would want to go to a pool, she would want to go to Home Goods, and trust me with her, there was no compromise. To me a vacation was not suppose to be spent figuring out ways to decorate my home, it is suppose to be a time to get away from home and experience of period of fun. Its only now that I enjoy my vacations and I guess the reason for this is that I can now travel alone, and experience what I am in the mood for.

My senior year in high school, I was sub director to a community service group. I was set in charge of 40 kids on a one-night camping trips. I felt empowered and in control. When I was a kid in preschool, a classmate ran up to me and pulled down my pants. He claimed that they were his and that I had stolen them. The school enforced a dress code and those were the pants of the uniform. I was completely embarrassed. This all happened in Dominican Republic. I was born there and lived there till the age of 6. My house was very close to the school and I was an uncontrollable crybaby. When this kid pulls my pants down, I do nothing but start screaming in tears. All the kids in our class were laughing  at me and it was honestly terribly embarrassing.

The time(s) I got embarrassed:

I’ve always hated it when people commented on the way I spoke Chinese. It’s because of their comments that I’ve grown to be embarrassed of using the language. Sometimes I would even feel ashamed because I couldn’t speak the language properly. My poor use of Chinese is due to the fact that I speak a mix of English with a southern Chinese dialect. My family has gotten used to the way I talk but others haven’t. When I talk in Chinese in public, people usually can’t understand me and sometimes laugh at me and call me “white-washed”. The term is said in Chinese but I’ve grown familiar enough with it to understand the meaning. Usually I get angry and think, “Well. I was born in New York. I can’t help but become influenced by the environment!” But I do understand that I should be more familiar with the language. Honestly, I can’t even communicate with my father much because of the language barrier and I was fortunate enough that my mother knew English. When I had to work with citizenship test takers I couldn’t communicate with them well but they still relied on me. I also  found it somewhat amusing that many of the Chinese elders thought I was a genius just because I spoke English fluently.