my life changing story

I used to trust almost everyone that I met, at least up until a few years ago. It started on a Sunday at the park. I was only 14 on the day my dad’s side of the family decided to get together at the park. However, there weren’t that many kids my age, so my sister and I ended up bored sitting in the back of the truck with the windows rolled down and the music on waiting to leave. My sister got bored and started looking through my mom’s phone. When she found messages from another guy, she didn’t know what to do so she gave the phone to me and showed me. I thought I was having a nightmare! My jaw dropped and I froze for a while. After I realized I wasn’t dreaming, my instincts kicked in so I ran to my dad as fast as I could and showed him the phone.

About a month before this happened my mom had just had surgery, so she was on disability from work, so you can only imagine how shocked I was to find out my mom was having an affair when all along I thought she was hurt. For the next few weeks I went to sleep almost every night to the sound of my parents arguing and yelling about the whole situation. I would constantly hear arguments such as my dad asking, “How could you do this to me? How could you do this to the kids? Don’t you love them?” and my mom responding, “I do love the kids and I didn’t do anything wrong.” I even witnessed the worst thing ever, my dad in tears. I always sat and asked myself the same questions, “How could my mom do this? She already had two kids with my dad, so what in the world would ever make her decide she want to be with someone else?”

I could always tell that my dad felt the same way as I did. But even though I was mad at my mom for doing it, I still loved her as my mom and I could see that my dad still loved her as his wife and as the mother of his kids. I guess this is what gave my dad the guts to give my mom another chance and try to work things out with her.

A few months later my mom told me and my sister that she was going back to work that Thursday. I finally thought to myself “Good thing everything is finally over with. She’s finally going back to work and maybe everything will be back to normal.”  When that Thursday finally came, it was like a normal day. My sister and I got ready for school, my parents got ready for work, and then everyone left the house. After school, however, my dad picked up my sister and me from school. This was unusual because he was never home until 5pm on work days. I knew this was a bad thing right away because I got that horrible feeling in my stomach, the same feeling that you get when you know you got caught doing something bad and you’re about to be punished for it. But I didn’t want to get into my parents’ business so I just kept my mouth shut. The next day I noticed that my mom wasn’t going to work anymore so I asked her about it but she just responded saying, “Oh… Um… Well, work called me and said that I could take another month off because I didn’t look so good yet.”

Later that month, my cousin came up to me and asked me how I was doing. I wondered why he seemed so concerned about me so I responded, “What do you mean? You act like if I was hurt when nothing happened.” He then asked, “No one has told you about your mom?” “What about her?” I asked. As my cousin looked at me I could see how sad and scared he was to talk to me. He then put his head down and said, “Remember the day that your mom said that she was going back to work but then she only went for one day? Well that day our dads followed her and it turns out she went to spend the day with some guy. He’s probably her boyfriend. But it was the same guy that she had messages from a long time ago. ” I was shocked. Not knowing what to say, I told my cousin I needed some time to myself to think, so he left.

I started noticing then that my parents were getting back to the same place that they had been in before with all the arguing and talk about divorce. I didn’t think much of it at this time because I began to see it as a game that they played. They would say to everyone, “This time were getting a divorce for sure,” but then a month later they would be together talking and acting happy like nothing ever happened.

Things didn’t go how I thought this time. The same week my parents asked me and my sister to sit down at the table because we needed to have a “family meeting.” We were both very nervous because they had never told us this before. So when we got to the table we sat next to each other crossing our fingers hoping everything was okay. My parents both looked at each other wondering who should be the one to give the bad news, when my dad finally said. “We needed to tell you guys that we are getting a divorce, but we still love both of you guys and we want you to know that. This is why we are having this talk before anyone tells you a different story. We also want you guys to know that it’s not your fault, it’s ours. ”

My sister and I were later shocked when we overheard my mom saying that my dad had cheated on her a long time ago. After hearing this, I felt betrayed by both of my parents. I was mad, sad, upset, shocked, horrified, and worst of all I felt as if nothing in the world was right anymore. I knew that there was no one to blame but my parents, so at the time I felt disgusted by both of them. I was mad at them and no longer saw them as the parents who loved and cared so much for their children.

Since my sister and I were already preparing for the move, we weren’t shocked when my mom found a place to move out to. My parents decided that they were going to share their kids fifty-fifty, like it was so easy for us to move from house to house every week. Eventually my sister and I got tired of how things were, so we took things into our own hands. Now I live with my dad only and my sister lives with my mom. We still find time to visit each other so it’s not a bad way of living, at least I think. Actually I like it better because I feel like it makes it even more fair for my parents since they both have someone living with them at all times so they’re never alone.

After a few months went by I began to realize that even though what my parents did was bad, I shouldn’t let that get in the way of how I feel about them. That’s why I can honestly say that I still think about what they did at times, but that doesn’t stop me from loving them as my parents. The only thing that has changed for me now is that I know I’m better off watching out for the people I trust and the people around me, because if the people closest to me could do this, then anyone can.

interviewing Omar S.

Omar Sanchez has only lived in Oxnard for about two years now, and although he doesn’t think it’s that fun here, he still enjoys everything he does here. He is currently attending Oxnard College. When he first came to school he was expecting classes to be hard and full of people, but instead he’s found it to be the opposite. Omar has chosen to stay at O.C. for two years for this reason and because he likes that it is located around a small environment and that is close to where he lives. In two years Omar plans to transfer to a U.C. to learn more about dentistry and writing. If it’s possible, he also plans to open his own clothing line to share his ideas with the world. In the future, (about five years from now), Omar plans to have be independent by having a steady career so that he can afford his own house. Omar has these high expectations set for him because since he saw how his parents came from a poor society, he wants to be able to give himself more. To accomplish this, one of the mottos he goes by is “first the storm, then the calm”, meaning things are hard before they get easy.

After he is away from school, Omar has a certain time set aside to do homework so that he can get it all done. When he is done with it, or when he has time, Omar usually works out because that is a “must do” for him since he likes to stay in shape. The only time he gets to hang out with his friends is when he visits his mom in LA since that’s where his friends live.

For now, Omar is still living with his dad and two siblings. He has one older sister and one younger brother. His older sister can be a big help when Omar needs help with his homework.  His younger brother, on the other hand, can just be a bug at times, just like younger siblings usually do. Other than that he just tries to have family time with his brother, sister and dad. They do this by either having Barbie Q’s, or having a family dinner to just sit around and talk with each other. In his dad’s house, Omar likes the fact that he has his own room because this allows him to be more responsible for his own things, and it gives him his own space.

 Even though Omar’s mom lives in Los Angeles, he still gets to visit her from about every two weeks. Although he’s not with his mom twenty-four/seven, he loves every minute that he gets to spend with her. His mom is more of a spontaneous, talkative, and funny person, so every time they are together they tend to go out to eat rather than stay in, or they just try to have a good time together. This is why he has a little bit more fun when he gets to go stay with his mom for a while. But he’s mostly just glad that he still has both parents, and that he hasn’t lost touch with either one.

the life saver text (:

At times texting can be something more than just a time killer. Turns out that texting can also be a benefit for many reasons, such as emergencies. For example, if you found out that someone went missing or had been kidnapped, then it would be easy enough to just pick up your phone and send a quick message to as many people as you know, telling them that someone you know has gone missing. And with the technology now days, you can not only give a full description of the person, but you can also attach a picture of the missing person, that way the people that received the message can know what the missing person looks like, and they can let you know if they spot the person right away. Best of all, the people that you send the message to can also forward the message to all the people they know, and so on. That way the message will get out, probably even around the world, faster than you would take to make a phone call, or even put up flyers. This is the biggest benefit because it increases the chances, and speed, of finding the person that went missing. So thank goodness for texting in these sorts of situations!

entertainment television (:

There are three kinds of people when it comes to reality TV. The ones who are obsessed with a specific show or a few shows, the ones who watch it occasionally, and the ones who hate those kinds of shows. I myself am the in between person who watches reality TV occasionally. Well I guess I would say I watch it more than occasionally, but I’m not obsessed with a certain show or anything. I think these shows are more of a “guilty pleasure” for me. I watch them pretty much every time I turn on the TV as a way to entertain myself when I’m bored. I do have to admit that watching other people’s problems does help me take my mind off of my own problems at times too. It’s also a bad habit of mine to watch these shows as an excuse to be a lazy bum on the couch all day.


Even though I tend to keep my eyes on the show, I don’t completely like everything I see. For example, I do not like when all the people in the show get all dramatic, especially over dumb little things. If one person says one wrong word to another person, then this tends to end up in a fight, or just a huge, over exaggerated argument. These are the kinds of shows that I think have no point in being aired, their just there to annoy people.

I think sometimes people use these kinds of shows as a way to feel better about themselves. For example, if they see a flaw in someone on TV they’ll feel better because they don’t have the same flaw. Or if someone is going through a problem and they see that someone else on TV is going through the same problem then they feel better that there not the only ones. People may also use these shows as a way to get advice on their problems without asking for any. For example if person A has a problem, then he might turn on the TV and look at how person B, the person on TV, handles their problems. Then person A might make some life decisions based on person B’s actions.

Sometimes people watch shows for the wrong reasons, and sometimes shows send the wrong kind of messages or set bad examples. If the show has young kids acting a certain way such as doing drugs or being sexual at a very young age then kids might watch those shows and try to mimic the actions of the people. This would be a type of show that may be harming our society.

I was trying to think up some reasons about how reality TV is actually benefiting our society but I couldn’t. I think that it is a bad habit that people have but sometimes we tend to watch almost anything for entertainment. I also think that these kinds of shows tend to be a bad influence overall, to everyone but mainly kids. But at least while these shows keep airing people will always have something to watch.