JJ's World Views

Tag: Normandale

  • This Semester

    This has been the hardest semester for me yet. I have been procrastinating too much. In away I have been doing a great job of self sabotage. In a way I  think I do not deserve to get my A.A.  Though I have put in all of the time and work that I need to, maybe even more.  I am less than two months away from finally getting my A.A. in Liberal Arts.  Maybe it is because I fear the success it could bring.  I do not want to let things go to my head.  I like the way I am now in a personal sense, I worry that I will become arrogant because of the success.  As I am now and how I hope I will see myself in the future is that I am just a guy trying to do more for society and not just for myself.

    The class I am doing the worst in right now is Spanish.  At this point I just want to pass the course.  That is the first time I have said that about any of my classes.  My history class I am a bit behind in but, I can make that up no problem.  I have liked all my social science teachers.  Hell, I have a crush on the teacher I had last semester for U.S. history 2.  The current history course I am taking is History of World Civilization 3.  And I have been looking forward to this class for awhile.  The reason for that is I want to try and understand what the more recent history of the middle east is like.  This way I can help to figure out a solution to some of the problems over there.

    Human Geography is another good class I am taking and I am all caught up in.  I only have a presentation, a short essay on urbanization and the final left for that class.  My teacher for this class I had last semester for Physical Geography so I kind of knew what to expect from him.  Then I have my Career Exploration class which helped me to decide to change my Major from Social studies Education to a straight History major.  I am doing this because I do not want to have to narrow of a major and a History B.A. can open a whole lot of doors as I found out.

    The last class is not really a class but a certificate program called Pillar of Leadership.  In this program we go over the different types of leadership but, focus more on the Social Change Model of Leadership.  This is a pretty cool program and is going to look good on my resume.  Though the main reason I am taking this is because I do want to help change the way things are in this world, for the better.

    I guess for me now it is crunch time.  I need to make sure I pass all my classes and by February I will have my A. A. degree in my hands.  Now I just have to find another job because the job I am currently working at is the student store on the Work Study Program.  So, I really do want to start looking for jobs and internships in my field of study.

  • The Speech

    Today I gave my first speech to a group of people not in a classroom.  I was terrified about giving this speech.  It didn’t help any that I woke up late and had to rush either.  When I got to school I took smoke before I headed in, I still had a couple of minutes left before things got started.  I get down to the garden room where they are holding the Normandale Retiree’s Luncheon.  I had gotten a scholarship from their foundation and I was asked to speak to the donors.  I checked in and went to speak to Jane who had helped me work on the speech I was giving.  I asked “If she had added the photographs for the end of my speech.”  She told me she did, that took a little stress off me but not much.

    I thanked her and she introduced me to her boss.  Then they encouraged me to do some hobnobbing with some of the people.  I hate these types of situations where I know next to no one in the room.  I am not normally the type of person that can just start up conversations.  I was happy to see two of my bosses there that gave a bit more confidence.  I talked with Chris and Amy for a couple of minutes then proceeded to seat myself.  The people at my table were decent people, they asked me a few questions about my experiences and I chimed in where I felt it was appropriate.  This did calm me a bit more but I was still so nervous I couldn’t even eat.  The first speaker went up it was the President of Normandale Dr. Joyce Ester, then came Colleen Simpson the Executive Director of the Normandale Foundation.  The Jane came up and introduced the first Speaker Na.  I though her speech was very well put together.  She did not seem to stumble or fall, not that I would wish that on anybody.

    Then Jane went up to the podium again and introduced me.  My stomach was in knots, I so wanted to run for the door as I was heading for the podium.  I get up their and I start of fine a couple of hiccups but nothing to bad until I got to the part that inspired me to go back to school.

    About 3 ½ years ago I saw a story that changed the way I look at life.  I saw The story of Malala Yousefzia a young woman who spoke out against the Taliban in Pakistan, so that young women can have the right to an education.  She was also shot for her courageous act.   This young woman’s story made me ask myself what have I done with my life.  This young woman has risked her life for a cause that is noble.  What cause would I risk my life for?  I wanted to help other people understand other cultures in order to breed a sense of peace in this country and around the world.  I went to the VA not knowing If I was qualified for any benefits and found out that my depression was partially service related.  So. I was able to get the psychological help I needed.  I was part of group and individual counseling.

    I started to cry.

    I am not sure why it was that telling this story brought me to tears.  I have told it so many times before.  Maybe it was drudging through my past before this story, then going in to the story, or maybe it was because of how nervous I was, or maybe my depression went onto overdrive for a couple of minutes that set me off.   What ever it was I was able to get a hold of my emotions and finish the paragraph.  I then went in to my accomplishments since I have been at Normandale.  I was also able to crack a couple of jokes near the end about how if they looked around the school they would probably see my picture in a few.  Though I had longer and brightly colored hair, then let them know I like to die my hair when I have it, while rubbing my bald head.  I finished my speech by sharing a few of my favorite Photos I have taken.

    These were from the March for Science:

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    These are from the Minnesota River Valley Wild Life Refuge:

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    I was the last speaker of the day.  Everyone told me I did well, though it did not feel like that to me.  It was because of my minor breakdown that I did not feel it went well.  One person told me the first time they gave a speech they ended up vomiting.  That made me feel just a little bit better,  We then proceeded to take photos with the group.

    This was definitely an experience I will not forget.  Yes it had its ups and downs, but I am still glad I got myself out of my comfort zone.  My Psychologist will be happy to hear that tomorrow.

  • First Week of Summer Semester

    Today is my first day of summer semester at Normandale Community College.  I have one class now, which is Introduction to Creative Writing.  I have another College First Aid and CPR starting in July.  Looking over the syllabus Creative Writing seems like it will be a bit daunting for me.  Time management is something I do need to work on, this class is definitely going to push me to do better.  I will not have this class hurt my GPA, I have yet to get anything less than a B, so far. I will just have to go at this class a bit harder than the others.  This instructor is asking us to open up and push my limits.  This is going to be hard for me, even though on my blog here I am fairly open, I hold myself back.   It has been kind of drilled into me “you have to watch everything you say.  You may offend someone.”  Especially since I want to become a teacher.  So, I never really let loose.

    I am always the nice guy, the safe guy.   I do not not want to hurt people’s feelings, therefore I stifle myself.  If I tell a story I don’t want some people getting angry or embarrassed because I share how I remember event.  So, I change their names, of course I do that if I can not remember their names as well, I am horrible with names.

    In the first week we have to come up with three options for a creative nonfiction piece.  I was finally able to come up the third this afternoon.   The first one is of my time down at Camp Roberts, California.  This story takes place in the central desert in California, right smack dab in between San Francisco and L.A..  This was basically a coming of age story where I am finding myself, filled with alcohol, sex and an orange Chevy Nova.

    The second was about the crazy relationship between me and my ex-wife Liz.  It would go through how we met the issues we had with her family.  The add issue of being a stepfather and dealing with the father of my step daughter.  Also, the good times with the parks we went to and the way we tried to make due in a lower middle class lifestyle.

    The third is the is The Morels and Ethics of an Atheist.  This one will be a sort of build off of Me and Religion. This piece explains my personal moral and ethical beliefs and how I came up with them.  This helps my goal show people that Atheists are the same as everyone else we just do not need to believe in a god to be a good person.  Next assignment is due on the 6th.  I should not have a problem getting it done.

    Peace Be With You

  • Normandale Lake Park

    Normandale Lake Park

    I drove aimlessly until I stopped at Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington, Minnesota.  The park has 1.9 miles of walking and biking trails with plenty to take in.

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  • Normandale TRIO SSS End Of Year Celebration

    Tonight was the end of year Celebrations for TRIO SSS at Normandale Community College.  TRIO SSS is for people who are first generation, persons with disabilities and low income students, if you were wondering.  This was our second annual banquet to celebrate the accomplishments of all the awesome people in the program.  We started with dinner and good conversation with our peers.  I just happened to be sitting next to the President of the school Joyce Ester.  She showed us the new motor scooter she had bought, it looked pretty cool, It looked more like a motorcycle than a scooter though.

    After dinner the ceremony  started another one of my friends Dee Parker was one of the speakers.  Dee is another really inspirational people who moved up here from New Orleans after Katrina.  We went through the Academic recognitions for the semester.  The categories are as follows:

    Roaring Red: 3.0 – 3.49

    Roaring Lion: 3.5- 3.99

    Lion’s Club: 4.0

    I happened to be in the Roaring Lion category for a 3.73 GPA for the semester.  My goal with the VA is to keep a 2.5 or better, My personal goal is to keep a 3.0.  I just keep on surpassing it.  In the fall I was admitted to Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society for 2 year colleges.

    The Next Speaker was Ushna Altaf a really funny and crazy Pakistani woman who is full of life and loves to crack jokes with everyone, this was her last semester at Normandale and she will be missed.

    Next we had a musical performance of John Lennon’s”Imagine” sung by Sam Dylia.  Even though I have the words to this song memorized, I do not think I could get up and sing it in front of a group of people and he should be commended for  the job he did.

    The awards came up directly after the performance, this is where I was filled with shock and amazement. The first three awards were the partner, Champion and Game awards These were given to faculty and staff.  Then we got to the Most Active scholar which was won by Ushna Utaf, her fellow nominees were Yuanyuan Cui and Jackson Code.  The next was the most Persistent Scholar which was won by Jenny Steck.  Her fellow nominees were Chamab Nhel, Dee Parker and Amber Branch.  The Last of the awards was Scholar of the Year won by yours truly JJ ODonnell with my fellow Nominees Amber Branch and Ella Komianvi.  This was a shock to me, I knew I had been nominated for the award but I never thought I would win.  In fact I was actually rooting for Amber or Ella, both of these women are strong, good students and have fought through their share of adversity.  This is not to say I have not; I just thought that one of them should be the winner.  Amber I know the most about she was my peer mentor and is my friend and just a kick ass chick.  Ella I know in passing from when I worked in the diversity center, she was always so cool and very courteous.  She is also the President of the BSA (Black Student Alliance) and participate in numerous other groups and activities.   I was just honored to be nominated.  I was not looking for anything else.

    The last performance was by Joe Charley who spoke a riveting poem about being more than just what people see and encouraging people to dive deeper to get to know others of different races and cultures.  It was astounding.

    The Keynote Speaker was President Ester who kept her speech short and to the point.  She was also still reeling from the previous speaker.

    The closing words were spoken by the Head of Normandale’s chapter of TRIO Frederick MacDonald-Denis, coincidentally he is my advisor till mine gets back from paternity leave, James.

    All in All this was a very interesting night for me.  It was a shock to my system I am glad to share some of it with you all.

    Peace Be With you all.