Ale's First Blog

Ale's First Blog 

Sunday September 10, 2023

My name is Alejandro Juarez A. My ethnicity is Mexican but I was born in New York and then moved to New Jersey. My friends and family call me Ale for short but some people mispronounce it. Some people say Ale like Ginger Ale, the drink but the A is actually more Spanish I guess I can say. But since most of my friends aren't hispanic they don't really have the accent that hispanics have so they say Oli with an O. But I have gotten used to it so I don't mind. But if they are able to say Ale correctly then it's a plus. Since not a lot of people can say it and if people see that one person who isn't hispanic can say it the right way then they can too. I am currently 18 and I'm a college freshman. I'm also the first gen in my family to be in college so there's a lot of pressure behind my back. I used to play soccer for my high school and if I would've known that NJCU had soccer too I would have tried out, maybe I could have gotten recruited. I like to play basketball in my free time since it's a fun sport to just play around with my friends. In this new chapter of my life called "College", there's a lot of new things that I have to learn so I have to pick up the pace. I have to make sure that I'm not falling behind in any of my classes since there isn't gonna be anybody holding my hand making sure that I'm doing all my work or being on time in class since I'm already legally an adult. What I want to major in is architecture. But NJCU doesn't have that as a major so I'm going to do one year in NJCU to get the hang of college and then hopefully transfer to NJIT since they have what I want. If I'm being honest I don't know why I was placed in this class but it seems to be fun and it also seems that it will improve my vocabulary. 

From what I can remember the first time that I grabbed a book was when I was in kindergarten. I remember the first time that I started to read in English my mom was next to me when I started to read a book that our teacher gave us. She was so happy that she called my dad when he was working and made me read a few sentences so that he could hear me. I didn't really think that it was that big of a deal since I was just ready, it was nothing crazy but I guess I'll know that feeling when I have my first kid. I never really liked reading. It wasn't my thing. It wasn't because I wasn't good at it. I guess it was just because I thought reading was boring especially when my teachers started giving me books that had like 300 pages and made us read a lot. My parents and teachers were very supportive when I started to read and write. I guess that's because teachers really want young kids to succeed. Like I said, reading was never really something I like, not my thing. It just bores me but I do read things that are actually important like school or work applications. Or when I have to sign something because I obviously need to know what I'm going to sign. When it comes to learning new things a lot of people like my friends and teachers have said that I'm a fast learner. And I guess I am in just one subject which is Math because it seems so easy for me since you can actually get an answer. Things that frustrate me is when people make something look so easy but when I try it it's so complicated. Like when it comes to learning something new in history or science. Or writing something in some type of different writing.  

Today, I think that my level of literacy is pretty good, not the best but obviously better than it was before. Or from where I started. I use literacy on an everyday basis from the time I wake up till I go to sleep. It gets better everyday since I go out and speak to people who might have a different vocabulary than me. Even at my work we all speak differently and we all have different slang. Which honestly makes it interesting and fun having to guess what it actually means. I am proud of where I am now in my reading and writing. And I hope that in this class it will help me to expand my reading and writing.