Chicago...Part I

I remember sitting in my social psychology class in college and learning about how people always remember the negative events more than they do the positive ones. The reason being is that impressions are influenced more by negative traits than by positive traits. This is called negative effect and the best way to explain it; is that negative traits are more unusual and therefore are more distinctive, and because there distinctive we tend to remember them (Taylor et al.). With that said I will now begin to explain why I have even brought up this whole topic and what it has to do with Chicago. After spending four wonderful days in the Windy City, reality hit and all good things must come to an end. I really was not looking forward to our flight home, considering how turbulent and frightful our flight going there was. After 2 hours of being up in the air I thought to myself "thank God this is a good flight home", surely I thought/spoke to soon to say the least. I could swear I was in movie. I had never experienced anything like that on a plane! I remember a distinct silence, a peace you could say, one that was interrupted by a screaming woman. A woman shouting for her mother to wake up!!! "Mother wake up...wake up mother...wake up!!!!" She kept repeating and shaking the woman sitting beside her, finally one of the stewardess came to her side to see what was the matter. A few moments later the captain asked for any nurse or doctor on board to come forward and help out with the situation. The whole plane sat in silence as they watched a stewardess and a nurse try to resuscitate her in mid air. I began to pray for this woman that they referred to as Joan, and noticed once I was done that many other people were also praying for her as well. I began to cry because I could hear the pain, panic, and desperation in the daughters voice as she stood over her mother who was now laying on the aisle floor. I could not even begin to imagine what this woman was feeling as I sat and witnessed this entire ordeal. After about 30 minutes we finally landed and paramedics came on board and took the woman to the corridor exiting the plane where they continued to work on her. We were not allowed to leave the plane in order to not disrupt the work of the paramedics. An hour or so later we were allowed to exit the plane with no news as to the woman's condition. Prior to our exit we were constantly being updated on how Joan was doing, now I don't know for sure whether or not the elderly lady survived, but I did hear some airport employee talking amongst themselves about how they worked on her for over an hour and could do no more. I believe this woman passed away. My hope is that she knew the Lord and that her family may find peace in this difficult time. Emotions can have a powerful impact on memories and this is definitely something I will never forget. It is not the only thing I will remember about Chicago, but it is a story that I have told everyone since I have returned.


Maybe my next post will actually be about Chicago, but until then I use this post as a way to pay respect to Joan and my way offering condolences to her family.

From one moment to the next

Yesterday was my first day back to school in over a year! That's right I decided to get a Master's degree, I was excited and nervous about what to expect in this new program, but I thought it can't be that bad! People juggle full-time jobs, family, and school all at the same time! What would be so different or hard for me to accomplish that same goal that many others seek? I left work a little earlier to race to Ft. Lauderdale and make it to class on time, but as I was driving my mother called to inform me that she had some bad news to share with me. Her voice sounded calm, but very serious and I did not expect the conversation to end the way it did. The first thing I thought about was my dog, I was certain something had happen to Puchie, but as she continued she assured me that Puchie was fine and that the news was far more serious than something being wrong with my dog. She hesitated and I questioned her as to what was wrong and she continued on to inform me that her Aunt had passed away in a tragic accident. I could not help but feel awful because here I am thinking about a dog instead of human being. I guess I did not realize the seriousness of the conversation when we began talking. I thought about the last moments that Bertica (that's what we called her) and I shared together, never thinking that new years eve would be the last time I would ever see her again. I did not appreciate her as much as I should have, perhaps because we were never really close, but this has made me think twice about how much I should appreciate those around me. When my phone conversation with my mother ended I began to drive a lot slower and bit more cautious than what I usually do, you see her tragic accident involved a car collision that was not her fault but took her life in flames. I thought about a conversation I had with one of my best friends as I continued driving to school and how her mother always tells us "Mejor que llegar tarde que no llegar" translation "it is better to be late than to never arrive". Here I am flying down I-95 without a thought in the world that anything can happen to me and to some degree nothing can until I am called to leave this earth. Whether I make it late or not at all to my destination does not matter because when it's my time, it's my time! It hit me as news such as this always does we are here one moment and we are not the next, we believe we have so much control when we do not, and we forget how important life is.

Life is nothing and everything at the same time!

It's just hair dye...

So I dyed my hair yesterday and I hate it! I went to the salon to get it cut and to match my natural hair color which is medium brown, I walked out with dark, I mean really dark hair, clearly not what I wanted, or even asked the beautician to do. So I ask myself what can I do about it now? I can either stick with it or re-dye it. Wouldn't it be great if life was that easy, that if we mess up we can easily fix it just like my hair. I could slap on a different hair shade since my dyeing experience has gone wrong, but lets face it, life is not always that easy to fix when we mess up. Through this whole dyeing ordeal I was thinking about an experience I had about a month ago. I had gone to the beach one week day afternoon which is not something I usually do, I called Fernando around 4:30pm and asked him if he wanted to go to the beach once we got out of work, he was a little hesitant to my request, but quickly agreed. Once we arrived at the beach it was pretty desolate with a few stragglers here and there, but more than anything we were enjoying the peace that the beach offered. After a while of laying out and reading my magazine three teenagers arrived and sat a few feet away from us, two of them were male and the other was a female. The two young men entered the choppy waters and the young lady stayed ashore reading a book. Several minutes later one of the two young men approached us and asked us to help him look for his lost friend, Fernando automatically assumed he drowned, but I did not jump to conclusions just yet. We then began to search for help and I started to talk to the young lady who was reading her book, her name was Ashley, I will never forget her! As we waited for rescue to arrive I could see the panic in both her and the young mans face, I could only think to myself what can I do to help? The rescue team finally arrived and dove into the waters to search for this young man, after fifteen minutes of searching they finally found him. I remember Ashley's face when they announced that he was found, her eyes became really bright and her expression became hopeful. I did not leave her side and offered her the only towel I had because it was starting to get dark and the beach was getting a bit chilly. Seeing her face I realized then, that God had placed me on the beach that day for a reason or at least that is what I choose to believe. I told her that God does things for a reason and asked her if she wanted to pray, she was hesitant and stood silent, so I prayed to myself by her side. I prayed for her and her friend that was now laying on the beach lifeless surround by a rescue team trying to resuscitate him. After another fifteen minutes of working on this young man, the rescue team decided to take him to the near by hospital. Ashley and her friend left the beach that day with heavy hearts and grim faces. I watched her walk away as she returned my towel and thought to myself...that's it!!! Fernando and I decided to go to the hospital where they had taken the young man. What could we possibly do there? I felt as though there had to be more we could do to help these young people, when we arrived no one offered us any information on his condition. Finally, we left and drove home in silence from the experience we had just encountered. When we arrived at my home we waited for the evening news to see if we heard anything on that young mans status, and they announce that he had passed away. My prayer for him is that his soul was at easy and that he knew God, he was a young man who's death has impacted my life and I did not even know his name. Its amazing how we really take life for granted, those young people were only teenagers who came to the beach to have a good time, not even thinking that there lives would be forever changed. I realized then that the problems that I think are so big, really are not that big at all, and that there are much more important things in life, than having the wrong hair color, after all its just hair dye.