WWW Reflection

For the past four years in high school I have chosen to do community service in Week Without Walls. The first year being because I simply could not afford any trip so I picked Habitat for Humanity. That year, my freshman year, my idea for that week was to go somewhere interesting out of the city, have fun with your friends and bond with other people. Since I chose Habitat for Humanity, I wasn’t too excited about it. Honestly, I was not motivated at all and would have rather stayed at home. The week started off and little did I know how much fun I was actually going to have. Not only fun but also by the end of the week have this amazing feeling of having helped those in need. The next two years of high school I picked the same trip and even I did not know anyone on those trips, I bonded with new people and kept on reliving that feeling of lending a hand for the people who need it more than I do. This final year of high school, my last Week Without Walls, I had the same idea that had come up my freshman year which was to go with my closest friends to a cool trip and have fun. This time for an unknown reason my mother would not let me so I picked another foundation called Vision for Chile to vary a bit. I was not bothered to attend this trip and was actually looking forward to it.

This year, in comparison to previous years was the most touching. I knew exactly what I was doing and who I was doing it for. Usually we would just show up and start constructing things without having any context. With this foundation, the first day and even before the trip we were told where the construction site would be and thats the most important detail. The location of the trip was in La Pintana, Santiago. It is the most dangerous area in the city and one of the poorest too. Houses are broken down, people are getting constantly mugged and robbed, there is no hygene and many other details that make it an unpleasant place to live but I was extremely glad I got to know a place like this.  Going there made me realize a lot of things about myself and about the people in this country. With the context provided by the people at the foundation like who we are helping, why we were helping and why in that specific suburb of the city, motivated me even more and let me come to know that I lived a very luxurious life in comparison to other people in Santiago. People not only in that area of the city but everywhere in the city have no place to stay, no education and no food to eat whereas I am here living a life completely opposite to theirs. Basically, this trip involved a lot of reflection and why I should value the things I have in life because a milion other people do not. Also, my contribution should not stop here. It cannot be that I did the same type of trip in WWW for four years straight and just leave it there. If I have any chance again to get involved in community service, I will not hezitate. I think it was a great decision to have done Habitat for Humanity in 9th grade because if it not for that, I would not have this mindset of caring for others. It was a nice way to spend my trip this last year and is extremely proud and satisfied with my actions towards the people who need it more.

Q1 Final Piece: Camila Vallejo

During this quarter of school during class at times we have discussed about a concept known as first contact. Also throughout the few writings I have posted on my blog, I have always brought this idea up and has been the main topic of them. Being more specific, the idea of first contact usually refers to how we see or react to something or someone the first time there is any type of interaction with that other source. The type of interaction can be anything. It can go from meeting someone all the way to reading about someone or something like an idea in your local newspaper. The last article we have read this quarter is about a very well known woman in the Chilean society and her name is Camila Vallejo. Although she does have some strong points regarding her view of education and how it should be, many people still tend to frown upon her ideals, even though they do not know what it is she is trying to say. This is a perfect example of first contact because anybody can immediately just judge something by looking at only the surface. Like many say, "Don't judge a book by its cover" and Camila Vallejo is a good example on how people portray their first contact on this woman. 

One thing to point out before going on is that I am not writing to defend Camila Vallejo by saying that people instantly criticize her thoughts and ideas. It is just a generic way to demonstrate how people say things so fast about something and don’t even give it a second to think about it again. First contact can be so powerful at times because it sometimes means that there will be no second contact and it doesn’t only happen with one person but its exponential. People will usually think one thing and tell others they know and be suckered in to think the same and it goes on forever, leading everyone to think the same. In my case, I do not really know who Camila Vallejo is but according to the article and people I’ve talked to, not a lot of people seem to like her but that doesn’t mean myself should not like her just because everyone else does but that also doesn’t give me a reason to defend her like I said before. It is such a common tendency to fall into the bandwagon of ideas all because of that first contact someone had with something and personally I think it is stupid that people would not be open to new ideas, including Camila Vallejos’s. Of course, some people who judge something at first contact may be right, but looking at the big picture, first contact is an easy way to find something bad about a person or idea. I say this both in a good and bad way because looking at the ISIS, what good is there to be seen in them? Anybody including myself, including the president of the United States feels that there is nothing good that they show. In the bad way because like I said, something may be viewed and considered bad when in reality, if you gave it a small chance, could turn into something great.

This is a different approach to explaining how first contact works in relation to my previous pieces of writings but also in my previous pieces, I have said that first contact has so many variables. This is only one of the many. Throughout the whole quarter we have seen many different things but the most in depth one has been ISIS. The Islamic State was the perfect way to analyze first contact but I’m glad we got to read this article about Camila Vallejo and write what we felt about it. It is such an important thing to think about when it comes to reading about something or meeting someone for the first time because first contact does not just means that it will be the only contact. Someone should not immediately criticize but better yet get to know something well and being open to new ideas. Once again this is not to defend any person or group, just a general way of seeing things and a different approach to first contact.