Fresh (as hell) man

from orientation week to taking classes to meeting fellow students to exploring the city, quarter one was a thrilling introduction to uchicago. 

the house system is a good way to meet others. i was especially nervous because i did not know a single person here and was worried i wouldn't be able to make any friends but quickly realized there was a niche for everyone. there were introverts and extroverts, gamers and history buffs, and classic music and edm lovers alike, and everyone in between. luckily woodward house in max p made it easy to feel at home, and i met two of my best friends from this community, denisse and nina. as i was surrounded by such brilliant people, i felt the imposter syndrome creeping in often but brushed it away as i do with all my emotions ;) 

professors are quirky and kind and sometimes savage. dining hall food ranges from muy terible to pretty darn great depending on which of the three you decide to go to. there is also this lifesaver thing called "fourth" meal, a great way to push back delta epsilon proofs and eat food during pre-midnight hours instead. the gothic architecture and staircases everywhere make me feel like a first year at hogwarts. everything sounds so shiny and new to the point that i can't imagine the magic of this place ever going away for me. this is a place i could only dream of all my life and deep inside of me pervades a rare form of happiness i've been waiting to feel for a very long time. 

jumping into lake michigan on the first day of classes

erin and i were having the end of summer 17 existential crisis so we drove 30 minutes for some cheese curds

a warm welcome

crashed a philosophy grad student party but they had la croix, so

kiyannnnn playing pool!!!! <3

botany pond with denisse 

venturing downtown

museum of science and industry

doing laundry for the first time in my life! #housewife

2 AM drying my hair with a t shirt on my head in public AKA committing social suicide on my second week

LAX bro practice

sorority recruitment 

happens every time but i always come back

the queue for study break

should've seen the look on my roommate's face

Halloween orchestra performance - talented denisse & neena

Nadiah and the Med

native foods with denisse! i personally believe that imitation meat should NOT be a thing

could not stop crying after my talented friend's phenomenal performance

what else would we be doing?

acclimating to a new place- one with no familiar faces, a place i had little knowledge of- was uncomfortable, but i'm so glad i came to uchicago.

i came away from my first quarter with friends that made me enthusiastic to come back to hyde park, that took care of me when life was harsh and inspire me to live with kindness and to be a better person. 

i can't wait to return for winter quarter. here's to the weird af conversations, spying on the xc boys at the reg, sneaking into north's fifteenth floor to gaze out at the skyline at midnight, stuffing my face with insomnia cookies every night, and skipping social events to chill with face masks with my roommate instead. 

..

Damn. I really came full circle. I fought to be in charge of my life, and even though i’ve reached a certain position it’s very frustrating to still feel like i have no more control than i used to. 

3 Ancient Chinese Nutrition Practices for Good Health

here in the usa, people describe foods in terms of protein, calories, fat, minerals, composition, etc., the emphasis being placed on the chemical composition of the food to quantifiably determine its nutrition level. nevertheless, the breakdown of food into scientific facts leaves out the individual with all his or her unique constitutions that information was intended for.

this is where the ancient chinese medicine diverges from the western approach: whether a food is beneficial is determined by its effect on the body. rather than quantity, chinese nutrition focuses on quality, including temperature, flavor, and action. it determines the characteristic properties of each food, such as sweet/salty/bitter flavors and how foods act on and move through our bodies.

though western & eastern medicine have the same foundation in science, they differ in approach. chinese nutritional science studies the electromagnetic patterns of food and how these vibrations affect the body. when eating foods that disrupt the body's resonance, it is unable to perform to the best of its ability.

we each have a unique body constitution. by eating foods correct for yours, you are feeding the body what is craves to be balanced. for example, someone with a body constitution that is dry and warm would benefit from eating a diet that brings moisture to the body to cool it down. if he continued eating drying or warming foods, the body would be analogous to a car overheating. this is not one-size-fits-all; each person is approached distinctly and viewed as a whole: mind, body, and spirit.

while a food in the west may be considered healthy in general, it may not suit someone's particular constitution at the time and do more harm than good. we should be searching for more personal options that consider our entire body and mind.
                                                   

1. bring yin and yang into the kitchen

a good chinese diet balances yin (wet/warm) and yang (dry/crisp) ingredients. yang foods - spicy foods, meat, coffee, and wine- heat the body up, whereas yin - typically carbohydrate heavy- foods cool the body down. china's traditional sharing approach to eating means that most meals contain yin and yang equilibrium. this combination helps stabilize the blood sugar, which is a key to good energy and minimizing weight gain.

2. eat seasonally

our rhythmic bodies are in touch with the natural cycles. during the summer, our bodies are more active and focus on cooling from the heat which is why seasonal vegetables and fruits are easily digested. during the winter, our bodies are focused on staying warm so seasonal vegetables like roots are warming and insulate us from the cold.

two thousand years ago, hippocrates said, "let food be your medicine." but in the west, we have forgotten this. in the east, communities respect the cycle of food and how it supports life. chinese medicine prescribes various foods as medicine; garlic to counteract toxins, chillies to dispel cold. the ultimate purpose is to allow chi to circulate evenly around the body.

3. cook raw foods

raw power? nahhhh even at home, we never eat raw salad. while raw food has a higher concentration of vitamins than cooked food, this research ignores the fact that lightly cooking foods makes its nutrients easier for the body to take on. the stomach is unable to digest too many raw foods.

What I Learned from High School

As a senior who recently graduated, here are some of the things that I have learned from high school.

1. Learn as much as you can. This doesn’t even have to be academic. Random talents, like reciting the alphabet backwards or performing magic tricks, are great conversation starters.

2. Staying committed to your values and identity can be difficult, but it's worth it.

3. Do NOT pull multiple all-nighters. Your health is worth more than getting a bad grade on one assignment or test.

4. It's okay not to be happy 24/7. Some days you just need to relax and take some time for yourself.

5. Be brave and learn how to flush toilets for other people instead of immediately fleeing the scene

6. Less can be more. I dropped some of my commitments junior year. I stopped Network and cut back on piano to focus on sports and other clubs. What was the result? I had more time to develop myself and focus on the things I truly care about, like volunteering and spending time with my family.

7. Live to polarize! Ask a stranger to hang out, tell that joke in class. Life's too short, and it’s no fun when you stay in the neutral zone.

8. It's OK to fail. I lost the BYC election as a junior and tripped on the first move of my figure skating test. Failure means you've tried. It's really nothing more than life giving you another opportunity.

9. Be yourself. This can be extremely difficult in high school with its social expectations and unwritten rules. For instance, if you are completely into music but the “cool” kids aren’t and think you are wasting your time practicing for long hours, keep doing what you’re doing and what makes you happy. Sure, you may lose many “friends,” but in the end, the right people who love and support you will enter your life.

10. Remember to challenge yourself, both academically and personally, but HAVE FUN!!

 

Valedictorian Speech

at this point in my life, the only thing that got me through talking in a microphone on stage to about 5000 people was repeating a certain phrase in my head over and over again (s/o to reddit for this tip). in hindsight, that might've not been the best idea. 

anyways, here's a snippet of the speech: Hi everyone! ...I’m very honored to speak here today and I hope that you’re entertained by this speech. I wrote this speech in the spirit of how I wrote everything in high school- started it yesterday evening, lost focus and dropped by several grad parties, snapped back to reality and stayed up all night, took a few internet breaks, and cried. But if at any time you’re bothered by one of my jokes, please feel free to write me a very long, angry letter of complaint. Uh, these can be sent to me at Alex.Balzarano@hotmail.com.Class of 2017, we are about to graduate! High school has undoubtedly been a crazy time that has changed us in many ways. Take me, for example. Four years ago, I was a young kid, full of ideals...and vigor. I used to believe in myself. Look at me now...

But in all seriousness, we have all been through similar struggles- trying to balance work and sports and clubs, taking one for the team in group projects, surviving bomb threats, and trying to avoid dubious minutes on MemBean.

Yet it would be foolish to ignore the good that has come with these struggles. Your personal improvement. The people you cherish. The all nighters, tests, and projects due on the same day only forced you to learn how to manage your time. The people who only hit you up for homework helped teach you what having and being a real friend means.

Take a deep breath. I know you're apprehensive and not exactly willing to part with everything. Especially the people you've met two weeks ago that you wish you'd met two years ago. You'll be okay. We desire forever, but all we get are second chances. Don't waste that opportunity poring over what could've been, nitpicking meaning out of senseless sarcasm, finding little things to argue over. It’s good to be open to life and to realize that most of the things that we fear either will never happen or won't be nearly as bad as we think.

Examining how I used every moment in high school, I don’t regret a thing. Sure, I made so many mistakes on the way, but what I do have is a collection of experiences with amazing people. And I’m sure you do as well. Remember these faces around you because these are the faces that have motivated you, that love you … There’s not one person here today who’s grown into who they are without the help another person. You are here because someone was there for you, whether it was your family, your teachers, your classmates, your teammates, or God or Buddha or Ricky Le. Whoever you prayed to. Someone is supporting you and that should make you feel less alone...

Here is a random quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that kind of fits in, "To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

So, I love you Beavercreek because it is thanks to you that I am who I am today. We have struggled, and because of it, we are all the more stronger.

I would like to end with this speech with a quote by Abdullah Ahmed, who is sitting right here in the front row - "You can take a man from Beavercreek High School, but you can’t take Beavercreek High School from the man."

I should’ve just flunked out of senior year so I could experience it all again. PYSCH!!! We’re out of here! Congratulations and peace out fellow Beavercreek kids! My light is always green.

as with any ending, leaving high school was bittersweet. i could spend all day being at home and summer 2017 was the best summer of my life (so far). it was hanging out at midnight at steak and shake and driving fast at 3am and playing manhunt and 7 wonders and volleyball and reconnecting with some old friends and reading new books. and i cleaned up my house, digging through all my old files and documents from the past four years and organizing them into neat folders, cyberspace boxes packed in nice cyber-storage.

My Father with Cigarette Twelve Years Before the Nazis Could Break His Heart

Featured: one of my favorite poems by Phillip Levine.

I remember the room in which he held

a kitchen match and with his thumbnail

commanded it to flame: a brown sofa,

two easy chairs, one covered with flowers,

a black piano no one ever played half

covered by a long-fringed ornamental scarf

Ray Estrada brought back from Mexico

in 1931. How new the world is, you say.

In that room someone is speaking about money,

asking why it matters, and my father exhales

the blue smoke, and says a million dollars

even in large bills would be impossible.

He's telling me because, I see now, I'm

the one who asked, for I dream of money,

always coins and bills that run through my hands,

money I find in the corners of unknown rooms

or in metal boxes I dig up in the backyard

flower beds of houses I've never seen.

My father rises now and goes to the closet.

It's as though someone were directing a play

and my father's part called for him to stand

so that the audience, which must be you,

could see him in white shirt, dark trousers,

held up by suspenders, a sign of the times,

and conclude he is taller than his son

will ever be, and as he dips into his jacket,

you'll know his role calls for him to exit

by the front door, leaving something

unfinished, the closet light still on,

the cigarette still burning dangerously,

a Yiddish paper folded to the right place

so that a photograph of Hindenburg

in full military regalia swims up

to you out of all the details we lived.

I remember the way the match flared

blue and yellow in the deepening light

of a cool afternoon in early September,

and the sound, part iron, part animal

part music, as the air rushed toward it

out of my mouth, and his intake of breath

through the Lucky Strike, and the smoke

hanging on after the door closed and the play

ran out of acts and actors, and the audience --

which must be you -- grew tired of these lives

that finally came to nothing or no more

than the furniture and the cotton drapes

left open so the darkening sky can seem

to have the last word, with half a moon

and a showering of fake stars to say what

the stars always say about the ordinary.

Oh, you're still here, 60 years later,

you wonder what became of us, why

someone put it in a book, and left

the book open to a page no one reads.

Everything tells you he never came back,

though he did before he didn't, everything

suggests it was the year Hitler came

to power, the year my grandmother learned

to read English novels and fell in love

with David Copperfield and Oliver Twist

which she read to me seated on a stool

beside my bed until I fell asleep.

Everything tells you this is a preface

to something important, the Second World War,

the news that leaked back from Poland

that the villages were gone. The truth is --

if there is a truth -- I remember the room,

I remember the flame, the blue smoke,

how bright and slippery were the secret coins,

how David Copperfield doubted his own name,

how sweet the stars seemed, peeping and blinking,

how close the moon, how utterly silent the piano.

Quotes Collection 2017 Favorites

 “If you think I'ma quit before I die, dream on.” -Drake

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” 

"My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso."

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back."

“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”-John F.Kennedy

“When you really want something to happen, the whole world conspires to help you achieve it.”

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comforted.” -Cesar Cruz

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” -Vincent Van Gogh

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.”

“The Trouble is, you think you have Time.” -My idol Sid

Why I want to be a nurse

“What? Why do you want to be a nurse? ” My parents, normally kind and loving, spoke to me with disappointment. “You'll just be a doctor's helper.”

I'm reminded of the time I was treated for a cracked backbone during sophomore year. What I remember the most are the nurses who stayed with me through the night, the ones who checked up on me every two hours to check my vitals. They were the ones who talked to me, who held my hand when I was afraid of dying, who made me laugh. One nurse, Jessica, even lended me her personal IPad for two hours so I could watch The Little Mermaid to pass the time in the hospital. It doesn't seem like much, but to me, it was the world. I want to impact others the way they impacted me. Doctors build the treatment plan, but the nurses ensure that it's done. Nurses are like the stage crew of a play. Although you may not always see them working tirelessly, they're the ones who push the world forward. They're always there, making sure every moment of every day is going as smoothly as possible.

I realized a big part of a nurse's job is translation and teaching. They have to turn medical language into common language. They need to explain the why's to children, using any frame of reference needed: a child's favorite TV show, books, sports, anything. A nurse is the link between the doctor and the patient. Many times, kids won't listen to their doctor, but they'll listen to their nurse. To me, nursing isn't just about changing bedpans, sleepless nights, or giving pain medications, it's about caring for the patients and comforting them when needed. I care for others in my own life, by forming relationships with the senior citizens, tutoring kids in my community, and promoting acceptance for every culture and creed at my school. I want to be one of those rare few who can say I genuinely love my job. The long shifts and unpredictable situations will be worth it when I go home, knowing that I made a difference in people's lives.