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Okay so 2010 has come and gone and you may be wondering what has become of Dena and Adonai in 2010. Or you may be thinking “Who in the heck is Dena and Adonai and why did you forward this email to me, I don’t know these people!” Either way you are about to find out (well if you didn’t delete the email that is)
THE YEAR OF MANY LANGUAGES
This year was my year of languages. In the Spring of 2010, I took a semester of Spanish, (Amor es muy mal or Love Sucks!) I have sung the Spirit of God in Korean, I sung Silent Night in German (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) I have tried to learn the language of Math (quadratic formula= -b to the square root of b squared minus 4ac divided by 2a. ) I am in my church choir and have attempted to learn the language of music. (the only thing I know for certain in that respect is that I am an alto) And in the fall of 2009, I took a business law class, so I know the basics of law (stare decisis-the doctrine of precedent. That cases that are decided in a court of law will be used as a basis for deciding cases in future litigation) and the most difficult of all these languages-Math-hands down!!!
AN HONORABLE YEAR
This year I was bestowed with many honors. I made the Dean’s List-twice. I have made the Ralph Bunche Scholars Program. Ralph Bunche Scholars is an Honor’s program at Los Angeles City College (LACC) and UCLA is aligned with the program (in fact, they have a whole building named after him on their campus) so people who complete the program are pretty much guaranteed admission to UCLA. However, people have used the program to get into other UCs and private colleges including Occidental. [Given that Occidental helped produce Barack Obama, the most corrupt and vile human being to ever grace the White House, it makes wonder what they are teaching people there. Then again they also helped produce my
brother, so they must be doing something right.] I am a bit worried my Honor’s status might be compromise by Math 125 grade. I have never in life prayed so hard for a C. Stayed tune to see how that turns out.
NIGHT CLUBBING
No, I am not some party girl dancing the night away at some disco with bad electronica music. This past semester I was elected the President of the Entertainment I.P., (Intellectual Property) Club. All of our meetings took place in the evening time, so that meant picking up Adonai from his school, going back to mine, attending the club meeting or getting things ready for an event and then going home, doing our homework, get ready for bed and start it all over again. It was not easy but we pulled it off.
I was also a member of the Legal Association at LACC. My good friend, Andrea Bari, was the President. We worked together and put together some really good events. With our joint efforts we created the most successful semester for our clubs. Andrea was pivotal in getting the El Camino Theater for our last event which was a panel of entertainment lawyers. I was able to get two of the speakers to come and attend. I was able to get the funding for food, I was also the person responsible for collecting and asking the questions for our panelists. I couldn’t have done any of it without the help of Andrea, Karen Pinkston (EIP’s vice president) who helped in getting the questions passed out and collected and Sharon La Gue (EIP’ssecretary, and an awesome one at that!) who helped me with all last minute details. Sharon calculated we had about 130 people come to our event. It was a great success due to our team effort. It went so well that one of the panelists recommended me for an internship. I am waiting to hear back from that.
Our club advisor, Wilheim I. Vargas, the Chair of the Law Department said it was the most successful semester that either club had ever had. It was great to be a part of it. I really enjoyed everything we did, including the UCLA tour which Karen put together.
SENATOR LEICHNITZ
In 2009, I applied for a Senator position with the Associated Students’ Organization (ASO) the student government of LACC. I was denied because of my conservative views. Even though I had been promised a position, I was later told they were postponing it, only to have it go to someone else entirely due to the bigotry by the ASO president of the time. Given that I am Leichnitz though and we are not quitters, I came to the conclusion, if I didn’t try again, the bigot would win. He wasn’t going to win. So I applied for another position. It was the Senator of Disabled Student Affairs.
After I applied, I found out my friend, Sharon LaGue, was also applying for the same position. So I was going to apply for the Senator at Large position instead because I felt Sharon would do a better job for the Disabled Students than I would. However, when she backed out, I decided to go for it after all. So I have my interview. I am told to come in the following Tuesday to see if I will get elected. I am asked what has been my greatest accomplishment so far and I tell of how I was held back during my K-12 academic career because no one ever believed I was smart enough to achieve anything. I further explain how I went from that place to being an Honor’s student here at LACC. I wasn’t too impressed with my speech but later Andrea would tell me how it touched him. He called it “sad but empowering.” That meant a lot. Mostly, because I still think I am such a lousy orator but maybe I have better oratory skills than I realize.
I was confirmed a Senator for Disabled Student Affairs. I had overcome the bigot’s hatred! I had won! So I set out to do my job. I have devised a survey for disabled students to see what is needed for them, what LACC is doing well, what they are failing in. I am trying to come up with a fundraiser for the Office of Special Services (OSS) that will help with making sure disabled students have the services they need. So keep your calendars open during the last couple weeks of May because D-Day is coming!
Don’t know if I will ever become a real Senator but being an ASO one (even for 2 weeks) has been interesting to say the least.
FAITHFULLY YOURS
My faith in Jesus Christ has grown as well. During the summer I did 30 days with God on Facebook where for thirty days all my statuses were directed to God. I was not allowed to talk about anything that was not directly about my relationship with God. It was truly something. I also put responses from God as well, but they had to be what I really thought he would say in the situation. Doing this little experiment my love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ intensified. I could feel them really work within me.
Also in 2010 I joined the Wilshire Ward choir. I also sang in the Stake Choir as well. I remember as I was singing the Spirit of God in Korean, I felt the Spirit so powerfully. It sounded ten times more beautiful than we had rehearsed it as if God and his angels themselves were singing along with us. It was awe-inspiring.
I also taught a class at our ward. It was called “Preach My Gospel.” The class is based on our church manual by the same name. It is all about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. I really do love teaching and passing on the knowledge I have learned to others. I try to use humor in my lessons while putting everything in layman’s terms. I have been told by others that they like my teaching style and that they learn a lot from me in my class. I do think there is a teacher in me just dying to get out but considering I have already worked for LAUSD once, I don’t ever see that happening again. However, I did teach the Constitution online in 2009 and I think I will do that again. That was something I truly enjoyed. Given the state of our nation, it is going to be imperative that we all learn the Constitution, in order to restore our rights that are being stripped from us.
Everything I have accomplished this past year has been because of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I couldn’t have done any of it without them. God has blessed me so much this past year that there were times I would look in the mirror and wouldn’t recognize the face looking back. Not in a bad way, but in a very amazing way. It is as if I was truly being sculpted in the image he had of me and it was more magnificent than even I could imagine. I began to see in me the things he always saw. My intelligence, my beauty, my heart (for others but especially him), my strength. Whereas, I always saw failure, he saw success and brought it forth. Whereas, I always saw my weaknesses, he saw my ability to overcome life’s obstacles and removed the hurdles from my path. Whereas I saw myself as never smart enough, he saw my thirst for learning and knowledge and then showed the world how wrong they had always been. My beauty, well that one I am still working on but I smile a lot more when I look at my reflection than I ever did before.
2010 was definitely a journey I will not soon forget. I met many amazing people. People like Andrea, Karen, Sharon, Shanan Sung (from my English 102 class) and Diana Solis (from my Math 115 class). Of course, no one is more amazing than my little one, Adonai.
IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD
Adonai and I have had a lot of ups and downs this year. The year started off rather turbulently but things have worked themselves out. Our bond has deepened over this last year. Academically, he has done tremendously well. At this stage, he is only supposed to read 56 words per minute, he reads at 136 words per minute. His comprehension is also high. He needs to work on his writing but even that has shown a marked improvement over the past year.
He will be tested next year for the gifted program. He should be able to get into it. Of course none of this is a surprise to me. I knew at three months old, that my child was a genius. Everybody thought I was crazy because I said he showed advanced problem solving skills at that t ime [He learned how to hold his own bottle by then. Though he wasn’t strong enough to hold it in his hands, he figured out if he placed it on his wrist and then lifted his arm up to his mouth and if held the bottle with his other hand he could drink. Do you know any other 3 months old who can do that? I don’t think so!] , but I finally get to say, “See I told you so!” Now I got proof baby, that I was right all along!
Sorry about that, just a mother’s pride talking there for a moment. Next year will be a big year for Adonai. He will turn eight and will be able to be baptized (we are still working on that) and will be able to join the Boys Scouts. He is growing up so fast. I am proud of my little man. He is growing into a wonderful, caring person.
ON THE PERSONAL SIDE
There is not much to discuss on the personal side, actually it has been an utter failure. The closest thing I have had to a date is when Andrea and I went to the Mexican restaurant across the street from the school. It has sort of become our tradition, at the end of every semester we go to this little Mexican restaurant and celebrate being one semester closer to graduation.
Though I hate being alone, I am slowly becoming to accept this is my fate. That I will probably never be married. It is not an easy thing to come to terms with. Accepting I had cancer was a cakewalk compared to accepting that I may never find anyone who loves me. Well that is not exactly true, I have found someone who does love me, he just doesn’t want to marry me. His name is Kenny and we have known each other for years. He is a wonderful man and a great friend. In fact, he got me through a trial in my life this past year that I wouldn’t have survived without his support. When my life started falling apart around February, all I could think of at the time was that I needed to call Kenny. I knew he would help me. He did. I think that trial deepened our relationship. He went from never even using the word love in regard to me to being the first one to say before hanging up. Of course, there were stages in between but I am wearing him down. LOL
Even so he is in New York, I’m out here and it would sure would be nice to have a date once in a while. Oh well, I have gone four years without one, I guess I can do five. Que sera sera.
WE ARE FAMILY…OR NOT!!!
This summer proved to be a rather difficult one, after 40 years of wondering, after 40 years of not knowing, I found my biological family. I met a woman on Facebook and when I found out she helped people to find their biological families, I asked her to find mine. She did. I found out my biological mother was still alive. I was one of 7 children. A lot of things matched up with what my adoptive mother told me. Mom told me that my birth mother didn’t keep any of her children. My half brother would confirm that. My Mom told me of a story (which sort of clenched it for me) that my birth mother was adamant that I was Swedish or something. My birth mother was adamant that I was Silician. Anyway, I talked to my oldest brother and things seemed to go well until I sent him my picture, then I never heard from him again. As for my birth mother, she didn’t want me to contact her. Saw that coming from a mile away. Figured I didn’t really lose anything and this way I sort of know. Oh well, I already have the best family around doesn’t matter if these strangers don’t want to be my family. It is their loss, not mine.
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