Last weekend was busy for the most part, but that would be an understatement. You see, I was in Austin for the annual TJCSGA Convention. Which stands for Texas Junior College Student Government Association. Basically, all the community colleges in Texas who are involved in TJCSGA with their student government get together for a convention that is completely student run, and does a pretty awesome job at that.

Amarillo College this year was president school, and our representative for that was non other than Anthony Najar who happens to be the SGA President of our college also.

But let's begin.

Day 1: Thursday I was early to rise with my luggage all packed and a box full of campaign materials. Although I was worried thinking my luggage would be overweight and I would have to pay a fine, everything turned out to be OK. Making it to Austin was unbelievable considering we were snowed in to go there for Community College day. I feared the same thing would happen again with this crazy panhandle weather. But all was good. The first day was very casual without having to dress up nice. We had icebreakers, massage chairs, our general assemble, and our region meeting. It was pretty exciting to see Anthony Najar as our president for TJCSGA. I was also excited to serve as Region Parliamentarian during our region meetings.

Day 2: Honestly, it's hard to remember what all went on with everything we had to do. Whether it was getting ready for campaigning or going to workshops. There was always something on the table to do. But there was sure a lot of eating going on.

Day 3: This was the day the speech and skits happened. AC decided to do this year a Napoleon Dynamite themed campaign. We had shirts, chap stick, buttons, and gum. I did the speech Pedro did in the movie, Trevor Brown did the Napoleon dance. It was a very memorable moment for me, and a quite funny one too.

Day 4: Sunday. We had our last General Assembly at the Capitol on the House Floor. We also had our elections. The speeches that were given by the board members were very emotional. And we ended the meeting with the new board present, which I am now a part of as AC's Representative for the State Parliamentarian position.

With new things awaiting me next year I find this to be very exciting. And hope to represent AC to the best of my ability.

The Honors Program here at AC is taking in some new directions for the next upcoming academic year. A more variety of classes are becoming available to reach out to more students. And I find this being very much needed. Experiencing being part of the honors program this semester has helped me realize that more students need to be doing this. I've heard stories about students taking classes they don't necessarily need to graduate, but take them anyway since they are apart of the honor's curriculum. So they reach outside of their majors to take classes.

Judy Carter provides an Honors Seminar course that helps plan things for next year to happen with the honor's program. Being currently enrolled in that class I have gotten an amazing opportunity to help out the class and learn some very interesting things about goal setting.

Next year will introduce a select group of students who will serve as presidential scholars, and specific classes are provided for this group as well.

But on to another note, the honors program takes an annual trip over the summer and this year they will be going to England for eight days.

So what I'm trying to say here is that the honors program provides an excellent amount of opportunities to take advantage of with your stay here at AC. Not only does it look good on a transcript, but it really molds you into becoming a wonderful student. And even though this person was already pretty great I know personally a Hanna Osteen who just may be one of the best persons I know, and I'm glad I do. She's a member of the honors program and many other various activities.

Every year this program is trying to do something to engage new students. When people think honors they think hard classes or maybe that their not cut out to do that, but when in reality everybody has a chance and deserves to take a look in joining. So go ahead and do something outside of your comfort zone and do something different.

Because it may just be the one things to lead your life in a new direction!

Normally I would talk about something directly related to Amarillo College, but today I have something different in mind.

Ever watch youtube videos? Or better yet, youtube videos of youtube sensations who have over a million views? Did you know they actually get paid for that kind of stuff?

Yes, up to $300,000 or more a year can be earned for these people.

The fact that they get paid a whole lot is not something I really wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk more about my favorite youtube star Natalie Tran who currently does videos on her youtube channel named communitychannel.

Now, I guess I like this person since my sense my sense of humor is a little odd, but it looks like a million others can say the same thing.


The topics of her videos all pertain to situations we do in real life. Well, most situations we do in real life, some of her videos are just the weird things she does that she thinks we do also. She enjoys, "your mum" jokes, and makes them all the time.

At the end of her video she always does a response to the comments she got in her last video that she made. It can be very entertaining at times.












I never really watch youtube at all very often, but I will go every once in a while just to see the new videos posted by this person. Sometimes I'll get carried away and watch 20 videos, and each video tends to be around 3 minutes. Which leads to an hour of watching videos.

I'm not into other youtube stars, mainly because I don't know any others, and I'm OK with that.

If there is any videos of youtube starts that you watch out there feel free to write them down in the comment section.

Until next time...

Now, I don't know if you were able to tell this about me, but I love books.

I tend to read all the time.

And this semester has been no exception to that.

I've been on the common reader team this year, and I've read a whole lot of books. Which means I have a list to make.

1. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: It took me forever to finally remember the title and not call it, "Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close." This book is by far one of my favorites in general to all the others I have read. The writing just made me want to read more and more. And there were few pages that only had one word on them that made it feel like a page turner, literally and figuratively. Again I don't like to give summaries, just read it, end of story.
2. Blue Hole Back Home: Just read it.
3. Touching History: Ever just read a book and have a sudden fear overcome you even though you knew you were perfectly safe? Yeah, just read it.

One book that caught my interest was the "9/11 Report." it's a graphic novel, and in all honesty I have never read one of those before. It was different, and made me see more than my imagination could create in a realistic way. It's something that I had to have a certain mindset when I was reading it. I would have to say it was very appealing to the eye. I never considered reading graphic novels until I read this one.

But on another note, I did read a book for fun, "13 Reasons Why" it made me think about life, and if a book does that then I'm happy.

Oh yeah, and I won't talk much about the Hunger Games Trilogy, but I've read that and have to say, "Just read it."

And to leave you with something to look forward too here's a list of upcoming blogs from me:

1. Youtube Sensation
2. R U OK?
3. Restaurants
4. AC Honors Rocks!
5. England!
6. TJCSGA State Convention

They may or may not come in that order.

But other than all this I do have to say that this semester is going pretty great. The weather is getting warmer, outdoor activities are starting, and classes are almost over. Of course if you're returning to AC like me next year then you're in for a treat since a whole Institution Theme will take place called "Reconstructing 9/11."

Can you believe it has already been 10 years?

I think the thing I love most about school is just being on campus. Being surrounded by the people who share a somewhat common goal can be an experience of great Awesomeness.

During the coming week as we all know is Spring Break. And of course it is a time to relax, maybe go somewhere fun and just not think about school work for a whole week. With this in mind I feel like I'm putting my life on hold, which is a good thing, because school has been ruling my life these past couple of months. It'll be the time I get to not worry about anything, not have responsibilities, and not worry about due dates.

The thing you're doing right now, right this instant, is... reading.

How did I know that? Well... it kind of makes sense doesn't it?

But yes, we all do it. And if you're like me, you try to read a book a least once a month, and on vacation at least once a week... or less.

I never was much of a reader. Not until I got to college that I decided that I would try to read a book for fun as often as I can.

And the outcome?

I've read at least 40 books since the summer of '09. Which seems kind of a short amount when you think about it, but it's more than the amount I've read in my life before that: 3. Ok... I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I am excluding all those Dr. Seuss books from the list.

So for now, I'm going to talk about books I've read.
I will also not provide pictures of them because as they say, "don't judge a book by it's cover."

This being my second year here at AC I feel that I've done more than I could ever have expected. And no, it's not because I took a bunch of classes through out the semester and even in the summer. What I mean is that I've done everything possible on campus that I feel my free time let me accomplish.

I hope by reading this I inspire you as well to get involved on campus.

If not, just take a look at the banner below. I got first hand experience in the process of choosing this person for this years distinguished lecture.


Now, I'm not trying to "show off," because I detest that quality in myself.

But what I want to say is that there is a heck of a lot to do at Amarillo College. And the best part about it is that all the awesome stuff finds you.

When I started AC my whole mindset was to go to class and go straight home to take that daily nap I always looked forward to.

Then I met Heather Atchley.

Dun...Dunn....Dunnn.

Well, she wasn't the only one I met. It was the whole Student Government Association, but she is the adviser, so you got to know her whether you liked it or not. This organization took me in in a way and didn't let go. I helped out with events, and learned there is more to Amarillo College than just classes.

I slowly began to have a reason to come to AC on my own free will as opposed to coming because I didn't want to waste the money I had already paid for classes.

I met great people, and if you read my last blog you got to hear about some of those people.

I could go on explaining the whole process on how I got to where I am now, but that would probably take up a hundred pages or more, so I'll leave that for when I write a novel.

But to end on a positive note, I can honestly say that I am happy with what my college experience became, and it's still not over.

I can walk around campus and almost know everyone I see, at least faculty wise.

Life is great!

I'm not saying you have to get involved, because many of us live very busy lives. But if you happen to have the free time, join an organization, stick with it, and have fun. You only get to do this once.

We all have them. Some have more than others. But I'd say they are what make life worth living. What are they?

Friends!

If you didn't get that from the title. Then there you go, I was talking about friends.

I, like most people, have friends that surround me through my days at AC, my nights out, and just about wherever I happen to be.

The people you see here are just a few of whom I spend my time on Earth with. Whether it's going to the movies, going bowling, or just hanging out. I can always count on them to be there for me. But that's enough of the generic stuff I'm sure you've always heard about people and their friends.

It seems like there's always a friend of mine around the corner. Especially since the school year started, I seem to have met a lot of people I don't ever want to lose contact with.

Now it's time for a story, if you're interested that is.
You see...
There's this dude named Bryce Robertson, last spring semester I never talked to the guy. I knew who he was because he's the brother of a friend of mine and I had him in a class, but other than that I never really expected to ever talk to him. Ever!
Over the summer he became a part of the Student Government Association as their Treasurer, and I was their Parliamentarian, but still, I never talked to him very much over the summer even during our weekly SGA meetings.
Then school started in the fall, and it turned out we had all our classes together. So I was kind of forced to see him everyday.
Again, I'm not the best at starting a conversation or talking for that matter.
But since we had our classes together, and were part of the same student organization we saw a lot of each other and eventually became friends.

If someone would have came up to me last spring semester and asked me that we would have been buds and hang out all the time, I probably wouldn't have believed it.

Point of the story?

That you never really know where you're gonna find a friend.
So the next time you're sitting in class next to someone you don't know, go ahead and say hi to them. Because it could easily be the funniest person you'll ever meet.

Has anyone ever told you in your life to, "stop and smell the roses."
Well... that's not exactly my point for this blog, but there is a point though. It's full of point actually.
But instead in this situation I want you to, "stop and read the posters."

*I feel the need to put things in quotation marks because I feel it gets the point across more*

But back to the point.
If you ever find yourself walking around Amarillo College, because you know, that's where our classes are at. Then I'm sure you've seen a poster or two, or three around.
Those posters actually have a lot of work that go into them, and deserve to be noticed.
So go ahead and, "stop and read the posters."

I personally know two of the people who do most of that advertising design work that seems to be oh so pleasing to the eye.

So sit back and relax, and let's get to know these girls!

Before I say much there's a few things you have to do.

1. Click on this website link http://www.theasiaproject.com/main.html (or you may have to copy and paste it to your browser).
   
2. Click on the word "Gallery."
   
3. Click on "Video"
4. Then just watch a couple of the videos or all of them if you prefer.

Now, if you like what you saw I encourage you to keep on reading.

You see, I saw some of this poetry when I was in Houston a couple of months back. It was really good. And now, if you've been reading the posters around campus you know that The Asia Project will be here for a joint event Amarillo College is having with WT that will take place at the Party Barn at 7PM this Monday.

They are really great to hear live. And if you happen to have someone special in your life they would for sure appreciate you taking them to this event.

There will also be another slam poet Fire and Rain.

I've never been a big fan of slam poetry, mainly because I never really listen to any of it. But from what I've heard from these slam poets I really enjoy it a lot.

It's going to be a great night if you happen to make it out there on Monday. You won't regret it, but I'll let you be the judge.

There's not much more I can say about this subject other than if you didn't check the website out of The Asia Project, then do it now, or just be surprised on Monday.

Hoz Fierro, yeah... that's my name.


I guess the whole logical thing to do here is to say something about myself, or something of the sort.
I usually try to sound smarter than I am, and that's probably my biggest goal whilst doing this blog.
Get it? I used "whilst" instead of "while," I at least think that makes me sound smart, but probably not.
Now let's get into talking about something actually important: Me. Again, I joke. Amarillo College is more important.
But I will be telling you a few things about myself, like how I'm just a small town kid born and raised here in good ole' Amarillo, and that's all you need to know.
Of course, you'll learn more as time goes by.
Now, that thing to left is nothing to fear. It's actually me in the Badger suit! I actually think I look more attractive with the suit on, but that's a personal matter.
The badger is a pretty cool animal though.
As my friend Eric Ross likes to say, "...it's a very fierce creature."
I'm sure I'll be making references to the badger constantly in the coming months.
And just so you know, I'm not always wearing the badger suit. There's someone else who does that stuff on a regular basis. I just did it that one day and took a picture to remember the moment I got to be a fierce creature.

I guess to end this blog I can tell you a little more about myself.
I'm very involved on campus. If you've ever been to an SGA meeting on Wednesday at noon in the Oak Room on the second floor of the cub then I'm sure you've seen me as the Parliamentarian of that organization. I really enjoy it, and always know what is happening on campus.
Other than that I'm also a member of the Math Honor Society here at AC. What can I say? Math is awesome, and fun. If it weren't we wouldn't have many engineers or math teachers. And there's a lot of those around.
There's much more I can say, but I'll refrain from doing so until the next blog.
And in case you don't believe it, my real name is Hoz. I've had it since I was born! I'll probably even have the name when I die.

But that's stuff to say in another blog, at another time.