As of late I’ve been hunting down scholarships that I qualify for and have a chance of getting. Paying for school and the cost of living adds up rather quick when your in school. So I’ve been asking people for letters of recommendations left and right and so far people are willing to help me out, thanks Victoria. But I realized that scholarships can only go so far for me and I’m extremely limited in the scholarships available to me because I’m special. At the same time there are other students applying to those same limited scholarships and well they blow me outta the water in terms of academics. Sure I have a 3.0 gpa, I’m an active community member, blogger and journalist at two news papers blah, blah, blah. Point is the pipe line gets thinner and thinner especially now with La Crisis and everyone trying to get as much financial aid as they can. That’s another thing too I DON’T QUALIFY FOR FINANCIAL AID. Everything comes outta my pocket, which at the jr. college level isn’t too hard. I have a job, but I’m a full time student. I work weekends and when I’m not in school I work as much as I can to save up for the following semester. However, sometimes that isn’t enough and I end up asking people for help in terms of eating, having  place to crash and things like that. Which brings me to this post, I need money. I realized that I can only write so much BS about myself in positive light that will only get me so far. That and the fact that there’s other students who look better on paper than me and make me look like some high school drop out. BUT I have the unique advantage of being a contributing writer here in the company of some fabulous peeps who are supportive of my endeavors. So I’d figure I’d take my cause to the masses, much like that whole love fiasco I did a while back. So here’s the deal, gimmy money !!! Last year I saved up $800 and I was soo close to actually buying a laptop because it’s the number one thing I need/want. I ended up spending those $800 on school fees and books. Currently I don’t own a computer, the closest thing I have is my iphone, which I bought with left over scholarship money from a year ago and because “it fell off a truck.” I use the computers at school to do homework, google things and keep up with my online actions. However once I’m outta school I’m left computer-less. Sure I can use my phone to write emails, do some light internet browsing and stuff, but a computer would help my life extremely easier in terms of doing homework and blogging of course. So if anyone out there reading this post, ohh I don’t know maybe some aristocrat will read this and sympathize and buy me a laptop, who knows but it’s worth a shot. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain so if you feel compelled to help out a struggling, broke ass college student succeed in his academic career, please feel free to contact me through my blog or through this one. Every little bit counts and if all you can help out with is a burrito from a lonchera, that’s more than enough.
you’re a journalist for two papers and you don’t yet know the proper usage of grammar rules?
you’re shitting me.
I have a full time job and i don’t even have an iphone.
ey !! this is a BLOG and personally I write from the hip and let it flow, rather than worrying about grammar. Writing isn’t about proper form to me, it’s about what I’m writing about and the ideas or messages in them so excuse me for not following strunk & white when I’m writing a quick, five minute post before I go to class. Personally speaking, I chose to ignore the rules of grammar because that’s my way of saying ‘fuck you’ to the ‘system’ that I have to adopt in order to make it ‘this’ society.
How do you know I don’t have a learning disability hmm !?!? Least not that I’m aware of but still. Take a chill pill aight’ !!!
The “System” is there for a reason. It doesn’t take that much effort to push ‘enter’ on your keyboard.
Plus there is better ways to make money, like lying.
you could of said your girlfriend left you, and now you need money for the bus; or something “creative” rather than the boring old truth. 😛 “oh my touch screen on my iphone hurts my thumb, give me a laptop please”
You live in Eastla homes, suck it up.
haha 😛
Haha true that Pancho. Or if you wish to be happy as me, send one dollar to happy dude @ “….”
wah wah wahhhh!
I have to say ERH you blog and do alot considering you don’t have a computer. I didn’t know that. I don’t think people get how insanely hard it is to go to school and blog and be a journalism major and to not have a computer. I was in college in the 90s and it was virtually impossible to be any sort of success at all in college without a computer.
And for those of you that are snarking about the Iphone, he said it fell off a truck, which means he probably got it at a very discounted price and though you may not have an iphone an iphone is no replacement for a computer.
Have you talked to a lawyer or legal aid? You blog, people know about you, possibly someone might help you out in that way.
I don’t see people being too generous in regards to your very real plight, La Crisis makes some people mean assholes. It has got to be some way for you to get your citizenship or at least to get your status changed so that you can apply for internships and jobs. You have got to do whatever you can (which I sure you are, but I think this has really got to be a priority for you in the current economic climate) to get your status changed.
Browne
“I don’t see people being too generous in regards to your very real plight, La Crisis makes some people mean assholes.”
Thank you for bringing that up Browne. We can all bear witness here to one of the examples why it’s so hard for some people to come up from under. ‘Specially when your own supposed bros are doing it to you. I can see why some communities make more progress than others sometimes.
El Random, I always hear a commercial to call and get a free laptop by filling out some survey. I dont have a laptop and need one badly, so it caught my eye.
Yeah, being in college without a laptop sucks big time. I never had one (shite, my mom still had a typewriter after I graduated highschool in 97 and got a comp 4 years ago) and didnt pay it much mind when I had classes at UCBerkeley because I assumed most of the others kids were wealthier than me. But when I attended Cal Poly Pomona everyone by me and my pal Nacho had a laptop, and I realized how valuable and porevalent they are. We’d laugh at each other when everyone else would be pulling their comp out and fighting for outlets. At least I didnt have to lug it around while walking up and down the campus (its basically a big hill and my building was on top), much like textbooks I borrowed or used at the library.
Speaking of my old alma mater, I know they had a student store that has good deals on refurbished laptops. I also got a tweaker uncle who can get you one cheap, I avoid him for karma issues.
BTW El Random: http://www.elacamp.org
Come help us paint one time and Ill write you a good letter of recc if you need one, we’ve helped a lot of folks out that way.
I don’t call it being an ‘asshole’ I call it “a breath of reality”. Random, soon you will be a man (hey at 24 in some countries guys are already men with families y toda las responsabilidades)—but for the sake of this FREE advise I say “when you are grown” there will not be anything for you. No social security, no freebies, no handouts, NADA. You were not born with an endowment or people that can give you all the Bling that you desire. And yes—it is JUST bling—not a necessity. So while you are young, spontaneous and experimental—see how you can get by (like all of us people of color have) with what you got. You got skills, use them! I bet there are so many mom & pop businesses that would barter food or goods for your flyer writing, ad writing, filling out paperwork skills. En serio. One of the persons you wrote about—Ernesto de La Loza, painted the Tropico Cafe mural in Silverlake for materials and a life-time supply of free coffees (whenever he goes there). It took my cousin 10 years to get her BA degree–class by class—because that’s all she could afford. Don’t look at what everyone else has—look at what you have and work it. That is the problem with your generation—you are bombarded with commercialism and you really think you ‘just can’t get by’ without all that crap. It’s just crap! Next year, it will be some other crap. It is a shallow way to think—being identified by clothes and possessions. Buy a typewriter—keep it real. Maybe next time you will come back as a rich dude—but in this life you are raza and all that that entails. Struggling now will prepare you for the future. If this world gets better, than you are ahead of the game–if not, then you will survive the future while others fall. BTW–don’t get married for a green card—that is another horror story that most of us here know and can tell you about.
Brownie ~ Believe you me when I have checked all sorts of loop-holes and I have found nothing. In fact I tend to stay away from that stuff because it’s just horribly depressing and if I read that kinda stuff on a bad day, it’s not a good thing. Anything short of a green card marriage is the only thing that can benefit me. and Like Victoria said that’s not an option that I’m going to explore. In fact, with La Crisis in full affect, things have been getting tighter and harder and people are going back to their homes in Mexico and what not. My BFF and I always talk about what’s the current condition of things and what’s happening. She has made up her mind that if things don’t change for the better, she’s taking off back home to be with her brothers over there. I on the other hand have no one in Mexico and my home is here in Boyle Heights. But yeah, there’s nothing out there to help me outside the DREAM Act.
Art ~ I would love to go and help you guys just because you guys do such great work. I see the work you help produce and I’m like damn, I wanna do that.
Vitoria ~ As always you seem to put things into perspective Master Yoda. Worthy of your knowledge I am not. It’s funny you should mention that because as of late I have been in a state of analyzing my life style and decolonizing my “needs” because I don’t really need anything. As long as I have my doggy I have everything I could ever want in the world. I should hang out more often with you. It’s like I know all the stuff your telling me, but I just need “a breath of reality” to make sure I don’t stray away into the darkside. I’ve bartered food for underwear before so it’s nothing new to me. School just keeps me busy, if not I’d be out there hustlin’ cause that’s what I do best. Hustle.
The only thing I’m mad is that no one got my reference to the Wu-tang clan.
wow dude i had no idea or clue that you were undocumented and that you had no computer either.
Fuck i guess its not cool to ass-u-me 🙂
Dude you say you go to school-junior college full time. Well if money is low and tight, then you gotta cut back to part-time.
Ive been where you are at, and im not that much older than you. But you gotta focus on your NEEDS first then your WANTS.
Ive been wanting to upgrade too but im waiting until i have enough money to pay for it cash and not have to finance it.
Regarding the iphone even if it fell off the truck, it must be expensive for the monthly media plan.
I dont have an iphone and i can afford one (i got a prepaid one- no more than $10 bucks a month and i can text & picture and look at CNN,ABC news and ESPN)
There are used-refurbished desktops or laptops you just gotta look, do your research.
Everyone right now is experiencing hardships with this economic downturn.
I am not undocumented (mexican american) but everyone here in the US of A came from immigrants, well except for the native americans.
I have to pay for my own insurance coverage- medical costs. And my income has decreased by like 30% so far this year (i try not to think about it too much)
They say to think globally and act locally and that is what im doing.
Watching out for myself FIRST then helping my parents and the rest of my siblings and THEN the rest of the world.
-Dont lose hope y echale ganas wey.
As a nurse once told me- “there is a solution to everything except death”
yeah it’s not something I throw out there you know ? In fact I should delete this post before some hate monger tries to get me in trouble with the law. And besides, I only pay $40 for my phone, no more than my monthly bus pass really. I know how things are, but like I wrote, I stand to lose nothing and stand to gain everything.
Big ups to you el random Hero! I’m shocked by some of the responses here! What you are asking for is what every middle class college student gets without even asking for it. Our young people are lacking so much, its ridiculous.
Random, “Star Map” it.
hey Random hero
dont listen to the haters. La crisis has affected regular working folks, students even worse and undocumented probably really blows worse. Good to see that ur doing what u can to get ahead. Anyway, i had money troubles a while back i took a couple months off being a student to work (some shitty jobs), but once i got myself back on track financially i returned to school. and it has been easier since.
Also just so that u can make it easier to donate to you, you should try like a paypal account, so people can donate to you easily for those that have a buck or two to spare.
When I was at Cal Poly I did not have a computer, and as a result, I had to spend almost all day at school trying to get my work done and at the same time starving because I did not have enough money for snacks or food. I got by, but man, I would have loved to have a desktop at home. That would have enabled me to probably do more. Art, I was also at the top the hill, Building 7.
Random Hero, I can spare a benjamin.
Did you know about this one?
http://lucesitas.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/scholarships-for-undocumented-students/
What about a desktop computer?
don’t really have a place of my own to have a place to put it. and yes I know about that. I’m not a graduating high school student so yeah…
i would like an iphone, anyone out there willing to give me one?
i have an old ibook (a bit chueco too) that has been reformatted with lenux. let me know if you are interested.
well this is for eastla how come you dont buy a small car or sell your small car and use the money to get that freakn computer already, its easyese, just put her up on craigslist and pray it ll work and then youll thank me for it
if you dont have enough to buy and sell a car, then sell ur textbooks and just go to google books and read free ones then you will have money there are so many ways to make money out there its limitless and I agree with you why worry about grammar, that person was being so rude