Category Archives: Blog Post

I appear within seconds,
And just like that I’m gone.
I leave destruction where ever I go,
Nothing but emptiness and debris in my trail.

In the blink of an eye,
I can uproot your houses
And shatter your worlds.
All with the whirl of my winds.

I’m more dangerous than a hurricane,
And stronger than an earthquake.
My casualties break records,
And my name strikes fear in your hearts.

I’ve always been drawn to photography, ironically more as someone who works with words, a writer. I’ve always found it intriguing to be able to tell a story though a photograph…to skip the words I see, speak and write so often and aim directly for the soul with an image. Photojournalism is a full combination of all the things I love about words and photographs cleverly intertwined.

I officially started studying photography in high school, but never took any college courses. Not because I did not want to, but because my school made it difficult to take them without changing my major and I could not bear to skip my creative writing courses 🙂

I’m still figuring out what kind of photographer I am, so for now I shoot whatever catches my eye. Below I posted a few photos I took during a recent trip to Los Angeles. These photos have also been submitted for my one of MDC’s annual Arts and Literature Magazines. **Fingers Crossed**

Bright Nights

Guitar Dreams

LA Speed

Miles Away

(I’d love some feedback)

❤ Jenn

My  Professore di Italiano made a good point in class the other day that left me thinking…He said that the world has become so hi-tech that we, as humans, have forgotten what it feels like to have basic contact with each other. You can see it in restaurants, movie theatres or even walking down the street. We tend to shy away from each other, using the "strangers" line as an excuse to avoid any kind of a connection.

If you stop and think, when was the last time you went to the movies and didn’t leave an empty seat between yourself and the unknown person next to you?

It seems that with every new development or "app" on the web on for our cell phones, the more one-on-one contact we lose with each other. Not only with people we don’t know, but with our loved ones as well. It’s like people have completely forgotten what the world was like before cellphones. How we communicated with each other.The new generation refers to that time or way of life as "living under a rock". Like anything before the early 90’s was a barbaric way of living. The horror! How could be miss a call or worse a text message!?

As we advance more and more technologically, things like newspapers are slowly losing their merits. The more onlines interaction and facility we have, the less hands on seems to matter. People don’t even buy and read books anymore…they download it directly into their iPods. Wow. Is this something we really want? To forget how to interact with each other?

Well…is it???

Faith is a knowing that resides deep in your soul. No matter what religion you believe in or what you question in life, there is always one thing that you always seem to have an endless amount of faith in. Whether it’s another persons’ love, yourself or something greater than us all. Faith is still present.

As someone who has known quite a bit of loss in her life, I’ve always found that feeling at the very deepest part of my soul to be the best comfort. My faith lies in knowing that someone is always watching over me. This is something that I’ve never lost, not even through the darkest times of my turbulent teens.

I suppose I owe this feeling to my mom, for an answer she gave a curious child who asked about death. It was around the time my Great-grandmother passed away, I asked my mom where she went and she told me that even though people die and I can’t see them anymore they are ALWAYS with you. She said that they’d watch over me as I slept. So, naturally, I believed her without doubt and took her answer literally. I used to think that their souls ACTUALLY slept on the floor next to my bed every night. This belief, made the loss I experienced in my childhood a little easier to accept.

I know that many children take answers that adults give very literal, but even as adult, I’m grateful to have had something to wrap my mind around that helped take away my tears. Now, at 22, when I lose a loved one I find comfort in knowing that a part of them is ALWAYS with me as a part of me is ALWAYS with them.

Everyone needs to find their faith, no matter what it is that comforts them. Faith can heal and give you hope. So, find your faith…you’ll know it by the feeling.

As an aspiring journalist in Miami it was only natural that I stumbled into the fashion world as a wide-eyed writer in early 2005.
Now, four years later, it’s one of my favorite times of the year. As it approaches, starting next week, I find myself day dreaming of the white tents…walking in 4 inch heals on the beach…and the new styles.

I’m doing my research on the designers I don’t recognize, as always trying to be one step ahead. So stay tuned for the updates!

People always say that throughout your life, everyone has several major changing points, milestones if you will. I’ve always heard about it, but I never felt a change in me until now.

It is the strangest thing to approach the exact same situations with a whole new outlook. It’s a new perspective in every way. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel like me, I’m just different now. A bit more confident, I feel more determined and have stopped second guessing myself for the first time in my life. It’s funny too because even as my habit to question myself kicks in, I automatically reject it. No doubts.

With this new revelation within myself and my upcoming graduation from MDC, I’ve decided to go to Art School instead of a regular university. I mean, I’ll still write, after all it is something I love. But I’ve always been drawn to the arts as a whole. I have a soft spot for Photography and Interior Design so you never know. So, I figured I could get a BFA and not just a BA.

It’s nice to feel this secure with myself, to be honest I was feeling rather lost not too long ago. As if I had lost touch with myself, with the essence of me. Now, I’m ready to do with my life whatever I feel is right for me and see where it takes me.

When I first fell in love with him, I was just a child. A hopeful and determined little girl with dreams of forever. He was more than just my first love, he opened up my world to all these emotions and intensity I didn’t know I had in me. He taught me how to be more open and affectionate. I learned how to express my love with hugs and kisses, not just words and letters. Our love story was filled with soul shaking passion, intensity, pain and obstacles.

Over the next 5 years, give or take, I grew up a lot. I made tons of mistakes and learned what it felt like to be forgiven and loved no matter how hurtful my mistake had been to him. In return, I learned to be the same with him or at least I tried. To be forgiving and to love unconditionally. A lesson that broke down my walls and shook my very being to the core. I still feel some resistance when it comes to forgiving and letting go.

The love I had for him was so intense that it brought tears to my eyes when we touched because I knew that in those moments, I would do anything to keep him. But, like any love that blooms in youth, our biggest obstacle was yet to come. They say that one of the milestones young love has to endure is growing up and growing together. For us, it has been the most difficult.

As we grew, we began to see that the paths we were chosing were going in opposite directions. He wanted to settle down, to start a family and I wanted to explore. I wanted to travel and to learn and to find myself in this great big world. Exploring new places ,cultures and crafts is something that makes my soul smile. But loving him as I did, I tried to modify my wants to fit his world. Looking back, that was my first mistake.

A little over a year ago a wrote a themed article about the Coconut Groove scene in Miami for the city guide "Hungry? Thirsty? Miami" which was published in 2008.

This time I’m writing a few restaurant reviews about Los Angeles food spots I like to visit whenever I’m in town. These spots are personal favorites that your local tourist may not think to stop in and eat at, but thanks to the new city guide, everyone can enjoy some of LA’s hidden hot spots and eat like a local.

Besides my favorites, I’m always open to suggestions.

Okay…quick recap:

Last semester for my Public Relations class, our class project was to get in touch with a local non-profit organization and create a campaign linking their event/service/product to MDC and showcase it at our class workshop. My team decided to work with Imagine Miami and Service for Peace in promoting their new "Adopt Your Block" program. 

Being the over-achievers that we are, we decided to have a separate event in order to promote the campaign. We felt that in order to properly promote the AYB program, we needed to actually Adopt a Block. So, we adopted mine and were the first people to participate in the program making it the "Pilot" for future programs. 

After the semester was over, I stayed in touch with the Directors at Imagine Miami and Service for Peace. I even collaborated with Service for Peace on my coverage of Miami’s MLK Day of Service. Now, I’m embarking on a new challenge with Imagine Miami.

I’ve joined the Planning Committee for Imagine Miami’s annual summit and will be working on its Marketing and Public Relation strategies. Tomorrow, during my first meeting with the committee, I will be sharing my ideas and tactics for the summit and getting their feedback. 

I’m very excited about this project, but needless to say…quite nervous. 

 My first assignment made the cover! The article is below…

In response to President Obama’s call to service in celebration of 2009’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Miami Dade College students teamed up with local volunteers on projects all over the city.

On Thursday, January 15, 2009 at the MDC Inter-American campus, Miami held an official kick-off in celebration of Dr. King’s 80^th birthday. Presenters included Barrington Irving, the youngest person and first African American to fly solo around the world when he was 22 years old, and members from participating local organizations.

 Throughout his speech, Irving shared his fears and aspirations with an audience full of MDC students and managed to hold their attention. That having been quite a feat on its own, he went on to explain how at the age of 21, he created and pioneered a non-profit organization called Experience Aviation.

 Irving not only paved they way for young pilots and entrepreneurs everywhere, he also showed the world that age was truly just a number.

While the national holiday fell on Monday, January 19, 2009, Miami was, as always, one step ahead.

On Saturday, January 17, 2009, MDC students from all campuses volunteered to work on various projects located from Overtown to Homestead.

 One of the first volunteer sites was at the Yvonne Learning Center in Little Haiti, where the event began with an empowering opening speech by Joe Seager, a local activist and attorney during the Civil Rights Movement. The volunteers, being lead by Service for Peace and City Year, worked on five projects including a street clean-up, planting of gardens in and around the school and a global scrapbook.

 Other projects throughout the city included a clean-up of the Miami River behind an elderly center in Little Havana, the beautification of a local canal in Carol City and the re-vamping of Liberty Square, the oldest government building in Miami.

 When asked why she choose to volunteer, Raquel Casadilla, an MDC student said, “being here and meeting people that have done service all around the world, shows me that I can do my small part too.”

 Across the nation, in celebration of this national day of service, there were over 12,000 projects and millions of volunteers in memory of Dr. King.

 During Miami’s MLK Day of Service, residents of all ages, backgrounds and religions came together for one purpose…to celebrate change.