To this day technology has advanced tremendously. The advancement of new technologies has helped make life easier and more convenient. I remember the first time I had seen a cell phone, my mom was the only one in our family with one and it took up half the space in her bag. Now everyone in my family has a cell phone, and the size and advances to the cell has changed as well. Evolving from the cell is text messaging, now instead of calling people we can write what we had to say and send it in a form of text. There are also sites such as facebook and myspace that make it easier to keep in touch with old class mates or friends. Here you aren't physically in person talking to someone and having a conversation, on these sites your pretty much typing a short message asking them how they've been.
I feel that with these advancements in technology and communication people, mostly in my generation forget or lose the importance of appropriately communicating with other people in person or by voice. I think that because we are provided with text messages, aim, or facebook, we lose the experiance of having a one on one conversation with others or group of people. Myself personally, I'd prefer to receive a call from a friend I havn't spoken to in a long time than messaging them over text. I feel that it's not as real. Also, another big thing for me is that I wouldn't want my children to have these habits. Constantly my grandparents, aunties, and uncles are sending me things from home and I'm grateful that they're taking time to think of me and want me to succeed in everything that I encounter. So I always make sure I either call or send a card, thanking them. I feel its more appropriate and personal doing it that way than if I were to send a text or not tell them at all.
As far as our blogs this year, it's an easy way to share with other people what you've been up to and what you're feeling. I was able to share pretty much how my whole first year of DivisionI soccer season went. Although it wasn't to detailed I was cautious of what I wrote. I didn't want too much written down about me personally. I think these ways of communications over computers are and can be very dangerous at times when not aware of the information you display. As far as the blogging, pretty much anyone could find our sites and learn a little something about us personally. Overall I believe it's important to keep in touch with family and friends on a more personal level than just fast text or instant messages.

NC

Soon it came down to the last game against Northern Colorado to decide if we'd make it into Conference; so all we basically had to do was get a win or at the least tie. I remember being extra nervous for this game because a couple days before our best player had quit the team. She played defense, our defense line up was usually two central defenders and then two outside defenders, so she'd usually play central from me. Losing her was a big downer on our team but we had to play no matter the circumstances. So the for the game instead of having four in the back we played with three and to add to that all three of us were freshmen.
Unfortunately we ended up losing 1-0 and that was the end of my first DivisionI soccer season. Overall I enjoyed myself, being able to compete on a collegiate level has always been a dream of mine.

AWAY games

As our season had come to a start we began to have games on the road as well. Traveling was always hard because we weren't allowed to bring our whole team. On a traveling roster we were allowed to bring eighteen of our twenty-four players so that week we'd find out who was traveling and who wasn't. Luckily, this year I was fortunate enough to travel on all our away games. Traveling about every other weekend was hectic at times but fun. We got to eat for free, have our own beds, and travel to different states. The hardest part was getting up in the morning around 4:30 am catching the bus down to phoenix. Going on these trips I learned that these away games were very important because it's that much harder to perform your best after traveling all day and having only so much time to recover.
One of my most memorable away games was in Utah. We played Weber State and I remember it being really really cold, we warmed up in our sweats and poofs, and it was still freezing. To add to that in the game we could only wear our uniforms and I remember the whole time my hands and feet being so numb. When I went to throw in the ball I didn't even realize I had the ball in my hands and my feet were so cold whenever I'd kick the ball it'd hurt. Then to add to that about half way through the game it started to snow for a little while. This was one of the hardest games I had ever played in my life.

SCHOOL

So finally the first day of school came along. I was at most pretty excited but scared at the same time. The classes I had were Computer Intro, Math, Phsychology, and Politics. A regular day for me would be two classes during the day, practice, then wieghts, and then study hall. All this piled into a short amount of time was very overwellming for me. Although there werent that much classes I felt rushed and sometimes overworked. Being an athlete in college was so much different then being an athlete in high school.
Finally it was the start of season and our first game I was pretty nervous. Although I knew I wasnt going to get alot of playing time, I just knew that if I did get the chance to play I wanted to do my best. Well for the most part, yah I didnt get to play a lot that game but I was able to get in for a few minutes and it felt good to be out on the field playing against other top players in the Division 1 soccer.

Pre-Season

Well after that disaterous fitness week . We headed up to Pinetop , which is about two hours away from Flagstaff. We stayed there for about a week and trained two times a day. Those were one of the most intense trainings of my life, like every morning I dreaded getting out of bed because my body was in pain plus on top of that for some reason when things get hard you start missing your family even more. Because I was new to the team I didnt want to show that I was struggling emotionally wise, so almost every night we were up there I would use my shower time as my break down moments, that way no one could really tell that I was crying. I guess it was just really difficult for me to be in a different environment, but every night I would call them and I would also talk to my coach from High School and he would help me stay focus and to just enjoy my time playing the sport that I love.
Finally the week of hell was done and over with. We got back to Flagstaff and now it was time to move in to the dorms. This was another hard time for me because while everyone else's parents came up to help them move in, I once again was family-less. So that day seeing everyones family just reminded me of my own family and once again I broke down, but this time in front of everyone. At first I felt stupid but all my teammates parents were very nice and helped comfort me.

GOing to AZ

To start off leaving the Island was a big step for me. Because I was going to join the NAU soccer team, we had to come up a little earlier than the rest of the students, this not only took away part of my summer, it meant catching three different flights to get to my final destination, Flagstaff. Well actually it was two, because my flight from Phoenix to Flagstaff got canceled; so instead I had to bus it up which meant me arriving in Flagstaff at 1:00 am. After that I got picked up by my future teammates, whom which I had never spoken to ever in my life, and having to stay at their house for three days was difficult for me. Difficult, because I was mostly homesick and the idea of me being on my own scared me; like I always knew I would go away for school but it doesn't really get to you till that time comes. Well the day of our fitness test came along and we were expected to pass all of it. Our first one was five 120 shuttles in 45 sec. and the second one was the beep test up to level twelve. Well lets just say I pretty much bombed it!.. I only made three of the shuttle runs within the expected time and as for the beep test I only got up to level FIVE! Thats like ...really bad. But after all only one person passed both tests!

INTRO

Today is February 19, 2008.

At this very second I'm sitting in English 105, trying to create a blog. I don't know much about blogs and haven't really read or payed attention to these types of sites. So when presented with this assignment I wasn't quite sure what my blog would be about.
Eventually I chose to write about growing up in Hawaii and the transition to Arizona. I thought that this would be interesting because I'm coming from a place that's surrounded by water and lots of warm weather, to a place that's land locked and actually has distinct seasons.
So to start off growing up in Hawaii was pretty much like a permanent vacation. If I felt like going to the beach, at most it was about a 20 minute drive to the nearest beach. If I felt like getting a tan, any day of the year I could just lay out in my yard to soak up the sun.  From kindergarden to fifth grade I went to an Public school near my house called Mililani Elementary School, from sixth to twelfth grade I went to a private school called Mid-Pacific Institute.  For the most part I played sports most of my life mainly soccer and softball.  For seventeen years this was the way of life that I knew of, family, school, sports and the beach, and so this transition from my safety net, the "Rock" to a place with I had never been before, I knew was going to be a challenge for me.