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3:21 am Just finished an interview with a Texas-based clothing brand that wants to showcase me as one of their artists of the month. Writing my answers for the interview took me about 2 whole hours but I feel that it is the best representation of me in proper publication. I was also featured in a music video as a primary dancer and I got paid for it. 13 year old me would be very proud of who I am in 2017.
State of the Unions: Summer 2015
Well, what can I say? I didn’t think I’d be writing one of these again but after this inner meltdown that I had a few hours ago, I definitely need to let these thoughts loose. It is currently July 31st, 12:39 am and my head hurts because I smacked myself really hard due to my own stupidity. I am sitting here pondering the near and far future while also reanalyzing my past. I believe the last time I made an update, I was unemployed, had no real use for a car, had some relationship issues and my bboying was iffy. Now I am a full fledged adult. I work at Kohl’s now in Eastlake. I work mainly in the men’s clothes department and occasionally the misses and teen girls sections. I don’t make too much money but it’s not worth the complaining. I also work as a dance teacher. I teach a wonderful class of 19 students who make me smile more often than I like to admit. It just hit me seconds before writing this post that I have become the man that I always imagined I would be at this age. It also kind of saddens me and I am sure that many of the people around my age can relate. I am not a kid anymore. Being a reckless teen is a mere memory. The me of yesteryear would’ve still been holding out on being a pro bboy around this time. Its funny. I used to go to few jams because I had no money and no means of transportation to go there. Now I go to few jams because I have no time to go because I have to work and there isn’t a way to get out of it. I tried, believe me. When they were interviewing me, I lied about having family commitments on Saturdays and they said that if that was the case then I couldn’t work there. Obviously I quickly reverted my lie, but now I’m stuck in a whole mess. Before we go on updating with proper separation of topics and equally proper formatting, lets talk about the pickle that I am in right now.
I am the not so proud owner of an iPhone 5. I depend on it a fair amount. In theory, I could live without it. In recent months, it’s battery life has been out of whack. This means that it would die at 90% and then turn on at 20% or I would open a snap and it would just shut down. My favorite new thing that it does is that it shuts down as I reply to a text.... at 100%... while charging. Today, it conveniently died in my locker at work like it does every other day except that when I charged it, it didn’t go back to life. As a matter of fact, its charging right next to me right now. It’s been on a constant charge for 3 hours and it still gives me that low battery, can’t start signal that the iPhone has. Usually, this wouldn’t bug me this much. But right now, it’s making me want to kill something. I haven’t gone out too much all summer. I got invited to a party tomorrow night, and I have a friends reunion on Saturday and I have plans to visit my girlfriend’s new home on Sunday. The most social weekend ever and my phone decides to peace the fuck out and leave me stranded. I need that phone for map directions. I need it to call into work tomorrow to figure out scheduling conflicts. I need it to talk to my girlfriend. I need it to figure out what I can bring to the reunions. I need it for mobile banking so I can ration my pay check evenly. I need it for Seattle next week. But it conveniently decides to fucking kill itself before the biggest 5 days of my summer. Now most people would say, “Just get a new phone”. I’ve been asking my parents (whom I never ask anything from so this shouldn’t be an issue) for a new phone for weeks. The issue is that we pay a lot with Verizon and my dad doesn’t want to open a new 2 year contract with them so I’m in this spot where I have to wait out my contract with my phone before I could get a new one. And I tried to make the situation survivable. I bought a portable battery that holds 4 hours of charge in it so that I could constantly be charging my phone wherever I go. I literally have my phone plugged into the battery while its in my pocket. My dad’s solution is: “Just send it in, it’s under warranty. They’ll send you a new iPhone 5″. What don’t you get??? I don’t need a new iPhone 5!!! I need a newer model of phone!!!!!!! Anywho, I don’t have a good backup for my phone on my computer so it would essentially lose all the photos + videos that I have and that would be devastating. So tomorrow, I guess I have to wake up decently early to figure out what the fuck I’m going to do about my phone. Then I have to call into work to figure out scheduling for something. Then I have to get directions from mapquest or some shit to find my way to the party tomorrow night. Anywho, on to the catch up stuff. So I work now. Like the rest of America. Shockingly enough, I didn’t become the celebrity I hoped to be at this point in my life. I mean, I’m a bit of a local celebrity believe it or not. I’m known everywhere in San Diego. People in other states want to meet me in person and have reached out to me in order to do so. But, just like everyone else, I work a part time for very little pay. Working at Kohl’s has so many benefits though. I get paid every Friday. None of that biweekly shit. I have direct deposit. All of my breaks and lunches get honored. (Unlike many other jobs that people have where they get none). I get health care!!! (In 100 more days) Paid time off after working there for a year. etc etc etc. It’s honestly a great place to work and I don’t see myself leaving there for a while. The honest downside is that having a job has slowly killed off my dancing spirit. It comes and goes from time to time but for the most part, I haven’t seriously danced and practiced since I got hired. I’ve been trying though. But there’s a mix of things that stop me from doing so. For starters, my mom doesn’t like when I practice on the carpet at home but there are literally no dance studios close to me where I could go. Everything is a good distanced drive away. Secondly, I work mostly late afternoon to night shifts. This means that I couldn’t go to an organized practice even if I wanted to because everything ends at like 10 pm. Thirdly, I’m a bit more tired now from working so it gets the lazy side out of me when I get home. I’ve never been a quitter and I’ve never shown a cold shoulder to my one true passion so believe me, this isn’t the end of bboylprad. But this very well may be the end of any hopes that I have to be a professional at this dance, which is so heart wrenching to say. Work has also strained my relationship a little bit. We both have two jobs now. This means that we spend less of the day texting each other and more time working. This means that we have less time to actually see each other because our schedules don’t mix. We’ve tried to figure things out as of late but I don’t know how well it’s going to work. She moved into a new home with 6 other girls. I’m not sure how thats going to change our relationship. Does this mean more or less privacy? Does this mean a more relaxed environment or a more hectic environment? A pair of screaming, crying twins? Or a pair of drunk, screaming party girls? I don’t know. I simply don’t. Looking back at where I was a few months ago, I’m very certain that I was happier. I’m not a man who cares much for money. I’m also not stupid. I have necessities and guilty pleasures like everyone else. But I don’t NEED money to be happy. Which is why I don’t really care if I have my job or not. It’s honestly completely voluntary for me to have my job. I loved dancing in the afternoon and hanging out with bboys and buying cheap used video games and binge playing them that whole day. But the issue was that I felt like there was no room for growth in that routine. Sure, I could improve as a bboy all I wanted but would that really matter if I couldn’t compete? Taking up this job gave me something different to do and it’s going to help me out in the long run. Academically speaking, I’m a bit brain dead. I didn’t take summer school classes just so I could work a part time. But now my fall registration is coming up and I have the shittiest registration date for the most important semester of my short lived college career. I need these four classes to get into my major. But it seems very likely that I will need to crash all these classes because I register after literally everyone on campus. Also, there are certain people that will be attending state next year that I have always wanted to get to know and be close to so that will be very very interesting to see how it progresses. The introduction of school back into my life will mean less working hours which is honestly a bit of a relief. It may also mean more bboy time. It may also mean more happiness.
As always, life is just a chain of events that fail to surprise me. Sincerely, lp.
State of the Unions: New Year
Well I am genuinely unsure about why I stopped with SOTU. I feel like it had to do with the big family drama that we had in December. Thus far this year has had its highs and lows. It's been three months and dancing-wise, it feels like the Cinderella break out year. School-wise, I feel like this semester is so incredibly easy that it causes anxiety within me. I feel like it shouldn't be this easy for me. In terms of growing up, I am dabbling between "achieving" and "below average". Realistically, I am probably growing up a lot better than how shitty I make it seem. But the lack of money in my bank account has finally begun to hit me. Last year I swore on my healthiest muscle that I wouldn't need any money because I could always make ends meet and jobs were for pussies and nerds. I am slowly spoon feeding those words to myself as time passes. I need a job. But I am hindered in that aspect because I am absolutely stubborn with my schedule. This is solely based on the fact that my girlfriend and my bestfriend/cousin each have jobs where they only work two days a week and get paid a respectable amount. In my perfect world, I would work two days a week get paid 180 bucks every two weeks and continue going to jams and practices like the cool guy that I am. I don't even need an actual 20 hour part-time job. Because I have no material desires. I have literally one thing that I want and thats a new professional grade camera. The only thing I need money for is gas and groceries. The rest to my savings account and I keep living my life. But unfortunately, my perfect world hasn't come to shape yet. I got turned down by multiple job openings so far and everytime I get rejected I become a little less confident. (Lets note that my girlfriend and cousin also got handed their jobs on a silver platter so they didn't have to really deal with the whole job apps and job hunting process.) I am not throwing them under the bus, I am completely envying them. Also, I have such high standards for myself that I refuse to work in fast food. Yes, I am a snobby motherfucker but I refuse to work somewhere that I know I wouldn't have a pleasant experience. I applied to PetSmart and Party City, both to no avail. I applied to Target, and nothing. It seems like I'll have to end up settling for fast food. Also, I can drive now. Which is pretty rad because I don't have to be the bus boy anymore. I can get to places like all my other cool friends. The lame part is that gas prices are rising. 20 dollars no longer fills my tank to 3/4ths and quite frankly, keeping a car clean is tiresome. Another big factor, I can't park anywhere near state without a permit. This is such an issue because now where do I leave my car and buy myself enough time to walk to class? ~ Dancing has gone pretty well for me this year. I have found my strengths to create a few new combos and people have their eyes on me as an up and comer. I don't see myself as an A grade bboy yet, but I can definitely see myself in the B- range. My goal is to blow peoples minds by the end of the year. Also, I got a gig as a teacher. This was a huge blessing for me. Parkway Community Recreation Center is my savior. Here's the tough part where logistics come into play. The price for our (my cousin and I) class is $39 dollars. The pay is distributed 40-30-30 since Luis and I have to split it. This means that we need a combined outcome of like 30 people for the pay to be respectable. The second downside is that we have no idea how successful this will be. For all we know, only 2 people will take our class and we'll walk away with $25 and a good memory. By the way, we get paid at the end of our last class and the class lasts 10 weeks. The third semi-downside is that they want us to teach for a long term span. This means easily like 3-4 seasonal classes. There are upsides though. We get to throw events through the rec center and get paid from those events. This could be the beginning of something beautiful. Now I have never in my life expected to profit from bboying. I feel like physical fitness, inner peace and great memories are enough profit on its own. The fact that I'm getting a single fricken dime out of this is pretty out of this world to me. Also, we made semifinals at an event and we could taste that jam victory. We could seriously surprise some people this year if we make all the right moves. Lastly, Freakshow wants to recruit me. I have no idea if I want to accept or not but I'm going to run with it because I have no other offers on the table at this moment. ~ School has been weird. I spend less time on campus for actual academic reasons but more time on campus for social purposes. This is the complete opposite from last semester. Also, my goal was to switch my major this year and I have yet to pull the trigger on that. I want to be a sociology major but the common idea that being a sociomajor doesnt make $$ kind of frightens me. I want to be able to grow up and say that I successfully exceeded my parent's success and that I am successful. My classes could be argued for being really easy and honestly, I would agree. Women Studies is less about academic rigor and more about awareness. Astronomy is super interesting and not at all "challenging". History 110 has a hot lady teaching me and shes a feminist and if I were 30 I would so go for her. But I'm not and she's just my professor and her class is about a 5 on the difficulty scale. History 100 isn't really hard, its just boring and lame. World history B.C is about as interesting as a dead cockroach. The part that rags me about myself, is that I've been missing deadlines on easy assignments for no fucking reason. I'm too busy socializing to realize that I also have work to do. This is a little scary because I need a higher GPA to get into any competitive major. ~ Lastly, my relationship is very smooth and easy going. We don't really have issues at the moment, (or ever) and we seem to be cruising. A storm could be brewing though if she doesn't get accepted by SDSU, because then we face a bit of an issue. We've pretty much become a block in each other's lives. I've never felt like I could count on someone for anything and everything but here she is, my own Jem. Its a little discerning that she's the breadwinner right now. But I have to live through my own views and break gender roles. She can be the money maker just as well as I can and thats completely okay. anywho, this is just a catch up post for anyone who cares. peace, lp.
its a sad day in the prado household.
-opens up snapchat stories of highschool friends hanging out- "tiiiiiight. thanks for the invite." -briefly considers sending them a "fuck you" snap- "nah they'll invite me next time" -repeat-
State of the Unions: The Unions are down
Social relationships are incredibly hasty this semester. I'm not sure what to think. An online friend said something to me not so long ago, she said "Honestly, you have a pretty face but you're the kind of guy who would appeal more to high school girls as opposed to college women". That comment hit me in the face like a fucking knockout punch. It was the realest fucking thing I had read all year. It hurt honestly. But it was so true. Now, here's a disclaimer for those who have read thus far, I do care about appealing to college women. This does not translate to being some sort of attempt to cheat on Jemarie. Being attractive is my crutch. Especially in times like these where nobody knows you and all people have to base off you are what you look like and how you carry yourself across campus. I haven't been approached once by anyone all year. Male or female. College is so weird in that sense because extra curriculars and common interests are really how you get to know people. In some sort of twisted fucked up mentality, I've been craving to download Tindr. Simply because I want to socialize. I love Jemarie, shes my beautiful, crisp gust of breeze and she is the one for me but she can't be my only friend. Now, if history says anything, I tend to get along more with girls. They tend to understand me more and be more calm as opposed to guys. But I still have guy friends too, I'm just more selective with them in that regard. I have my Stateside friends but theyre all in their 20's. Except Chun, he's the guy whom I have kind of high hopes for. I hope that he exposes me to new things. He's a party guy from Washington who came here due to military relocation. He knows how to party, he goes to festivals and hes a dope bboy. I want to be really cool with him because he's the opposite of me but we share one thing in common and I feel like thats enough to keep us friends. Also, I do have Sam. But the thing about hanging out with Sam is that its so out of my way. He lives in downtown and we always have to hang there and eat or go to the movies and I don't have the funds to do that so often. We tried just doing nothing one time and it didn't seem fitting to the kind of friendship that we have. Honest to god, I miss Nicole so much. It hurts. I'm so alone here, it fucks with me. I talk to myself more often than I'd like to admit. I have dreams about being in social scenarios. I get upset about being alone and take it out on Jemarie and its so shameful of me to do that. I am so sorry. I apologized of course, but I wish I could do something about all of this. I wish I was still at Kearny. Most importantly, I wish I was surrounded by my friends again.
My family life has been pretty deranged lately as well. Issues regarding my mom and dad have risen up (again) and its become really serious. Not willing to go into detail on a public level because I need that privacy but if anything that has been mentioned changes.. things could go from bad to worse. Thank you for bearing with me up to this point, if you have read this all I sincerely want you to send me an ask because its like a mutual agreement. Its like I vented to you and you reply and then I get to thank you ok. Have a great holiday season and happy new years :-)
State of the Unions: September 2014
September was a month of sadness. Kinda. It wasn't a happy month. Not really a sad month either. It was a month of realizations. In all aspects of my ever so rad life. Lets jump right into it. To start things off, school has been great! Tons of hot girls, great food choices, liberties, interesting topics and all that jazz. Everything you would expect from university. But the reality of the situation is, its a new level of academic rigor. I completely let that blow past me and I failed my first Poli Sci exam with an F. I got a D+ on my first French exam too and it was all because I didn't study. I need to step up my game. I know I can consistently do well if I try hard enough. I just have to consistently be on that level and that's where the challenge arises. With that being said, there are positives. I got an A on my first speech and I wasn't even nervous. Oral Communications is going to be a breeze. Bboying was pretty rad this month too. I met the State bboy club and they accepted me right away and I have grown to be an Aztec in that regard. They're all really chill and they have another form of drive when it comes to bboying. Not going to take away from Kearny, but I'm glad I don't have to see people fucking around at every practice anymore. I want to be pushed to reach my limits and this club will allow me to do just that. I want to highlight one of the members named Daryl at this point. He's the nicest guy. He gives me rides home from State every single practice and he doesn't even ask for gas money or anything. He even offered to take me to an LA jam when the opportunity arises. People like that are why I enjoy networking so much. You meet people and opportunities pop up out of nowhere. Not going to be a jerk, but I don't think I'd have this opportunity if I had gone to Mesa or Southwestern. Also, I got offered an internship with the We Got Next program. It's basically a bboy run organization that stems from the Mighty 4 Foundation that focuses on spreading positive messages through dancing. Anywho, I get to be an event organizer/associate for outreach or something like that. It'll be cool, unsure if it'll be a paid internship but it'll be cool nonetheless. Also, Filipino American festival is this Saturday! Which means the annual local bboy competition is happening and I think I'm going to go for the full win on this one. Maybe a 75 dollar gift card will work. Relationship wise, things haven't been looking so hot. I barely see Jem now and its terrible. I forget what its like to have her around sometimes and I hate this feeling. Every attempt we try to see each other just doesn't fall through and a majority of the reason is because of my mom's rules. Jem can't come over until my mom's home cuz she thinks we're going to have sex like four bajillion times and have kids or some shit. Its soo stupid because this sets us back and we really don't do well if all we rely on is texting. (Reason #1 for not wanting to do an LDR) Our 1 year anniversary is next month and I'll do everything in my power for it to be the best day of our lives. I have so many cool tricks up my sleeve so I'm excited to see how it all works out. But for right now, I miss her so much and I dont fucking care if I break my moms rules. I just want to see her. Lastly, I've been feeling kind of lonely. Like I previously stated, Jem's been absent for a bit. My cousin has been absent too. Nicole and Sam go to different schools. I don't have a crew anymore. I've only made like 4 or 5 friends at State. There's nobody I can really talk to now. Nobody to hang out with on the daily. I've been more reserved. I rarely talk during the day. I get home and then talk with my family. But nothing at school. I've been shying away from actual interaction and its so bad. I feel like I'm becoming more introverted and I hate it. This isn't me. But all of my close circle is currently dispersed and I have nobody else to turn to. Its a bit saddening. Well. Thats it for September. Oh wait, I take my drivers test this Friday for my license. Be a good anon or follower and send me some good luck so I can pass because I really need my license. Okay thanks. - lp.
State of the Unions: August 2014
Well I'm pretty late on this post. It took a while to digest everything that occurred in August. But lets dive right into it. This month was the best month of the summer I think. There were more ups than there were downs. Lets start with bboying. Oh man, big cool news coming. So we won a jam! The Kearny squad made up of Luisma, Keo, Kevin, Alana and myself won against Bonita Vista at Who Rules the Schools. That moment essentially put a gold star on all of my efforts this year to return to my original form as a dancer. I also got to session with Ken and Rawskeleton this month. It was dope because they're both from Freakshow and there was talks of my cousin and I being recruits for Freakshow. Thats... so great to hear. My cousin and I being apart of a legendary internationally known crew. Can you digest that? Cause I cant. I got a lot better in terms of creativity, which is really needed especially if I want to become relevant in the scene. School is cool. I never thought I'd say that. I am proud to be an SDSU Aztec. The biggest hassle was paying for everything. Especially since a lot of it came out of pocket and it honestly hurt so bad. But if I paid this much for it, I better make use of it no? Anyway they have really cool stuff at State. They have a pond with Koi fish, free bowling, free basketball games, a really cool multicultural farmers market with genuine AFRICAN FOOD and lots of other stuff that I haven't even gotten around to know yet. The classes are really interesting. Political Science and French in particular. I think I can honestly learn how to carry an extended conversation in french by the end of the semester. Not to mention that it no longer takes me forever to get home and back. Dude school is great. I have made one new friend so far. His name is Jordan Shaw and he's pretty cool. He has a weird tone to his voice but hes also a Criminal Justice major and I get the feeling that he's going to be important sooner or later. Chris Taylor also goes to school with me now, and I think thats pretty cool. I think this is the start of the best/financially terrible four years of my life.
Friendships come and go as they say. I truly believe in this saying now. I solidified the friendships that I love to be apart of and I let go of the ones that will not mean much when I'm 90. I'm ready to meet new people and have cooler experiences. Not to say that highschool isn't cool, but college gives you a lot more freedom and the boundaries are endless. Though I do have to admit, I think I have made more arrangements to get lunch than I can handle but its okay. Whatever it takes no? Btw Naomi and I are finally being the coolest homies on the blok but like shes leaving to hawaii in literally a couple weeks so can we talk about horrible timing? Anywho, August did just that.
Jem and I had a better August than our July. 10 months! woo. We encountered a few rough patches. But we got a lot closer and stronger than before. We went to aquatica together. We hiked together!!! We swam together. We did a lot and it really gave me confidence about our relationship going into this year. The big one year is coming up and I sure hope we do something cool and worthy. Shes a senior now and her schedule looks a lot like mine last year, I think everything will work out just fine. BUT I am scared for the whole "college apps" season. Oh well. Wish me luck! Nothing too detailed for this month. mainly because I spent it enjoying the present. So till next time. - lp.
