I’m a firm believer that people come in and go out of one’s life for a reason.  Whether it’s a girlfriend or boyfriend, friend, relative, or just about anyone, there is a purpose to their presence.  This is something I will stand by.

My belief proved stronger than ever when I met Victor, an immigrant worker from Mexico.  Now, I think it’s important to preface my discussion with a bit of a backstory.  I live in a town of white-collar workers, many of whom commute to New York City to work high level corporate jobs.  I have been provided a life that I am very fortunate to live, where I do not worry about food security, where I might sleep, or how I might have to get to work or school.  The towns that surround where I live are not as fortunate.  These towns, many of which are considered the slums and outskirts of the New York City metro area are some of the most impoverished areas in the entire country.  There is high drug usage, high crime rate, food insecurity, and widespread homelessness.  But, for myself and people in my town these were the areas that were avoided.  These were the areas that were cast off as areas that were too forgone to be fixed up.  Growing up I lived in what I would consider a bubble.  It was a bubble compromised of families who were like mine, kids who were given anything and everything they might need, people of similar skin color, and people who had similar religious beliefs.

Until maybe 15-16 I never really got to experience anything outside of this bubble.  Of course, I drove through these areas and saw the people that lived in the towns that had been cast off, but I never truly go to experience life outside the bubble.  When I was 15, I began working my first job as a floral assistant.  This job was really unique as I got to work with flowers, go to weddings, and drive all across New Jersey and New York to go to various wedding venues.  I learned the names of flowers I had never heard of and got to see some really unique places.  After a few months of working this job, I met Victor, who would now also be accompanying me on my flower deliveries and working alongside me.  Victor, as I came to learn was an immigrant from Mexico who lived in the cast-off towns.  Through our numerous conversations during our drives, I learned and discovered many things about him.  In Victor’s self-taught broken English, I learned that Victor had come across the border into the United States and had to pay his way across the border after being caught by criminals who extorted people who were crossing the border to seek a better life.  Victor also taught me and even let me try some of the food his wife prepared for me.  In addition, Victor would talk on and on about his two little boys who he adored.  They were really cute kids and he explained to me that a large part of his reasoning for coming to this country was so that one day he could give his kids not just a better life but a better education so that they would have the opportunity to high level employment.

Victor came into my life to break me out of my bubble and I am grateful that he did.  He showed me that this cast-off area was in fact really great people who were hardworking individuals, worthy of every opportunity.  People have come in and out of my life for every reason and Victor is no exception proving once again that there is a reason behind everyone’s presence.

In regard to the topic of my passion blogs I have decided that I will write about skiing and my experiences when I am skiing.  While I really enjoyed writing about the beach, I think I have exhausted the majority of what I could write about.  I think writing about skiing will help to bring a new level of energy to my passion blog.  Therefore, this is the topic I will continue with.

The topic I will be writing about for my civic issues blog is U.S. foreign policy with other countries.  I think that this topic will be very interesting and insightful to write about. I believe that this topic is also very open ended so I will have a lot to write about which will help to always keep my blogs engaging.

These two topics will allow my blogs to keep readers invested in what I am writing and wanting to come back to read more.

After careful consideration and a narrowing down of numerous topics I have homed in on two potential topic ideas for the, “This I Believe,” podcast project.  The first project idea I have and the one I am most leaning towards is a discussion of immigration based on my experience with an immigrant worker.  I have written about this experience before and think it was a really impactful life experience for me that should be shared.  In addition, I believe this would be a lot easier for me to articulate as I have already discussed this topic at length.  The second topic that I was potentially thinking about doing was a discussion on how eating healthy and drinking enough water is essential to feeling good.  I am also really passionate about this idea and think I would be able to tell a good story about its impact on my life.  However, I still believe that this topic is lacking in some areas where the first one is not.

For my passion blog, I will also be going in one of two directions.  I will either continue my current blogging trend of writing about the beach or will start a new passion blog about skiing.  I think writing about the beach would be my easier option as there is such a plethora of things to write about, but it might be nice to write about a new topic, in my case skiing.  Writing about skiing might bring some new, likely needed energy to my passion blog discussion.  Either way, I think both topics would be suitable for the task.

Lastly, I also have two topic ideas for my civic issues blog.  Both topics fall under the politics subcategory as this was the most interesting category.  The first topic I decided I might like to write about is U.S. foreign policy with a focus on relations between the United States and China.  I chose these two countries as they are currently two highly competitive countries with differing ideas on the role of government.  Within the coming years I believe that these two countries will be the driving nations behind innovation, government structure, and law.  It will be interesting to see which country comes out, “on top.”  The second topic I would like to write about and look into is party politics and how party politics has impacted voter confidence.  I think that this topic is and continues to be extremely relevant with this past election and with the coming elections.  Therefore, a thorough analysis of this topic might be able to yield insight into why some Americans decided to vote while others did not and who people are voting for and why.  Both of these topics interest me and I would be interested to work on either one.