Homage to my dance family.

As I was sweating in Michael and Rhiannon’s Zumba class last night, I could not stop thinking about how much I am going to miss my family at Room to Dance & World to Dance studio.

I started as a front desk intern in 2012 at the original upstairs studio off of University Avenue. A friend of mine told me about a position opening up at a new dance studio, and I jumped at the opportunity. It was incredible to gain work experience while learning to dance! The place was just starting to get on its feet, but had solid clientele. In a way, I felt like I was growing up with the studio.

Nathieli Diaz, Ambar Mote, Michael Recon, Gail Rogers, Jenny Aguirre and I at the original studio getting ready for Flashmob 2013!

In 2013, I subbed a few songs in April’s Zumba while getting certified to teach a full class. April was the best and most patient mentor I ever had – from working the front desk to teaching – she taught me lessons that will stay with me forever. This woman is a warrior. She has fought through the toughest battles any person could endure. April allowed me the chance to explore my leadership skills and try on more teaching roles. She saw more in me than I did.

April MacLean, co-owner of Room to Dance & World to Dance studio, author, badass warrior queen, and so much more.

The clients who are now my dearest friends were extremely supportive as I struggled in the beginning to remember choreography and shout cues over the music. When Julie started co-owning the studio, I transitioned under her coaching. Julie Simon 46 is fire, feathers, booty, nibbles and so much beauty inside-out! I cannot believe I had the honor of being trained by this woman. She also kicked my butt every time in her Barre Blaze class!

Julie Simon 46, looking like Julie Simon 26!

April and Julie sat with me through my tears and frustration. They listened and encouraged me to keep teaching, even though I didn’t think I had it in me.

After building some confidence, I taught a few other dance fitness classes. The studio moved to a nearby building on the first floor of the California Tower. No longer did we need to climb the grueling height of stairs before reaching the front desk!

It was that bad, you guys….

The new studio has two beautiful rooms which have cradled so much growth and culture since the grand re-opening. The rooms are painted in vibrant colors and designs that perfectly match the vibe and energy created in every class. It was amazing to also see the tribe grow!

Studio flashmob 2014!

I taught a small Bellyfit class on weekday mornings which both stimulated and terrified me. I was truly my worst critic, and realized that I needed to practice what I was preaching in regards to breaking out of my comfort zone.

Alice Bracegirdle, the creator of Bellyfit herself, even took the time to message me on Facebook when I had a bazillion questions to ask. (How did I get so lucky to meet such incredible women?!) Not only did she answer every silly question I had, Alice and her awesome husband, DJ Rowan, traveled all the way from Canada to teach a Bellyfit Live class at the studio! The ladies from my Bellyfit class had a blast!

Bellyfit Live with Alice Bracegirdle

There was also a time when I lead an outdoor boot camp class for the Body Rock summer series. (Foreshadowing…?) The group stuck with me the whole time and was very generous to push through all of my annoying drills.

Besides the whole health and fitness passion, I loved taking swing dance with Lupita. Her class was always fun, new and challenging. There was never the same class twice. I felt as if the students and I continued growing together. That’s what kept me going back to that class every Saturday night. I was hungry to progress and take what I learned outside the studio. We often went to the Mission Inn after class and danced to a live musician, sometimes trying out what we just learned. It was so much fun. Those nights were the highlight of my week.

Swing Dancing at Mission Inn – courtesy of Lupita Limonada

I decided to transition into performing and take a break from teaching dance fitness when ballroom was something new and completely different. Being on stage was also something I never did before and really wanted to try. I attended a few performances before rehearsing with The Limonadas Dance Company for a Hot Hula dinner show, Dia de los Muertos and Kinetic Conversations at RCC. Being on stage was exhilarating. The hours of drilling, sweating, falling, and making a fool out of myself was totally worth it!

Hot Hula dinner show, 2014

Dia de los Muertos, 2014

RCC Kinetic Conversations, 2015

After the performance in December, I had to focus hard on my next step in my career. Dancing and writing were both my love and passion, but trying to make a living out of them was next to impossible.

Although I stopped teaching and performing, I continued to meet fearless dancers and learn more about their stories. My ambition to become a journalist started when I interviewed dancers and learned about what brought them to the studio. Every single one of them had a moving story, and each dancer had one thing in common: They found a studio – a home – where they belonged. Their journey of dance started with a special place and someone who believed in them, just like mine did.

Room to Dance & World to Dance studio will always be a part of me. The studio and everyone in it shaped who I am. It has been the one place I felt free to grow, express, and share openly.

As anticlimactic as this is, I just want to thank you all at Room to Dance & World to Dance studio who have been there with me since the beginning, or even recently. Thank you for sharing your energy, delivering your knowledge and spreading your courage. I know that the studio is going to break down so many walls in its community. April and Julie, an unstoppable force, are only just warming up!

 

Internship Recap and Wrap-Up

I started on this journey with LA YOGA Magazine as an Editorial Assistant on January 9^th, 2015. I had no idea what was is in store for me, except that I would be researching human trafficking and yoga therapy. I also knew that I was in good hands with Felicia Tomasko, the Editor-in-Chief, who would help me construct the article for the magazine and serve as my mentor for journalism.

On the first day as an intern, I knew that this was going to be enriching and unique experience. Felicia invited me to have lunch in Santa Monica with her and other professionals who discussed films that centered on yogic journeys and spiritual messages. This wasn’t the meeting I had imagined. I imagined Felicia and I having discussing my research and the format of the article. However, because I had the opportunity to meet accomplished people in the yoga community, I gained more connections and, more importantly, an open mind.

Between the months of January and March, I found myself taking part in more unique events with Felicia that would lead to greater opportunities in journalism. For instance, I attended a yoga therapist training at Loyola Marymount University on January 11^th and learned more about what it would take to help survivors of human trafficking heal wounds of psychological, emotional and physical trauma.

Not only did this event help me to better understand a yoga therapist’s perspective, it helped me to better understand why I was even interested in trauma in the first place. As I say in a journal entry on January 15^th, “In December 2012, I was as a barista at Starbucks in downtown Riverside, California, when we were robbed at gunpoint. Luckily, no one was severely hurt …. But the psychological trauma impacted me more than I realized. Unexpected anxiety didn’t ‘bubble-up’ until 2014 when I was sitting in an English classroom discussing the ways trauma affects the subconscious mind in Toni Morrison’s Sula.” I understood why this internship, this research was so important to me as someone who has experienced trauma and found healing through dance and yoga.

I started outlining my article and met with Felicia to figure out how this piece should be constructed. In addition to this article, she gave me the opportunity of writing a 200-word book review for the March issue. She loaned me Richard Miller’s The iRest Program for Healing PTSD to write about. Reading his guidebook for victims of PTSD was not only necessary for writing the book review, it was helpful for writing the human trafficking and yoga therapy article. I even interviewed Richard over the phone, and learned that he helps women survivors of sexual exploitation through iRest (Integrative Restoration).

Felicia also introduced me to two organizations that help victims of human trafficking and prostitution: Unlikely Heroes and UpRising Yoga. Unlikely Heroes, founded by Erica Greve, rescues children in the Philippines, Mexico and Thailand from captivity and sexual slavery, providing them with shelter and an education. I was able to interview Erica and her Program Director over the phone to include their story in the article. UpRising Yoga has slightly different goals, because they provide yoga to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. On February 22^nd, I attended a teacher training led by founder Jill Ippolito. This experience in particular helped with the construction of the article, since I learned more about yoga as a form of therapy for more than victims of sexual slavery and PTSD. Yoga is able to change the lives of troubled youth and help steer them down the path to a brighter future.

When Felicia and I got down to writing the article, she brought it to my attention that my piece was missing a very important part: a story about a person. In magazine writing, Felicia taught me that a good article begins by focusing on the story of a survivor. Luckily, I was introduced to D’Lita Miller, a survivor of sexual exploitation. After interviewing her and meeting her at the UpRising Yoga teacher training, I wrote the article using D’Lita’s inspirational story as my focal point to talk about yoga therapy and the modern-day slavery. Felicia helped me construct the piece to come full circle and end with her living a free life.

Being an Editorial Assistant for LA YOGA Magazine gave me a glimpse of what it would be like to work in the journalism field. With the article going to print in the April issue, I saw how long the process of writing quality content takes. The original intention was publishing the article in March, but I needed more time to focus on writing a solid piece that would go in my portfolio as I’m hunting for freelance writing jobs which is the next step after graduating in June. I have also been accepted into Northeastern University’s Master’s program in Journalism, so I’m starting to look around for freelance writing positions in Boston. Because I took part in this internship, I feel confident about landing a job in editorial, writing and publication.

The Natural Products Expo

Journal No. 14

Attending the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim on Friday March 6th was overwhelming and amazing. At 7:30am, Felicia and I joined many other yogis in an outdoor yoga class. Mats were provided by Gaiam and sound was hosted by MC Yogi and DJ Drez. Not only did we do yoga and meditation, we danced.

We grabbed breakfast, changed out of our yoga clothes (I wish I had brought something a little more professional… Lesson learned!), and we headed into the convention center, armed with business cards and magazines.

 

Anaheim Convention Center: Natural Products Expo West

 

We spent most of the day networking, introducing ourselves to companies promoting health, and meeting new people. We focused on reaching out to PR and marketing managers who would possibly be interested in buying our products. I’m still not quite sure what this means, because I didn’t see much of anything happen beyond meeting managers and notable faces. For those who work in LA YOGA, I met Avani and Emily, our marketing assistants. I also met Jessica, the model on the cover of our magazine, as well as the photographer, Jeff. I was able to load up on a ton of protein bars, organic snacks, and reusable bags.

I attended a talk lead by Professor Alex Richardson from Oxford University about Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, informing me that I need to consume more fish and seafood in order to ingest these nutrients. Unfortunately, since I was extremely exhausted from lack of sleep, I ended up closing my eyes through half of the talk. Second lesson learned: Get enough sleep the night before a health expo!

The third thing I learned from this whole expo is the value of connecting with people. Meeting people face to face is way more valuable than meeting them online or through the phone. Shaking their hand, looking at them in the eye, and exchanging business cards is such an effective way to market products and build lasting relationships with companies. Felicia did a beautiful job of explaining our product, the magazine, and what we represent in the community. I tried to soak in as much information as possible to be able to explain to other people the history of LA YOGA Magazine.

The internship is coming to a close with these two final weeks of school, meaning that I will be assembling my portfolio and final draft in the next issue. I can’t say what’s in store for me with LA YOGA Magazine, but I could definitely say that I would love to attend more of these events and meet more people. I strongly believe that this magazine is doing wonders for the yoga community in Los Angeles, and I want to be a part of that magic.

 

LA YOGA Magazine March Issue and Press Badge

Thanks for reading!

A Learning Process

Journal No. 13

Being an Editorial Assistant for LA YOGA Magazine has been a learning process. Looking back on the past 12 journals, every entry tells a story about a new experience I had that contributed to my engagement with writing for a magazine. I’m actually quite proud of how far I’ve come in only 48 days of this internship. I plan on recapping every journal entry in March towards the end of the quarter to track my development and research.

February 2015 Issue of LA YOGA Magazine.

As for this entry, I want to catch you up on yesterday’s meeting with the Editor-in-Chief. We only had an hour and a half to get updated before I had to return to Riverside for class, so I wrote a to-do list of things for us to discuss in order to stay on task. Once we had our coffee and breakfast, Felicia handed me the drafts and Table of Contents for the March issue which will be coming out next Tuesday, March 3rd. I learned what exactly she meant by “going to press” with the articles and the importance of finding the right size for photographs. All pictures need to be 300 DPI (Digital Pixels per Inch), meaning that they need to be a sufficient pixel dimension to appear clear in print. For websites, the DPI is about 72.

Trend Offset Printing – Los Alamitos, California.

Another cool thing I learned about the magazine is the printing company that creates LA YOGA Magazine. Trend Offset Printing produces our magazines from cover to cover in a timely fashion with high-quality and detailed care. PDF files are uploaded to the printer server and go to press in Los Alamitos. Zoe Kors, the managing editor, packages the files. It’s pretty cool learning about how the print is actually produced and how it gets distributed around Southern California to yoga studios and other businesses. I believe Felicia had said that 50,000 copies are distributed from Los Alamitos to Glendale. She also provided me with the digital printing company that handles our online apps. MAZ is a company primarily comprised of technological experts who have previously worked for Adobe and Apple, making LA YOGA Magazine accessible through mobile devices and computers.

February 2015 Issue of LA YOGA Magazine

After learning about the interesting things about the printing process and reviewing the March drafts, we talked about the final article for the April edition. For myself, I had to write down one sentence describing what my article is basically talking about. Using the following sentence will help me maintain a focus in my final draft and truly find out if whatever I write serves the story:

Yoga therapy is a powerful tool for aiding in the recovery of trauma of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Felicia and I looked over the rough draft which needs plenty of editing, and found specifics that need to change. For example, less background on the people I interviewed which doesn’t serve the story. I also must write more clearly, especially with narration and citation.

As a final take-away, the editor advised me to have two portfolios for the future: one with all of my published works and a separate one with unedited drafts where I cover things I absolutely love. Editorial jobs that I will be applying for after I graduate in the summer will ask for either one, so it’d be safe to have both ready for review.

There is much more to learn in the next month before the internship is over. Once the article goes to print for the April issue, I plan on revising the article and figuring out how to submit it to newspapers in the Inland Empire such as The Press-Enterprise and The Los Angeles Times to spread awareness about human trafficking and yoga therapy.

Joan of Arc Armor

Journal No. 12

Today, I internalized the stories of trauma I heard about at UpRising Yoga teacher training without emotional or psychological armor. Their raw and honest stories of incarceration and human trafficking flooded the forefront of my mind. I was speaking to my mom about the event and suddenly began crying. I couldn’t figure out how to turn off the waterworks and get to work without looking like a total wreck. She lovingly guided me towards personal detachment, despite my habit of constantly reflecting on what I had heard as I went about my shift at the restaurant.

Yesterday, I listened to the story of a 19-year old girl who said she was one of the youth instructed to do yoga while in jail. “Doing yoga,” she said, “was one of the only things I had done right in my life.” Both parents in jail. I don’t know the rest of her story. But being close to her age, I reflected on my own parents and my own childhood. Her story literally hit home.

I saw the redevelopment of an impoverished community in Wilmington, California. The people had torn out a vacant parking lot where trash was thrown into, and they built a garden of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Volunteers tend to the garden beds and keep the soil fresh. Every Saturday, a farmer’s market is held here. Whatever produce is leftover is donated back to the community. The value of this project kept Wilmington nourished and unified. I saw my own neighborhood in conjunction with Wilmington, remembering my neighbors who provide our family with fresh oranges from their backyard trees. Another story that reminded me of home, a place that shaped who I am.

Jill Ippolito, Founder of UpRising Yoga, and I standing in front of the community garden.

A beautiful bed of lettuce planted by the community members.

A yoga instructor opened the teacher training with a 15-minute meditation, and through this meditation, I visualized the image of a brown box with a travel tag. This is the “gift” she told us to see. It’s the gift that we possess as well as give back to people. As a journalist, I envision giving the gift of story-telling and news.

Back to this morning and my unanticipated meltdown, my mother helped remind me to build a shield around my heart. She said to me that as a journalist, I need to create some distance between myself and the stories I cover, especially since I’m emotionally invested in issues of gender. My mother made a point that journalists who take on serious projects like these can potentially end up with PTSD from their job. I’m seeking to build an emotional and subconscious armor, some protection against my repressed memories, my most secret thoughts, my dreams.

I don’t believe this guard can be manufactured in a day, in a month or in a year. Maybe I call it my Joan of Arc armor. Whenever I pick up a pen or sit at my laptop with emotional and mental investment, I put on this armor. And if I need to strip off the armor in order to go there — go to that place of truly connecting with another person through journalism, fighting my own demons — I choose to have that option.

It’s risky opening up myself completely and I might not be as functional for awhile afterwards. But I care. I’m human. I am a person who also has a story. Being a journalist doesn’t make me a hero or someone with more authority or power. It doesn’t make me better than anybody else. I am who I choose to be. I am what I give back. Above all, I choose to fight being a victim of my own mind.

Heroes of Our Time

Journal No. 11

For my human trafficking research, I have been directed to an organization called Unlikely Heroes. I just want to share with you a little about what they do, and why you should know about it.

You should know about these statistics they have on their website, because I don’t believe people in the U.S actually understand the gravity of the situation:

27 MILLION PEOPLE

TRAPPED IN SLAVERY TODAY. THIS IS MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NUMBER OF AFRICANS ENSLAVED DURING THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE.

$28 BILLION

IS GENERATED FROM COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION MAKING IT THE 2ND MOST LUCRATIVE CRIME IN THE WORLD.

100,000 CHILDREN

ARE PROSTITUTED IN THE U.S. PER YEAR.

How can we change these numbers? How can ordinary people living ordinary, healthy and safe lives make a difference in exploited victim’s lives?

Unlikely Heroes steps in to lead the nation in abolishing the modern slavery. They’re not just ordinary people, though. They are truly contemporary heroes who are on the ground rescuing children and women from captivity, and from being bought and sold into sexual slavery. These heroes provide shelter to those who have been stripped of their families, homes and bright futures. Above all, Unlikely Heroes spreads awareness and training through education to thousands of people.

Erica Greve founded the organization and has traveled abroad to third world countries, offering personal aid to women and children. Her team of highly educated individuals, including a survivor of sexual slavery and public speaker, builds strength in numbers of devoted advocates.

It is an honor to feature Unlikely Heroes in LA YOGA Magazine. I will be learning more about activities they do for rehabilitation, and if yoga is among them.

For my next post, I will be telling you about my trip to Los Angeles this Saturday as a guest for a training at a juvenile hall. Speakers such as survivor, D’Lita Miller, and founder of UpRising Yoga, Jill Ippolito, will be there talking about yoga offered to incarcerated youth and survivors of sexual exploitation. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

P.S- for more information on Unlikely Heroes, visit: http://unlikelyheroes.com.

Interviewing a Survivor

Journal No. 10

Yesterday was the first time I had ever interviewed a victim of human trafficking and prostitution. The recorded conversation entailed the memory of her abusive childhood, trauma and recovery. It was incredible hearing about her leadership and advocacy work. Not so easy hearing about her past, especially when her youngest daughter became a victim as well. But since I’m covering this issue in the magazine and I’m also currently in between classes and unable to construct a beautifully written post, I’ll be sure to catch you all up on the details from our talk very soon.

Until then, I hope you’ve had a chance to read the introduction to my first book, Openbook: The First Generation!

“Slavery has never been abolished from America’s way of thinking.”

-Nina Simone

Latest Internship Journal

Journal No. 9

Monday February 2nd, 2015

Today was another beautiful day at Tiato in Santa Monica with editor-in-chief Felicia Tomasko. Even though we spoke for an hour and thirty minutes, we covered a lot of ground. Felicia helped me set up a conference call recording device on my phone for future interviews. The recording device will be useful when I need to hold phone interviews. Plus, she was able to get my new digital Sony camera set up to take pictures. The camera will be devoted strictly to journalism projects and LA YOGA Magazine “behind the scenes” work.

As an intern for the magazine, I wanted to see what the issue calendar looks like and was given the link to the website editorial page (

Click to access 2015_LAYOGA_MediaKit.pdf

). On Page 5, the public has a glimpse of themes used for every edition that gets published monthly. I was excited to see this, because it allows me to understand how articles are selected and implemented into each magazine. Talking more about theme selection, Felicia suggested I watch The September Issue which is about the editor of Vogue. The September Issue seems like a documentary version of The Devil Wears Prada, only real. And possibly better… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4wo4JYy2s).

Felicia invited me to two exciting events coming up in March. On Monday March 2nd, I have the opportunity to go behind the scenes of their photo-shoot, take pictures and document the process of story-boarding for April’s fashion issue. On Friday March 6th, Felicia also invited me to the Anaheim Convention Center as her assistant and secretary as well as a spectator for the largest whole food trade show in the country. Two incredible events to look forward to!

We started getting down to the human trafficking article and deadline specifics. If I want this article to be published in the March issue, I have until Friday February 13th to get my final draft submitted…. Yikes! Since I still need to conduct a few interviews and write the draft, I have a feeling that my article will be postponed until the April issue. This is fine, because Felicia loaned me a book to write a short 200-word review to have published in March. The book review article will allow me to have something printed for my internship portfolio. The book titled The iRest Program for Healing PTSD by Richard Miller, PhD., will be very insightful for my research, as well. Miller had also invited me to a conference on March 21st where he will be talking more about iRest.

On the road to Santa Monica

Exciting stuff is happening!

Thanks for reading.

From English Teacher to Aspiring Journalist

This is my story about the huge career shift I made from becoming an English teacher to a hungry journalist, hopeful and confident to make a major, shiny dent in the publication world.

Ever since I graduated Riverside City College with my Associate’s in Humanities, I was gung-ho ready to be a secondary school English teacher. I explored every avenue of teaching I could in order to build my resume and gain “real world” experience. I volunteered to work in an after-school tutoring program called Think Together and taught dance to middle school students. I applied and got accepted into Cal State San Bernardino, intending on entering the credential program after I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. A lot of my writing in the English classes I took focused on the anticipation of developing curriculum, lesson plans, assignments I would offer, and grading strategies that I would harness over time with the help of my mom who so happens to be a middle school social studies teacher in the Jurupa Unified School District. I went to the extent of attending a CBEST workshop to begin the study process for the exam in order to begin applying for a subbing job in the southern California school district. There was nothing standing in my way of reaching that goal! Until I asked myself a very scary, unsettling question: Why this job?

When I volunteered at Think Together, I realized that my audience would be teenagers and my job would be motivating them to get their homework done, put their cell phones away and stop talking to their friends. Not only that, my responsibility as an aspiring teacher would be to persuade my audience to enjoy literature and reap the benefits of reading stories written by dead white men. Working with young adults taught me that this age group doesn’t like English very much. Call me a people-pleaser, but I hate the thought of pushing people to love the same thing that I do. Seeing that this was going to be my job description, I then sought to answer another self-posed question, “Why not work towards another job that pertains to an English degree that allows me to reach a wider, mature, literature-savvy audience?” I realized that I would need to further my education and find a way to reach this new group of people which lead me to applying to graduate schools in journalism.

My entire teaching plan made a 180 when I decided to work towards applying for a Master’s Degree in journalism. Coming from a restaurant owning father and mother in the education field, writing, editing and publishing careers are completely foreign territory in my family lineage. Believe it or not, this career shift became more attractive and exciting to me! It feels like I am paving my own path or choosing to play a role of my choice rather than the one my parents selected for me. But my parents have always taught me to think about the income and consider whether I could support myself on writing and journalism which is an ever-changing field with the rise of technology and online publication. After some convenient Google research, I discovered statistics on the average annual income an assistant editor of a popular magazine earns which is about $30k, the same as a substitute teacher. Editors make almost the same as teachers, depending upon the magazine or journal I would work for. Understanding that it will take a few years to get from being a CSUSB English undergrad to a paid assistant editor, I have started to reconstruct my resume and gain what is once again perceived by employers as “real world” journalism experience.

My personal background with dance inspired me to write and interview other dancers. As a team member of The Limonadas Ballroom Dance Company, I took on the project of interviewing every dancer and posting their biographies on the company website. Other projects involving dance and writing came about, acting as a launch pad for my resume-building. The editor of the online blogs “The Traveling Jar” and “Fit By Karma,” and the editor-in-chief of LA YOGA Magazine hired me as an unpaid contributing writer. My stories about travel, fitness and newly opened yoga studios in the Inland Empire helped to increase my journalism experience. More importantly, I found that I was loving the work and the audience I was speaking to which became mostly my friends on social media and readers interested in the same topics. I developed a knack for online publishing even more so when I took English 240: Writing in the Public Sphere. The class encouraged me to not only become a skilled blogger, but a better citizen journalist by widening my scope of the newspaper world. Simultaneously, I was beginning the application process for graduate schools and revising my personal statement almost every week for six months with other professors. My resume, statement and letters of recommendations were ready to be submitted by December 2014, during the most hectic time of the year. Graduate School was truly the deciding factor of my journalism future. Lo and behold, I received an e-mail on January 9^th from DePaul University in Chicago saying that their admissions committee accepted my enrollment! Huzzah!!

Now, I am taking on projects, classes and work that help shape my resume as well as move my new career plan forward. I am a student editor of The Pacific Review at CSUSB, interning as an assistant editor of LA YOGA Magazine researching the current issue of human trafficking and yoga therapy, publishing short stories, submitting articles to the blogging site Youberliving, and planning to move to Chicago next year to attend DePaul University. The possibility of teaching college journalism or English may be still an option for me if I get the Master’s degree. That particular audience of college students may be more suitable for me than middle or high school. On February 6^th, I will be observing an elective class at a middle school where the topic of the unit is called “Exploratory Newspaper.” I will be seeing if the environment is different than the traditional, conventional English classroom where students hardly work together to learn each other’s names and if self-motivation is the student mentality. Many things are up in the air at this point. Since I will be graduating in June, I want to keep my options open but have as many opportunities as possible. I am still discovering a lot about myself along the way as I prepare to take the next steps in my journalism career.

Thanks for reading!

Santa Monica Adventures

Journal No. 7

Tiato’s garden patio where Felicia and I sipped smoothies and coffee.

Today was our third meeting in Santa Monica. Felicia and I met at Tiato, a tranquil coffee shop and restaurant in the Lionsgate office building where famous filmmakers, directors and TV show producers probably dine there for lunch on the regular. Cool!! Felicia provided me with a great amount of advice as an aspiring journalist and editor. She connected me to other highly esteemed individuals who work with human trafficking survivors and yoga therapy. On top of that, the editor provided me with links to big media websites that will help me stay current in journalism.

We worked through the outline and I was encouraged to open my article with a personal narrative or story of a survivor in order to authenticate my voice. As for my ideas on implementing a yoga therapy program into a safe-house which would include creative projects and Ayurveda, we found that I should save those notions for another article. Agreed. I’ll gladly set those ideas aside for a future piece.

After having coffee at Tiato, Felicia, Lu-Lu (her pup, who goes on more adventures than the average human being does) and I walked to Yogaglo for an incredible, rejuvenating yoga class lead by a New York City instructor. After class which was live-streamed for yogis practicing at home, I hopped back into my Toyota Yaris and drove home to Riverside.

I can’t wait to see what the fourth adventure with the Editor-in-Chief of LA YOGA Magazine brings! But before then, I’ve got some homework to do. Stay tuned for an update on the interviews I’ll be conducting for further research, as well as the rough draft I’ll be sharing with you.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more LA YOGA and Santa Monica Adventures!

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story within you.”

-Maya Angelou

Photo Resource:

http://www.grubstreet.com/2011/07/tiato_joins_the_beer_garden_cl.html