Let the PCN Board adventures (and work) begin

My day started at 6:15 a.m. - I woke up early to take my Lola to mass for her birthday, as she requested. After being awake for six hours, I fell asleep around 12:45 p.m., right when PCN Board announcements were made. I woke up two hours later (oops) to five unread text messages and a handful of Facebook notifications and thought, "Okay, let's hope all these notifications mean good news!" And sure enough, they did.

Introducing PCN BOARD 2014-2015! Congratulations to all of you! pic.twitter.com/8zBdR5rZpi — Long Beach PCN (@lbpcn) July 28, 2014

Eager to know if I had earned my first choice position, I scanned the hilarious PCN Board announcement poster (which is a true winner, in my opinion) for a silly picture of myself.  Once I found my face (with a picture that my dear friend Jonas took - why am I not surprised?) and saw "Marketing" written under it, I screamed. 

Marketing and public relations are two areas I study in school and have much experience in. I love doing tasks relevant to these areas as well as communications/journalism/social media, especially in regards to organizations or projects that are important to me. 

I've always been proud to be a Filipino-American; to know my language, my traditions, my roots. I've never been ashamed of my ethnicity. But I don't think I fully realized how important it is to share my culture with the world around me, especially since I am part of the first generation of Americans in my family. Wow. I never realized how big a deal that actually is until I wrote it out. 

Joining and participating in my school's Filipino organization, CSULB's Pilipino American Coalition, has truly made me realize the importance of celebrating and sharing one's culture, especially in my amazing experience of this past year's PCN. And for that, I am grateful. 

I'm excited to use my networking and communication knowledge, as well as other marketing and public relations skills, to serve PAC and to make PCN 2015 incredible. Although we never met this last year (it's almost impossible to know everyone in PAC when there are hundreds of members and more than 200 participants in PCN), I am beyond excited to work with my co-marketing chair, Victoria! We already contacted each other and we're ready to make a great team. 

I am so thrilled to use my talents for something that is so important to me and I am ready to learn and grow even more with this opportunity. PCN Board 2014-15 is full of passionate people and I cannot wait for the year to unfold, PAC and PCN-wise!   

A further explanation

Expanding on the disclaimer I included in my previous post about my visit to Pearl Harbor:

In all past, present, and future blog entries that are relevant to World War II, I am in no way whatsoever romanticizing or idealizing the actual warfare or the climate of the WWII Era. I am well-aware that WWII was ugly and brutal and cost millions of lives in the worst ways while affecting millions of other people.

What I mean to say - and sometimes forget because I just get so excited - is that I am obsessed with learning and reading about WWII, not WWII itself.

And that includes everything: visiting museums and memorials (how bad do you think I feel when I say the Holocaust Museum was the most captivating and memorable part of my 8th grade Washington DC trip?), reading memoirs and accounts by survivors, reading historical fiction set in the WWII Era (from the perspectives of the Jewish people in the concentration camps, from the perspectives of the Japanese affected by the American concentration camps, from the Filipinos affected by the bloody Bataan Death March - which I saw for myself in the Philippines back in 2007), reading WWII nonfiction, watching documentaries and movies, etc etc etc.

I think what makes me so fascinated by it - and gosh, I get so self-conscious saying that sometimes - is the fact that I am just trying to learn and understand how humanity could reach this point for the second time, only on a much grander and deadly scale. And more than that, millions of people died and millions more were affected in some way - don't their stories deserve to be heard? Aren't their stories worthy of time?

Maybe I'm weird, but by listening to and reading all these stories I feel as if I'm honoring them somehow; paying tribute in a small way.

Regardless of what it is, I greatly enjoy learning about World War II.

And again, I mean all this with the utmost respect to everyone who was affected by WWII.

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy -

the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

DISCLAIMER: As I will explain more in-depth in a following post, I am in no way romanticizing World War II in this blog entry or any other future entries relevant to my obsession with studying the WWII Era. I know it was a terrible number of years that cost millions of lives in the worst ways and I have utmost respect for everyone whose lives were tarnished by this war.

Just had to get that out there first.

About three weeks ago, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to get ready for Pearl Harbor. When my family and I had first arrived in Hawaii and my parents were making an itinerary, I told them I didn't care what we did or where we went as long 1) we saw turtles at the beach and 2) we went to Pearl Harbor. A 6:30 a.m. departure was nothing to me as long as I got to feed my history-obsessed brain and indulge in my fascination with learning about World War II.

We had such an eccentric but lovable tour guide on this day, which made it all even better. I opted to take the narrated tour because I wanted to experience everything to the fullest, and wow, it was definitely an experience actually listening to the USS Arizona survivors share their stories. And it was something else to hear them break down and cry while walking and reading through the museum and memorial.

The fact that the memorial rests on top of the remains of the ship - a literal burial site for thousands of soldiers - is so fascinating to me and I think there's no better way the memorial could have been constructed. I was also really touched by the fact that many of those who survived ask to be buried with their fallen comrades.

And what made this day even better were the souvenirs I got from the gift shop - a copy of a newspaper that ran when the United States joined WWII and a copy of a newspaper that ran after the war was officially over. I had a complete fangirl moment - ask my mom, who fondly rolled her eyes and told me to quiet down - because these paper copies blended three of the things I love the most - history, journalism, and learning about World War II. The Rosie the Riveter tote bag I bought for less than $3 was a pretty awesome purchase too.

Our visit to Pearl Harbor was undoubtedly my favorite part of going to Hawaii.

Fine, it's tied with my encounter with five giant sea turtles on the beach. But still. History. Pearl Harbor. World War II. Woah.

"Begin Again" delivers a satisfying beginning, middle, and end

I finally got to watch this with my parents yesterday afternoon!

I came into the theater thinking it would be a sufficient romance movie that included music here and there - and that was enough for me, being a romantic movie enthusiast and music lover - but any expectations I may have had were definitely met and surpassed. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I actually enjoyed this.

Dan (Mark Ruffalo, whom I have yet to be disappointed by in a movie), a dispirited music industry executive, hasn't signed an artist to his independent record label in seven years. Dealing with a handful personal issues, he finds himself greeted with another problem: he's jobless after being fired by his own partner in front of his distant daughter, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld). After spending a day drinking his troubles away, Dan finds himself in a bar, where he is captivated by the raw talent of Gretta (Keira Knightley), a songwriter performing her song about being "alone in the city."

Gretta and her longtime boyfriend and music partner David (Adam Levine) had traveled to New York when a major record label offered him a deal. His newfound fame and obsession for making it in the music business took a toll on the songwriting lovebirds' relationship and a betrayed Gretta found herself alone.

Back in the bar, Dan is inspired by Gretta's music to create and foster, a feeling he hasn't had in years. While accepting and overcoming obstacles with love, relationships, and family, the two collaborate on a beautiful project - an album recorded outside throughout New York City, with a complete band. In a way, they find themselves again. I'm also particularly happy with Gretta's ending, although I won't spoil it here.

Overall, the characters were complex and well-developed, which always makes for a good film. Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, and Haileen Steinfeld all had me. I truly felt for them and I enjoyed observing the dynamic between the characters.

As for Adam, I'm always a little skeptical when a musician or other famous celebrity with no acting experience is in a movie because their performance can either be really exceptional or hard to watch. But he did a fair job, despite the fact that I was laughing obnoxiously at a change in his appearance for a good ten minutes. As one would expect, his singing was superb - so stick to Maroon 5, honey.

Begin Again was a heartwarming story of how music can come to someone's rescue. After all, the film was previously titled Can a Song Save Your Life? And you know what? I believe the answer is yes. I can't be the only person who was pushed to move forward thanks to a special song or two.

And even if music isn't your biggest passion, I'm sure you have some thing that works for you. Whether it's making music, writing, painting, playing a sport, taking pictures, reading, dancing, or whatever, I think it's magical when you're so inspired that you're able to use that outlet to pull yourself out of a dark place, rebuild the relationships that are worth saving and cut off the ones that aren't, and do what you can to make life your life.

Begin Again reminded me of Stuck in Love - an indie film from 2012 that I recently watched (thank you, Netflix) and fell in deep, deep love with. Making music is to Begin Again as writing is to Stuck in Love. Maybe it's special to me because writing is my preferred outlet, but there are so many lessons to be learned in that movie too. Everyone go watch it now.

I definitely recommend Begin Again. Heck, I'm planning on watching it again this week with my cousins - all of whom are in love with singing, playing instruments, and making music. That's how our family raised us.

If my review-type post wasn't enough to motivate you, here's the official trailer.

Justine's rating: 4.25/5 stars

A little note

 This blog and its twin on Blogger are probably my 7th and 8th blogs. But because I'm starting over and because this is my first and hopefully last Wordpress, I wanted to make a little note on what kind of posts you'll find here, just in case you (who am I even talking to?) were wondering. Or maybe it's a reminder to myself.

But anyway, welcome to Just Turn the Paige - a series of blog posts from me, Justine Paige - where you will find:

• Reflections on life (including events, thoughts, etc.)
• News of the Day reflections - I did this daily on my 2013 Blogger until I became inactive in the summer. I doubt I'll have the time to do this every day, but I think once a week is a feasible goal for now. Perhaps I'll reach two, three, or maybe even four times a week every now and then. What are NOD posts? I'm a student journalist, but even before I ever got into journalism, I had a NEED to know what was going on in the world. I was the five-year-old that read the San Jose Mercury News (and still do, when I'm home). I love being informed. I'm not going to lie and say I'm thoroughly educated on every single worldly topic at any given time because I'm definitely not, but I sure do try. So an NOD post can also be known as "Here's where Justine talks about big things going on." The number of news events/issues per post depends on that particular day.
• Entertainment and pop culture: I am a pop culture junkie and an entertainment enthusiast. Posts in this category may be about music, movies, TV shows, famous people, important news and issues in entertainment, etc. I may also review books, movies, TV shows, etc., but they'll most likely be more reflection-like.
• Opinions. I haven't written an Op-Ed since high school but I'm hoping to change that with the Daily 49er this coming school year. I may not have published an opinion in the last two years, but I sure as heck formulate them. And this is where I'll write them. When I remember.
• School and career reflections: gotta document my journey of achieving my dreams somewhere.
• Random thoughts I may have on anything and anyone.
• Occasional bits of prose and creative writing. I love journalism and writing about the real world, but I fell in love with fiction first.

I'm not limiting myself to just these and of course there may and probably will be more, but I think I covered the basics.

I'll be back later with a reflection on Begin Again, a movie I fell in love with today (well, yesterday), and a post on my Sunday at Pearl Harbor (which was three Sundays ago... oops).

PS: This post didn't begin with a song lyric. An angel is crying somewhere.

UPDATE: I forgot to include that I'll obviously link to stories I've written, other work/websites/portfolios I've created, or perhaps other people's stories that I really enjoy.

Press play, don't press pause.

Progress march on.

SF Pride 2014

Almost three weeks ago, I traveled to San Francisco with a few of my cousins and my good friend, Jason, for a very special reason. We BART-ed (I like to verbify nouns) to the city to march in the 2014 Pride Parade with the Human Rights Campaign.

Flashback to another three weeks before then: Around the first week of June, I became aware SF Pride was quickly approaching. Because I had such an amazing and fun experience marching in last year's parade for the first time with Equality California, I knew I had to do it again. Being a part of the parade was such a blast. We danced to the music playing on the loudspeakers ("Same Love" was the song that started the parade, are we surprised?), we chanted for trans rights, and yelled for equal rights. Because my friends - Jason, Hannah, Lexi, Anthony, and Karissa - and I were so energetic and loud, the leader of EQCA encouraged us to run around and high five the millions of people cheering in the stands. We did and everyone loved it.

But it was more than just another literally colorful rally with lots of dancing and cheering. I found myself mentally pausing throughout the day, absorbing everything happening around me and what it all meant. And I'm glad I did because I think my hyperactive awareness of my surroundings made it all the more sentimental.

SF Pride 2013

You see, SF Pride 2013 followed two very important Supreme Court decisions for the LGBTQQAP (and whoever else I'm missing) community. The Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA, and California's law banning same-sex marriage, Prop 8, were ruled unconstitutional earlier that week. Love and 100% genuine happiness surrounded me. Now I'm sure these emotions can be felt at every pride event, but for some reason this particular event truly felt like a celebration times three. I still remember people carrying signs that said "Thank you, Supreme Court."

These brief moments of contemplation throughout the day made me realize just how important it all was - not just this one single event, but this movement, this gathering, this needed celebration, this call for love over judgement, hate, and discrimination. I'm trying not to get too into it, but wow. It was beautiful.

Now back to the semi-present.

In early June, I checked my e-mails from HRC and sure enough, there was a link to sign up as a pride volunteer. I decided to invite my cousins along since we do everything together and I wanted to share this with them. My outfit last year for pride was very last minute - bright turquoise shorts, white Toms, and a white shirt with "Love is love" messily painted on with hot pink paint.

Needless to say, I didn't want that again. My cousins and I made "Pride Princess" outfits - aka a tulle tutu and flower crown - in colors that matched a Disney princess of our choosing. I obviously chose my princess alter ego, Rapunzel. And yes, I brought the Pascal stuffed toy I received for my 18th birthday.

One of my favorite parts about taking the train into the city during pride weekend is seeing the cars fill up with all kinds of people, dressed in all kinds of outfits, headed to San Francisco for the same reason. Lucky for us, we were able to sit down because we boarded on the first stop.

Tangent: on the ride to SF, I saw that @JamieFord had favorited my tweet about some books. It was a picture of a few of my favorites I had lent to my cousins and I included that I absolutely love Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is an incredible book y'all need to read. It's definitely one of my favorites. I knew the name sounded so familiar but I couldn't exactly pinpoint who it was. I clicked the Twitter handle to check out the user's profile, and what do you know! The New York Times Best-Selling Author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet had favorited my tweet! Plus 1,000 excitement points for this day.

Anyway, back to the main story.

Once we arrived in San Francisco, we made it through the crowded subway escalators and several streets blocked off streets before finding the HRC leaders. But before we made it to them, we were stopped a handful of times by various people with cameras. Should I call them photographers? I'm not sure. But nevertheless, we were complimented on the "cuteness" of our themed outfits and posed for several pictures.

When we finally reached our group, we decorated ourselves with HRC stickers and I stuck a few in my bag for my laptop, my car, and whatever else I might feel like putting a sticker on. More people took pictures of us and we were asked if we wanted to hold the HRC's main sign and lead the group since we were all "so cute and matchy matchy." We said yes, of course, and while we waited for our turn to start walking in the parade, we danced to the loud music, earning a lot of smiles and comments.

Then began the two hour parade - chanting "What do we want?!" "Equality!" "When do we want it?!" "Now!" Waving at, cheering with, and sometimes blowing kisses to the people in the audience. God, I love the really energetic people in the crowds. I also snapped a few pictures whenever I saw a sign I particularly liked or saw someone interesting.

It was a beautiful and fun day. If I can be home for pride weekend next year, I'll definitely be here again. Until then, I really want to make it to other events too.

Guess who's back, back again?

Justine’s back, tell a friend.

Am I going to be the blogger that starts every post with a song lyric? I just might, whenever possible. And you can bet that I’m singing out loud when I write these things. 

I returned from my family’s 6-day vacation in the beautiful island of Oahu for nine days but I’ve been lagging on a reflection post. Hawaii was wonderful, despite a hives attack that plagued my brother for the second half of the trip and the ten thousand bug bites I obtained during our hike in the rain forest. I can’t really complain, though. Who would complain about being in Hawaii? 

From seeing a grand total of five sea turtles at Laniakea Beach to devouring some Dole Whip at the Dole Plantation to learning about all the Polynesian cultures to indulging in my love of history by visiting the Pearl Harbor museum and U.S.S. Arizona Memorial to swimming in clear ocean water, it was definitely a trip to remember. I’ll post separate reflections soon, I promise.

Other than that, summer has continued to be a mix of spending time with my friends from home and my family, reading, researching, interviewing, and writing for my USA Today College program, reading, sleeping, and catching up on some TV. I also started looking for fall internships.

I can’t believe it’s already the middle of July. I hope everyone is having a relaxed, fun, and safe summer.

Until next time. And I promise I’ll come back with pictures.