Last week I went to a church service that celebrated some boys and girls who made the choice to be abstinent. They were presented with rings and stood upfront with their families as the pastor prayed over them; the audience was filled with smiles and  the sound of clicking cameras. As I stood there watching, I felt two things. I was proud of them for making the harder choice. It’s not easy to be an abstinent young adult, especially not in 2015. Sexually inciting ads, and images are everywhere; YouTube, the radio, television,etc… Peer pressure also contributes to the struggles of  abstinence. It’s not uncommon for a young person to be criticized by their peers because they are making an unpopular choice. So I respect them for their decision.

As I saw father’s standing there with their daughters, I wished that my dad had stood upfront in a church with me. But envy and regret were not ingredients in this gumbo of emotion, just thoughtful wondering of the possible outcomes my life could have altered into. I know that our experiences make us who we are, and I’m glad to be the person I am today.

It’s ironic! The topic of my HIS-105-02 class earlier that very day was chastity. The teacher showed us an old artifact that no one in the class knew the function of. He encouraged us to make guesses about what it was, what it was made of, and what we could discern from the shape of the thing. To me, it looked like an ancient piece of groin armor. I was a little embarrassed at my guess but when he asked us to call out what we thought it could be, I did. A few people chuckled, but guess what it turned out to be. It was an old anti-masturbation and premarital sex inhibiting device.

It was developed shortly after machine manufacturing became possible in Europe, and it was primarily purchased by Christian parents who wanted to prevent their child from doing…stuff. Some had spikes…ouch, and there were female versions too…oh ouch.

My teacher went on about how ludicrous this device was, and I agreed. He said that the lack of trust parents had in their children was reveled when they made them wear a device that physically blocked off their genitalia.

I like that parents encouraged their children to wait until marriage for sex, but don’t think that exposing them to a painful device that forced them into it was effective. It was probably emotionally and physically scarring. People should have a choice. Choosing to make a commitment is always more effective than being forced to commit.

The men, women, boys and girls, who choose to abstain today, because they’ve considered the matter in their heart, are more apt to complete the task than people who do it out of fear or people who feel like they have no choice.

What we decide to do with our bodies is something that students here think about. This is my perspective. May you share it. Until next blog!

The new semester is here and classes are rolling. Teachers are giving students the intimidating yet all important “This is how it’s gonna’ be” speech, the bookstore line is zig-zagging out the back door, and students are drooling over our new cafeteria. The New Academic Year Hustle and Bustle (officially abbreviated N.A.Y.H.B.) is exciting, and I don’t think any other school does it better than Genesee Community College.

As for me, I’m taking 5 classes. Math, Biology, History, Career & Education Planning, and of course Sci-Fi. You can add that one to the list of unique courses that G.C.C. has to offer.

My goal is always to get an A in all of my classes. Here are my top 7 tips for getting that done.

7 TIPS FOR EARNING “A”s IN COLLEGE:

• Make a Daily Schedule: Know what you have to do that day, and plan time for important task. It’s best if you do this the day or night before.

• Get At Least 7 – 9 Hours of Sleep a Night: The science of sleep can be complicated, but simply put, the more you sleep, the more you memorize. Not to mention, good sleep habits keeps your immune system healthy.

• Don’t ALWAYS Hang Out With Friends: Don’t get me wrong, a social life is needed! But too much fun and socializing can lead your focus away from your school work. So don’t forget why you are here.

• OVER DUE Your Assignments: Meaning, impress your teachers! Using your best vocabulary, show off how much you learned! Go Geek! M-W.com is a free online dictionary. Use it to look up words you don’t know while reading material that your teacher assigns, and write the meaning in the margins of your text-book.

• Study for test in bits and pieces: Don’t cram the night before a test or try to go over all the material the day before. Study a little bit each day and do an overall review at the end. This means starting your studying process a week or two before your test. Give the harder classes more time, but don’t neglect the easy ones.

• Keep it positive!! : You can do whatever you set your mind to. Believe and live like you know it’s true, because it is. Don’t let anyone make you settle for less in any area of life. Be your true self 100% of the time, especially when others try to knock you down.

• Ask for Help: For some, this can be the hardest thing to do. If you don’t know what to do or how to help yourself (or others), you need to admit it and ask someone for help.Visit your professor during his or her office hours. Not only can they help clarify information, but most instructors enjoy meeting and getting to know their students outside class time. And, don’t forget about G.C.C.’s great student support services. I’ve provided the contact information and links:
  • Student Support Services: 345-6840
  • Tutoring Center: 343-0055 x 6204. They are located in D207
  • Avoid being prideful, and lean on somebody every once in a while.

Well that’s it! Good luck, and work hard hard in all of your classes this semester! See ya!

About two Friday’s ago I went sailing for the first time. I loved the tranquility of the water, and the excitement caused by waves rocking the boat. With every buckle of the knee I was grateful for not falling off. Ha! I would most definitely do it again, but there was more to the afternoon. Let me start from the beginning…

After meeting at the house of Rich DeValk who owned the sail boat, I explored the property, took in the smells of the lake, and did the inevitable; I took pictures.

I was in awe of the beauty I saw. There was a tree stump laying on it’s side, clearly no longer connected to the ground, but some how small green leaves were peeking through it’s center; vegetation had made something dead alive again. The owner of the house and property decorated the landscape with tables and chairs, and there were flowers everywhere. Snap…Snap…Snap.

The house sat on a geographical rise and there were rickety wooden stairs that lead down to the lake. Around me I could hear the chatter of hidden birds and locust. I descended down, and griped the hand rail as I felt the sway. When I made it down mid-way, I turned back just to see how steep the stairs looked from below, and I saw sun peeking out of the trees. Like light passing through a hole in the center of a hand. I was not alone.

When I reached the bottom, I took notice of some tall purple flowers, but something small, fuzzy, yellow was occupying them. How I wished I had my zoom lens with me; I wouldn’t have had to get as close as I soon did. I squatted down and leaned in. My camera pressed against my glasses and greasy nose. He was a fast flyer, hovering for just a few seconds at a time as he gathered what he came for. I snapped cautiously, peeking out at him over my camera just to make sure I wasn’t getting to close to his “personal bubble”. But the fear was soon gone and I realized he wasn’t harmless, just doing what he was made to do and not preoccupied with hurting me. We were alike in that way.

After walking along the wooden planks that kept me from falling in the water, and seeing tons of spider webs and lily pads (no frogs though, shucks). I went back up the stairs to the house and alas, dinner was served! Sweet corn, grilled chicken, deviled eggs, and yellow squash. A royal feast for college student with ramen noodles as a cabinet staple.

When our bellies were full of food and our mouths of laughter, we motor-sailed up Oak Orchard Creek for Ontario Lake. We passed many docked boats along the creek to the opening of the great body of fresh water. Some people were riding, some eating, and some even swimming. The urge to wave at as many people as I could overcame me and won.

Once we were out there, the motor was turned off, the jib went up and it was a rocky adventure, made complete with an un-capture-able sunset due to a cloud bank on the horizon. We were the only vessel out on there on the wide open sea. Amazing!

Growing up with a diabetic mother has made me more aware of the benefits of healthy eating. Seeing her suffer through many hospital visits triggered a desire in me to see her healthy. I began to encourage her to eat better and I changed the way I ate as well so that we could do it together. Me and my mother have become more health conscious over the years and we’ve both lost a lot of weight.

Check out the delicious and healthy meals I’ve been cooking up this summer!

• Fish or Chicken Tacos!

The chicken was slow cooked in a Crock pot with taco seasoning and water, then pulled apart when soft enough. The fish was sauteed on the stove top with olive oil and taco seasoning. Taco toppings include: guacamole, tomatoes, shredded cheese, sour cream (optional), lettuce, and a mixture of sauteed onions, peppers, mushrooms, and cilantro.

• Fish, Salad, & Rice

Okay so the fish was fried! But it doesn’t have to be, you can bake it, or cook it on the stove top! I cut a Swai fish fillet ( just 70 calories) into 3 pieces and dipped them in egg before I fried it. I added some fresh spinach (no salad dressing) and about 1/2 cup of curry seasoned rice.

• The Lettuce Taco (A Vegetarian Dish)

The lettuce taco contains a sauteed mixture of green onions, mushrooms, cilantro, green peppers, and fresh garlic. Split peas and avocado chunks were added to the mixture at the end of the cooking process. Romain lettuce leafs were filled, sprinkled with cheese, and dotted with spicy Sriracha sauce. This dish was my favorite and it’s good for cleaning out the body!

Get creative in the kitchen tonight and try one of these healthy meals out! See you next time! God Bless and Happy Eating!

This summer I’m taking ENG 105. In this class Professor Toni Boyd is having us study writings about expressions of the human experience. In one of our assignments we were asked to write about what being human meant to us and how it related to art. I submitted this poem and I would like to share with you.

A Few Words

By Iesha DeLesline

Flawed, sick, tired and broken

Striving, succeeding, failing and reviving

Eating, living, digesting and growing

Learning, studying, adopting and forsaking

Going, coming, working and resting

Seeing, admiring, taking and replacing

Dreaming, flying, landing and still dreaming

Seeking, finding, believing and reflecting

Loving, hurting, healing and loving

Praying, waiting, noticing and thanking

Working, sweating, sowing and reaping

Kindness, generosity, doing unto others and being done unto

Oppressing, greed, doing unto others and being done unto

Strategizing, foreseeing, conquering and winning

Listening, accepting, trusting and jumping

Perfected, healed, purposed and whole

Today, as I was reading The Rochester Review (published by The University of Rochester), an article brought social issues to my attention. I read about how U of R college students protested against police brutality and the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and I asked myself, “Where do I stand? What are my feelings and opinions about police to minority interactions? Am I afraid of racism or the police?”

Sometimes, being in upstate New York, I forget about racism. Yes, I am an African American girl with a head full of dreadlocks, but I know the people I interact with see I’m more than that. I act as if I am because I really am, and I think people pick up on that and treat me like a human being, not according to my complexion. I can forget about the physical differences and the stereotypes we’re supposed to be. Like the “black activist” black girl, that’s just not me – but power to you if you are! I mean that.

I have friends from many different nations and we get along swell here in our little college town.

The hands of my friend and I.

The only time I’m made aware of my stereotype is when strange incidents happen, like, when a girl walks into the rest room, sees me, stares an extra second too long, perhaps judging weather it’s safe or not for them to stay, then realizes it’s too late to leave the bathroom without being rude, so they continue to walk in (taking their chances I imagine…risky business you know), and use the bathroom. At that moment I put on a quick smile, finish washing my hands because all I want to do is scramble outta there as fast as I can. I’m never 100% sure if prejudices exist in every moment like that, I just have my instincts to rely on. But I don’t let things like that dictate how I live and how I communicate with different people.

I hope that my character shines through my physicality for the rest of my life, but as I see what’s happening in the world I do harbor a small fear. What if people treat me with racism after college? What if I’m stereotyped then? I feel sad when I think of Trayvon Martin, who was labeled “suspicious” just because he was an African American boy wearing a hood. That makes me want to dress up in the most suspicious manner possible and be as cheerful as I can just to teach society a lesson.

Well, I’m done with this ramble for now. Come back next week!

This weekend was a blast!

This past Friday a group of friends and I went to Letchworth State Park. It was beautiful. The first thing we saw when we arrived was a huge canyon. I stood up on the rocky edge and stared down at the river miles below. Across the great gap in front of us we saw birds flying high and circling around looking for food. We got back into the car and drove to one of the falls. Our group split up as three of our friends decided to take the high trail to view the falls from a distance, while two of us took the low one to get as close to the falls as we could, and we got really close! After descending 127 rocky stairs, that were slippery due to all the rain from Thursday, we headed right  and stood on a misty ledge right in front of the falls. It was amazing; my first time seeing a water fall of that size in person. As we were headed back to try and see the falls from a nearby bridge, my friend noticed a log that lead you to a lower level. He crossed it, peered off to see if we could get closer to the fall, but then decided it was too risky because there was a little stream of water running through the path. But when he came back up, I went down myself and decided it was manageable and worth the risk. So we both carefully and slowly avoided slipping as we reached a ledge that was lower and closer to the water than the previous one we’d been to. It was fun and adventurous!

Saturday, two of my friends, who are from Japan, cooked a wonderful meal and made a delicious dessert called Choco Korone!

I told them that I’d seen a dessert in a Japanese animated show called Lucky Star and they decided to make it for me. I’m so grateful for them, it was good!

After lunch, we decided to go to 7-Eleven. They were giving away free Slurpees because it was July 11th! Get it? 7/11? Ha! We rode our bikes to main street, picking up a friend along the way, and sat in the shade on the side of 7-Eleven with our Slurpees. Yum.

When we got back to College Village we hosted a movie night for all our summer residents. We turned one of the common rooms in our new building, Lilac Hall, into a movie theater and showed “127 Hours” starring James Franco. We served popcorn, soda, tea, and chips (dipped in honey by a few of us). The room was filled with squeals and plenty of people covered their eyes at the climax of the movie. Why? Well if you’ve never seen the movie, I won’t give you any spoilers,  go see it! Until next blog! See ya!

Are you I.T.?

It was a Wednesday morning, 10 a.m., when I arrived in room D203 for the big Information Technology videography process. Through a doorway to an adjacent room, were lights and camera equipment set up. There was a girl sitting on a stool in front the biggest light box I’d ever seen, she had blonde hair and wore a blue GENESEE tee shirt. Her name was Erica Parker. I was told to come in and settle down before the camera guys began the interview process.

For the next hour we listened to Erica tell her story as she responded to questions about her experience in Genesee Community College’s Information Technology program. She just recently graduated from GCC with a 4.0 average in I.T. But before then, she attended GCC’s IT Academy Career Pathways program for high school seniors and earned college credit. “High school student by morning, college student by afternoon!” The beginning of her journey was tough because she noticed that she was the only girl in some of her I.T. classes. She said when she walked into the classroom, everyone stared, and she got the impression that they were wondering if she was in the right place. “Are you in the nursing program?” Erica said she was asked frequently by GCC students. “No, I’m in Information Tech”, was her usual reply. Erica spoke more about how a GCC teacher, Jim Bucki, noticed her potential and encouraged her to think about I.T. as a career option! She did, and she said finding her place became easy when teachers showed a deep desire for her to succeed, and as she learned more about her field. It was inspiring to hear her story and to see how a commercial is made.

More filming and photo ops were done in the afternoon and I got to sit as an extra in one of the videos so keep your eye out for me. 😉

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