Hey Guys. I'm going to give you my life update of the last year. So, it might be a little long, but for those interested, here it is:Today it is August 17, 2014. Around this time last year, I had just finished a mountaineering trip in the Swiss alps. I connected with people from places around Europe practiced my Spanish, got in shape, and spent time with my family before I became somewhat prepared for another year that was going to the ride of my life. I applied for a program called "Middle College", and got in, so in short that means I go to school 3 days a week where I have one class where I get all my credits for English, History, Economy and Government by reviewing time magazine articles, while taking 2 other classes which are a Math or Science, and an elective/language/some other general ed requirement, and just ride on 3 classes while getting double credit at the same time. I would go into the cafeteria everyday, get a Yerba Mate, and then go to one of my classes. I made a few friends in both Math and Spanish but that was mainly to lessen the boredom of Spanish being easy and Math being confusing.
About halfway through my 10th grade semester I got sucked into a program that is changing my life. I randomly got a group email from one of the students in Middle College, the subject saying "MUST READ", so I read. I basically filtered out the email except "Community service hours", and just decided to come to the first meeting of a program called "Youth and Government". I walked in that week to a small room painted with different colors. There were a variety of teens there, playing loud music, I was soon greeted by what looked to be a 28 year old male with an orange beard a beanie and an energetic voice. "Welcome!", he said, "Are you a new delegate", not knowing what that meant, I somewhat nervously said "Yes!". I then asked what they did. I honestly had no idea. So he said "We write bills, debate, and go to conferences". I thought this sounded slightly boring, but the people seemed cool, so I went along with it. He said the first conference was that weekend and I would have to sign up within 2 days, I figured why not, since I only had school. I boarded a bus at 7 am saturday with a bunch of teenagers who I didn't know and I struck up a conversation about an hour into the ride. It ended up going in the direction of me rapping and stuff, and I showed off some lyrics in my folder. They said "You can use this!, all of this material is perfect!". It then struck me like a lightbulb. A lot of my raps are political and opinionated. They are amo for debate. If we create bills that are interesting and provocative, I can debate them with raps, and change the world. And when I didn't rap I still had fun winning arguing. This was going to be a fun year. We arrived at the dusty military base with a bunch of different people in delegation sweatshirts holding up signs and running and screaming. They were "Campaigning". It was awesome. We were crowded into a tent with 3,000 people. We sat there for 1 1/2 hours listening to speeches, I became apprehensive as I had no idea what this was about but I was there. After that waiting competition was over our delegation got in a circle. Our delegation leader said we were going to play games, in other words we rap and dance battled for 45 minutes and then went into our cabins. I was given a flier saying, "Bob 1 Manual" or something like that, "Bob" standing for Camp Roberts military base. We got settled in/ wandered around and met awesome people from all around the state, San Diego to El Dorado, then we were told to go into groups. I looked at my name tag: "Group 4", ok I thought to myself, find someone else who is in group 4 from Santa Barbara. I found someone and we went to a room with a bunch of people and after we did ice breakers we were given a debate topic. "Should colleges be scoping out applicants' facebooks" or something like that. It was clear. I was here to bring justice to the students whose privacy was being hacked and colleges were creating prejudices of people before reading their applications and scaring students out of their freedom of speech. While the opposition was stating the argument I was quietly in my seat jotting counterarguments. I waited till the end and one by one shot down the arguments of "if kids want to be accepted into colleges they should be careful what they post" and stuff like that by saying "College applications are a way to control helpless children and their self esteem", everyone was clapping and smiling after I finished my rant, I didn't expect that. I went to my cabin and told my counselor all about it and he was very proud. I woke up the next morning and went with my delegation to the next big session and after that we broke back into groups. About halfway through the day we went to the theatre and we learned about the program called "National Issues Commission" and one of the debate topics was something about oil subsidies and investing in green energy. I got up and rapped about how Oil is a scam and it acidifies coral kills wildlife and creates war. I got told to step off after 6 lines. The clapping stopped and they booed the moderator. I was upset because I did not finish my point, I think they had never seen a kid rap a debate. But everyone was supportive and almost the whole crowd came up and asked to hear the rap afterwards. So it was a win, and after that I was not stopped from rapping at the next conference. I told my counselors and delegation the story and they were proud. They told me to keep speaking my mind. Another odd experience. Later that day I went to another thing with my friend explaining one of the programs within youth and government. I don't remember which program it was but somewhere in the meeting I cracked a joke and one of my friends in front of me fell out of his chair laughing. Throughout the meeting there were random spurts of laughter from everyone who saw the incident. We kept shushing each other which made it more funny. After that we went to another meeting followed by dinner, followed by Club BOB from 9-11. Club BOB is the dance party. They played bangerz and for 2 hours we danced and verged on moshpitting to electronic music before we all dispersed back into our cabins. We then went home the next morning. I had realized then that I had entered a truly special program. I continued school until the semester ended and gradually tolerated it more. During Christmas break I went to Lake Tahoe with my dad which was super fun and we skied for 4 days. I also recorded 2 more songs which I put on my soundcloud in addition to another song I would record in February, also on my soundcloud. Youth and Government meetings continued throughout winter break and the next conference was in mid January. I had found out one of the people in our delegation was running for Youth Governor, the biggest position in the program. I was told they needed someone to go with her to another delegation and help campaign. Naturally I rapped on the podium to express that our delegation was a revolution saving the orangutans from the evil Palm Oil plantations, we were the "Lorax Posse/Nation/Gang", I got a standing ovation and everyone threw up the symbol, I felt as though I had pushed my delegate to the top. I discovered at the next conference however, that Political parties separate the candidates into tents, which creates peer pressure and is unfair to smaller delegations. So she lost, but our secretary of state candidate prevailed past the primaries. I did the NIC (National Issues Commission) for my program which is mainly debating proposals that are like bills but nationwide. This was when I became known as the rapper. First there was an example proposal which we debated on about seals and clubs. Someone opposed making clubbing illegal (just for debate purposes), and he went first. I then rapped 8 bars about animal cruelty to our seal brothers and sisters and one the debate. Next was another Oil proposal. I was going to finish this time. I talked about birds drowning, economy dying, then I said, "Your talking profit not people so stop talking fool, all your arguments are based off of a fossil fuel", he took it in good heart, though, so it was all good. Then, the biggest moment of all was when we did a debate exercise and one group of people for drone strikes were on one side, and one side against it, they had their turn but I had saved a rap on american aggression and did that for a minute and it was all over. I was slowly realizing the power rhyme played into debating. The next big moment in Bob II, was the giant dance party which was extremely fun as usual. I came home and went back to school after skiing in Lake Tahoe and Utah with my dad and then learned a bunch of cool information and rap fuel in marine biology class which would continue through out the semester while practicing character writing in Chinese class throughout the semester as well. Through out I was also writing raps and forming the concept for my album and went skiing for a week in fresh powder in colorado in cliffs and trees and became a level 9! Other than that the main event in the semester was the grand finale of conferences: "Sac" or Sacramento. "Sac" can mean a lot of things including: Participating in protests, attending poetry slams put on by delegates, watching hypnotists, debating, jumping in bouncehouses campaigning, and my personal favorite, crushing debates. You connect with so many cool people over a span of 4 1/2 days that you really don't want to leave. But you have to, and I guess it will be back next year and I'm ready to run. After summer started I had a great time in hawaii with my family, including my grandparents, snorkeling, barbecuing and hanging out, and I was very grateful for that. Then, after that I worked for 2 weeks at the local YMCA with 9-11 year olds playing sports, that was fun, it felt good to do something productive after hanging out in Hawaii for a while. Little did I know I would be thrown into an experience even more life changing than Y&G. One day I got a call when I got home from the Y from my mom saying, "I found a camp called Global Youth Peace Summit! It sounds a lot like GLF and Y&G, I think you might like it", again, like with a lot of awesome things that have happened in my life, I just went a long with it. I went up on a bus from Oakland to a random forest in Foresthill California. I spent a week connecting to people by learning about their cultures, prayers, and food, playing soccer, making jokes, dancing, participating in teamwork exercises, playing music, and so much more. I would be woken up by my counselor chanting Quechuan prayers and go to sleep after a cabin circle talking about life and stuff like that. We would have circles throughout the week talking about deep stuff and crying and becoming better people. We also went to the pool and I invented this dance move called "The Dolphin" where you jump out of the water and soon it became a trend. We opened up about our lives in camp and broke the barriers of worrying about what other people think and that's how we became such great friends. I talked to a lot of people whether they be from Burma, or a Native American reservation in Montana. I learned so much. After the experience a few of the participants went to a music studio in Santa Rosa to make an album about the experience which will be released soon. That was an amazing experience too. I connected with an overwhelming amount of people on an overwhelmingly deep level this summer. I then when I came home recorded 2 more Lorax related songs, "Amazon", and "Lorax Gang", #LoraxGang4eva. I have learned this year that my life is what I make it and that I have the conscious choice to choose what I care about, so I can focus my central vision onto only what is truly important, and then I will have the power to change the world. I jumped into Y&G and gained new confidence, used that confidence to have the best experience of my life this summer, and will combine both this confidence and this happiness in order to change the world. Thank you for reading. Until next year, -Mark
P.S. For those interested, this is the link to the Global Youth Peace Summit (Click on the "Projects" tab and you will find it): http://amalafoundation.org
