Marathon-Relay

I'm running a 13-miler next year, March 2013! I KNOWWWWW....GAAAAHHHLEEEE! Well for me, it's hard as heck because I can barely do a mile! But I'm training now...got 4 months to go! Usually I don't take myself seriously unless I have someone holding me accountable....so that's why I ask for yall support! If you have the time, please come out and show us some love! Next year, March! If you got the money, pull out ya wallets! HAHA! If you can donate a $1, it'll make all the difference! If not, say a little prayer for us! :) Thank you for your support. My sister, my family, and TCSC/APIOPA appreciates it! 'Ofa atu!

RANDOM

Hey yall.... I'm actually on here to look up some old events that have sparked my interest in community work. As I look through these pages I see how really long winded I am! And I LOVE IT! haha Anyways, it's interesting to see how much I've grown and how much I've learned from these past events. I'm humbled by it. But ummm...I have always been a fan of writing...free writing to be specific. I don't enjoy essays--too structured for me. I remember when I was in the hospital one time in high school, my mom brought me a journal and said, "Here, I brought this for you to write in." Little did she know, I had a school notebook at home that I already used as my journal. Later down the line I got another journal in Ta'ahine 'O Moana...just to encourage more writing. But my point is, writing is good! Writing is good for your mind, your heart, and (I feel) your soul. You let a lot out and you write things that you may not even say. To my surprise, I write totally different than how I talk--that is if I'm not textin' you. But it's something I enjoy...and when I'm too lazy to write in my journal I type. LOL. Such a lazy thing to do but hey! It's another form of letting things out. Anyways, this was such a random post and I just wanted to share it. Have a great day yall! :)

Pacific Islander Vote 2012

ELEVATE YOUR VOICE

I'm DONE with my internship in Washington, DC but started a whole 'nother chapter in Southern California with electoral activity. APIAVote, APALC, & EPIC started up a Pacific Islander (non-partisan) Voter Campaign, ELEVATE YOUR VOICE! Our efforts are going full blast with 5 different Pacific Islander Organizations trying to GET OUT THE VOTE with 1,000 new Pacific Islander voters! Check us out on facebook, instagram and twitter! Make a shoutout, post a picture of your voter efforts, or tell us WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO VOTE & ELEVATE YOUR VOICE! I'm looking forward for yall posts ;) Tau toki sio!

----I have an online voter registration widget on the side of this page---->>>

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pacific-Islander-Vote-2012/105462832939485

Instagram: @PacificIslanderVote2012

Twitter: @PIVote2012

My new adventures....

So I've been warming up to the east coast (no, not the weather) and it's not as bad as I thought! The heat wave is gone so now the weather stays in the 80s! YAY! Since the weather is good, our mood is good and we're more willing to go out and explore hehe.

Anyways, my organization APIAVote has been prepping for our Presidential Town Hall taking place next week, Saturday, July 21! We have some representatives of both campaigns coming out to speak on issues that they will address towards the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. What I've been doing was trying to get connections of Pacific Islanders AROUND THE COUNTRY who would be willing to host viewing parties of the town hall. The more numbers we show in supporting this event, the more likely the candidates would pay attention to us! Numbers SAY BIG THINGS! So tune in next week! I'll probably be popping my head in somewhere in the camera view so I can make a shoutout..hehe! Here's our link http://www.apiavote.org/presidential-town-hall. Check it out and spread the word!

Welp, when I'm off the clock I continue to do the random things that come to mind. So we heard there was a reception with free food so we went to that at the Capitol building. Then we got to see our big sister, Ursula Siataga! Thanks for coming out! It felt good to see our Cali people and kick it like Californians do-- sit outside the cafe and talk even after the shop closes :) Also told us successful (and funny) stories of UNITED PLAYAZ based in San Francisco! Would love to visit some day soon!

We attended the White House Initiative's API Youth Summit at the WHITE HOUSE! It was a cool event, but I'm not gon' lie, I wish more of the P.I. part of API showed up! A lot of our P.I.s don't know about these type of things...or they just don't care. We met a cool young activist from Utah named Lavinia Taumoepeau. She's an ambassador of the HYPE movement and a full time student at University of Utah--all while being a mother! :) Made connects and we've got a National PISA page to connect Pacific Islanders all across the nation. If you're not added already, add yourself to it: http://www.facebook.com/groups/npisa/ YOU WON'T REGRET IT! There's tons of resources on there that you won't get anywhere else! Join and share! :) That's it for now...will update you with my adventures soon enough! :) Tau toki sio!!

Awesome weekend...

This past Sunday (June/24) was King Kamehameha's Lei Draping Ceremony at the U.S. Capital Building's Visiting Ceremony. Native Hawaiians and many supporters from across the country came with their love and respect for the commemoration of King Kamehameha. This was my first time hearing about this event so I dressed up in my puletaha and kiekie (Tongan traditional wear). Faaputu and I met up with our elders from California like Aunty Sharon, Aunt Jane, Uncle Victor and more. It felt good in our hearts that we met up with our people from home. Anyways, Putu and I had close seats to view the lei'ing of King Kamehameha's statue. There were great speeches done by great representatives of Hawai'i. I met Congressman Faleomavaega of America Samoa and the first thing he seen was my kiekie. After identifying me as a Tongan, he asked me to present his tapa cloth (ngatu in Tongan) on behalf of him for the Tongan community. As he went up to deliver his speech on our Hawaiian cousins and Senator Akaka, I had the honors of holding up the ngatu and presenting it to Senator Akaka! All in respect with my kiekie. After attending the banquet, Congressman took Putu and I out to dinner(after we already ate at the banquet). In between all the jokes and laughter, I grew mad respect for a man so humble as he was. I felt honored to spend time with the Congressman and have him personally invite us to his luncheon on Wednesday with other Pacific Islander interns in DC. For the first time in DC, I felt comfortable to be myself off the clock! Congressman is very down-to-earth and reminds me so much of family because of the way he holds great hospitality for us islanders. He told me alot about his family and friends from Tonga and Vava'u. He reps HA'APAI! Overall, I'm thankful to have met Congressman Eni and learn how a great leader is a person who can serve others. As of now, I'm starting my week fresh with work! Still expanding my network of Pacific Islander organizational contacts and people who can hook me up with Pacific Islander contacts...other than that, I'm attending luncheons and networking events to enjoy others company :) I'm excited for everything coming up :)

Random Day in DC

Summer in Washington DC

MY GIRLS AND BOYS FROM MY YOUTH MADE THESE AWESOME POSTERS :)

For the people who are slow like me, Washington DC (District of Columbia) is in the East Coast...NO, it's not Washington state, Seattle. LOL! That was me when I first thought of DC.

Anyways, I was accepted this summer as an intern for APIAVote (Asian Pacific Islander American Vote) in DC! I am representing EPIC (Empowering Pacific Islander Communities) based in Southern California. I was blessed with the opportunity and additional funding for my airfare and housing in DC from EPIC :) Now this city girl is residing in DC for this summer!! I live in Rockville, Maryland and I take a 30-40 minute train ride to the city (our Poly term for DC). Other than that, my main transportation is my footmobile! HOLLA! (I'm definitely losing weight before I go back home.)

The work that APIAVote does revolves around trying to increase our numbers of Asian and Pacific Islander voters. Their mission is to mobilize Asian and Pacific Islander communities in voter activity and civic engagement. I work with other Asians but I am the only Pacific Islander. My mission for this internship is to learn the whole get-down on Pacific Islander votes- number of registered voters, who actively votes and what will make people implement voting. My mission for my community is to take something away from this internship and utilize it back at home. Last but not least, my own mission is to realize if this is a path I would want to take when I grow older. So far, it has been a passion for me to help my Pacific Islander people in any way, shape, or form.

The first couple of days were real kick back. I helped with recruiting student organizers and P.I. people to the Voter Registration Training in Carson on Saturday, June 23. So far, so good.

This past weekend I attended the National Election Strategy Session with General Alliance. At this conference, there were Executive directors, student organization directors, and more that represented different communities around the country. After I came out of my shell (yesss I'm very shy with new people) I came to talk to people who were down to partner with the Pacific Islander community and work with us. A lot of their work was BIG TIME organizations like National Students Bill of Rights and Hip Hop Congress which were people who promotes the importance of voter activity through the push of the bill of student rights or hip hop music. Did you know they have free campaign websites? I learned how to organize phone banking and voter registrants through NOI (New Organizing Institute). It's wayyy easier than excel.

Everything I've learned here so far is GREAT! And comes in handy with what I want to push for in my community back at home. I'm meeting very inspirational and hardworking people. It checks me to work just as hard and get my work done too. One thing that's motivated me is knowing that Pacific Islanders are not (or hardly) represented out here. A lot of organizations claim API (Asian Pacific Islander) but they were not able to deliver when I asked them what were they working on within Pacific Islander communities. To a lot of them, we're the UNKNOWN. It's unfair! But at the same time, I can't blame them...it's hard to get all our Pacific Islanders to realize the importance of civic engagement. Soooo...this is where I came in...if they have no information on Pacific Islanders, what can I do to bring forth my community? What do they need me to do to push their efforts to the Pacific Islander community? This brought up a lot of discussion but people were really looking into it. My plan now is to just bug them until they can't take it anymore and finally do something about it. :)

I haven't had time to go out but hopefully this weekend I'm able to go out and do some sight-seeing. Going to work everyday has already been quite the adventure but I want to go to the main headquarters, the White House!!!! :) Excited for what's in store for me! Just praying it all goes well and I take more out of this experience than I can amount to think of! Stay tuned!! :)

P.S. I'll be posting more (pix and all) about my roomates, Faaputu Vaafuti and Norah LeDoux! And my wonderful family host, the Fa'amuli's! :)

PRESSING TOWARD THE GOAL (note to self)

SO WHAT'S YOUR GOALS FOR THIS YEAR? IN OTHER WORDS, WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEARS RESOLUTION?

How are you going to reach those goals? Plan it? Work harder? Study more? Eat less? (that's me) lol

To kick off the new year, we wanted to have bible study with "setting goals" for 2012!
So if you have the chance to read...read Phillippians 3:12-21.

Whatever is in the past, is in the past. Look forward to the future & SET YOURSELF SOME GOALS...God has intended it! And in ALL YOUR WAYS, do not fail to acknowledge Him.

Phillippians 3: 13
"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,"

Keep a clear conscious of what you want to achieve...if at anytime you feel a change of heart, let the Lord show you... :)

STAY BLESSED

Lessons For Life

So I'm reading this book, Lessons for Life by Sylvia Browne.

I want to call it a book of salvation. I'm not saying it's a substitution for the Bible but it's more like a guide book of how you should identify yourself spiritually.

I worry a lot (mentally) and I think that's what has affected me physically. It's all about plucking those bad roots of your past and harnessing your weaknesses into strengths. This is the first 8-week program I have ever done and it has already made a drastic change to how I should think (positively). I'm on my first week. LOL. Don't judge me but I can't get my mind off of this book (hence why I'm writing about it).

I guess this can be a little pre-test to how I'm feeling about it now. I guess I'll write about it after I read it too.

For anyone who feels me on this post, I highly recommend reading this book. Whether it's reading it online or having to go to the bookstore for it. It's a mind-blower!

Shoutout to my older cousin Kulaea Falevai for hooking me up with it. I'm sitting here thinking, "If only I had this book sooner, I would've handled situations a lot better!" LOL. But I guess that's how it goes, ya take the test first than learn the lesson. Much love and respect to Sylvia Browne. You've helped a lot with what I'm going through (mentally)...haha.

Back to reading :)