The Real

Here only the real comes out. The first week of AYA has been exhausting but fun overall. A lot of good friends have been made and the food has been 10/10. No complaints yet although the parking is a little tiring, but AYA made it worth it. Now it’s time to get to the real tea.

Starting off with the first day on Monday, the day was actually really informative and I’ve learned a lot. I met successful people who work in journalism and public relations. I even met a famous influencer. They gave us a lot of insiders within the industry they work for and it was really helpful. It helped me understand what journalism and public relations were and how fun it can be. They get to travel a lot and also work with brands that they love.

Second day Tuesday, It was slightly different from the first day but still really informative and interesting. First as a class talked about our reading and discussed what is means to be a “good” citizen by Westheimer and Kanhe. There’s different levels and tiers to being a good citizen to the society one belongs to. The 3 types are Personally Responsible citizen, Participatory citizen, and Justice – Oriented citizen. Then we had a 5 min break to chat with our lovely peers and a lil snack before the next mysterious guest speaker arrived. The guest speaker expanded more on what public relations were and the different committees that one can partake in.

Wednesday was an active day, not as active as Thursday but we’ll get into that later. The day commenced with our daily review of what we learned the previous day and was cut short to THE BEST LUNCH EVAAAA. A bbq from a lovely place named Earl bbq to celebrate Juneteenth. Then after we had a quick discussion about Juneteenth to set the mood before we headed off to our trip to CAAM (California African American Museum). And the museum was amazing and really insightful. I learned a lot of history and blessed my eyes with beautiful art work. It’s a place that I highly recommend. CAAM is different than other museums because artists share history about the struggles that Black folks faced through glorious pieces of art. It’s really mind-blowing and just awesome as a whole. I’m really grateful that I got to experience such opportunity.

Last but not least today June 20, 2024 which is Thursdays for those of you who don’t carry calendars. I can truly say today was the best and most fun day I’ve had and here we only speak the real. Everyone had to meet at USC at 8:30 so we could meet our appointment at the JANM (Japanese American National Museum) at 9:40. Breakfast wasn’t really ideal but lunch made up for it. I actually enjoyed the Japanese American museum so much it was so interesting and kinda sad but the information really grabbed my attention. The workers did a great job keeping the students interested and I learned a little Japanese in 5 mins. A lady thought me how to count from 1-5 and write. It was crazy because Japanese is considered to be on elf the hardest language to learn. After the museum AYA staff took us to have a little treat at this nice ramen place. It was really good and they had good portions for their prices. So I recommend for people who want to eat at an inexpensive ramen place. Afterwards when we were all satisfied everyone went their separate ways and ended this day on a good note.