05.08 Free Choice Blog

05.08 Free Choice Blog

By Taylor Cruz

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

Chapter 4

            Gaby talks about her home life and how she grew up. She states how her parents got together and how her mother found out that she was pregnant. She explains how her father wasn’t there for her and they’re almost nonexistent relationship. But that he visited her once in a while. He worked on farms and didn't usually see her often, live nearby, and didn't pay child support. Gaby's mother did request that he pay the money, but the courts could never find him. Her father didn’t even attend her quince. The party was something she had to beg for from her family. She also says how one of her brothers, whom she looked up to, drank too much at the party and didn’t dance with her.
            I thought it was messed up that Gaby’s father didn’t go to her party. A girl becomes a woman only once. How could he miss something like that? It’s his daughter for crying out loud. He didn’t even pay for anything. It was also sad how she had to literally beg for a party for her fifteenth birthday. Even under the circumstances. Her brother also shouldn’t have the drinking problem that he has. He should have been considerate to Gaby and not drank. At least for one day he could have quit. She still looked up to him even though he became a teenage parent and drank. He tarnished her idolization of him by being inconsiderate.

04.08 Free Choice Blog

04.08 Free Choice Blog
Assessment Details

By Taylor Cruz

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

Chapter 12 “Getting Big”

        In Chapter 12, Gaby tells about her trip to New York. She talks about from when she got to her hotel to her graduation. She also includes a conversation she had with her father about her project that is known internationally but he claims he hasn’t heard about it. She comes to learn that she’s not missing out on anything anymore. He is the one who is missing out. He didn’t even come to her graduation but all her brothers, sisters, mom, grandma and even an aunt and uncle attended what was the most important day of her life. They were able to do a family portrait which hadn’t been done since Gaby was fourteen. Since Gaby was placed in the top five percent of her class, she was chosen as one of the commencement speakers. Chapter 12 ends with Gaby’s immensely inspirational speech.

        With each page, paragraph, sentence, and word that I read, I was deeply intrigued by Gaby’s determination and strength. Even with her uncaring father who is basically out of the picture, she understood that she wasn’t really the unlucky one, he was. Her father is missing out on a wonderful, caring and loving daughter. If her father cared, he wouldn’t make excuses on not visiting and attending important events or even acknowledging the whereabouts of his daughter. Even with the media craze, Gaby was able to make it as the top five percent of her graduating class and rose above the stereotypes thrown upon her.

03.07 Free Choice Blog

03.07 Free Choice Blog
Assessment Details

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

Chapter 11 “The Aftermath”

            Gaby Rodriguez returned to school the next day after her interviews to find out if they’d gotten a copy of the Yakima Herald-Republic yet. She ended up being on the front cover with the headline PREGNOT. Then there were reporters following Gaby and trying to get a hold her and her family. But with the exposure came comments that were negative. The people missed her point and intentions completely or just simply ignored them. They were made by anonymous people who were being cruel and ignorant. Mr. Greene kept getting phone calls about networks and shows wanting to talk to Gaby about her project. She was also being sent letters and cards at school that she’d have to pick up from the principal’s office. Eventually, she ended up choosing NBC as the first major network where Gaby would be interviewed. She was to go on The Today Show and Telemundo. She was to fly to New York, although she was scared of flying, and took her mom, Juana Rodriguez. She stated that it felt good to be that person is there for people when most people say it but are being fake and don’t really mean it. She helped a teen girl realize that she shouldn’t let people bring her down and to hang in there at school because education is important.

            With every word, I became more intrigued with the story. For her to live down to those low expectations and see or hear what her community was saying must have made her anxious or nervous. I was also astonished on how those strangers and friends said about her whether they really knew her or not. The names they called her and what they said about her was terrible. To judge when they have no right to and call her an “attention-seeker”. But to see how she stayed positive and ignored what they said motivated me to ignore negative people and comments. Gaby’s intent was to show negatives and positives of what her project entitled. She expressed that we should ignore negativity and rise above expectations. I observed that Rodriguez used cause and effect in chronological order. She taught me to also live beyond stereotypes.

02.07 Free Choice Blog

The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

Gaby Rodriguez grew up where nothing was easy. Her mother got pregnant at the age of fourteen and her older siblings followed her footsteps by being teen parents as well. They all hoped that Gaby would break the cycle. But outsiders and her older sister Jessica expected it from her, for them, it was like family tradition. Gaby's plans never included a baby though. For her senior project, she thought it would be a good experiment to see what it was like to live down to the stereotypes and faked a pregnancy.

I was floored that Gaby's mother struggled so much as a child, young adult. She started out in a bad situation of being pregnant at the young age of fourteen to a so much worse predicament. To being forced to get married, having more kids, and being left to take care of all of them is hard. But to also have a selfish and cynical husband who speeds to the courthouse just to file the divorce papers first. Although, he was the only one who did wrong and had infidelities. She didn’t believe him at first and decided to follow him one day and saw it for herself. He then proceeded to take away her children and later abandoned them.

If I were to create notes, I would use the outline style to remember the most important points from the reading. I feel that using outline will help me get a better understanding and a more organized summarization of what I read in the book.  I would know the key points and important information if the notes were done well.

What Kind Of Reader Are You? Quiz Results

Comedy is my favorite genre. I love to laugh. Laughing is what keeps us young. If there's jokes, puns, and pranks in it, I'll read it. The last movie I watched had them in every other scene. For example, in the Tyler Perry movie "Tyler Perry’s Madea's Witness Protection", Madea and Joe were cracking jokes left and right. One of them was on the commercial for the movie. One of the kids told her she looked like skittles and she responded with something like, "Well, you're about to taste the rainbow." I was in stitches.

Nonfiction is my second favorite genre. A true inspiring story challenges my line of thinking. The book I am currently reading was entirely different than I thought it would be. The narrator rises above the stereotypes. She describes how they were built up and how she was expected to become a statistic. She learns and comes to a revelation as she explores what it’s like to live down to expectations then rise up from them by making a stand against them. If I were to read a book, it should be from one of those genres or something similar. Magazines, memoirs, and comedy books are all good examples. I believe my results were fairly accurate.