aloha, my name is mikhail herrera. I'm a student at Penn State Harrisburg looking to pursue a major in communications. I'm from the beautiful city of New York. I didn't live in a glamorous part of it, but thats what makes the city so diverse. my parents are from the Dominican Republic and moved here many, many years before I was even a thought of. I'm writing this blog for my honors english class, which is kinda cool I suppose because that means I'm using the intarwebs during class. this blogging thing isnt entirely new to me seeing as I've had a xanga, livejournal, myspace and facebook. so, yea...I'm a pretty laid back guy, I don't let things bother me much. many people I know say I'm the nicest person they've ever met, which is weird to me since that vibe is completely unintentional.

so, yea the reading I did for class over the last 5 days in textbook had some pretty interesting topics. it kinda hit me a little since it talked about how media (particularly television) really skews politics, seeing as I want to be television production. I have always noticed how anchors and tv personalities aren't really allowed to express their opinions, but I think that is their job to just deliver the facts and let their audience develop their own opinions. a show in which people of opposing views discuss certain topics could work well, but I think many people are so one sided these days its hard to find a compromise between the two (or more in some cases). unfortunately, I think its acceptable to believe that certain facts are left out, which really do end up altering one's opinion. I think our society at this point in time we've become pretty sheltered by the ideas presented to us by the media.

appropriate that I write this on the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 because it has become an excuse to shelter us. that had to have been one of the weirdest days I've ever lived to see. it started out odd I must say. I walked to school with a classmate of mine I rarely talked to (rather cute girl I should say) and my teacher and on the way to school we asked who our teacher was going to vote for in the primary election for mayor (which was supposed to happen that day). then we were in class and they started calling peoples names over the pa. as they started calling names from the loud speaker more and more frequently, I started to think more and more something just wasn't right. my cousin's mother picked me, her, and my brother up and took us home in a taxi. the driver began to tell us the current situation sometime after my cousin and her mother were dropped off. he told us the bridges and tunnels were closed and something about a big cloud of smoke downtown. me and my brother get home, and we get a nice hug from our grandmother who was a bit frantic. my father was sitting in the living room with a pretty grimm look, which is very unlike him. I looked at the tv and saw the towers burning with that black smoke eminating from the hole. then I saw the footage of the second tower getting hit by the airplane. then watching the towers collapse was just mindblowing. I remember I went to the store with my mother to get a few things shortly after she came home. my usually vibrant neighborhood was silent and almost deserted. no music from anyones car stereo's, no one playing dominoes, no planes in the air since they grounded all flights. you know what was weird though, that was the bluest sky I had ever seen and it sucks that it has to be associated with such a horrific day. one thing the attacks have really done for me is that I it has given me a reason to always expect the great day ahead. thats probably because thats all I couldve expected the day after that. being a New Yorker it pains me to continue to hear the constant bickering about rebuilding lower manhattan. we owe it to the innocent that lost their lives to rebuild the area that they used to work in, have lunch at, take pictures of the rest of the city from.