Lozo's Blog

  I curse a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. It’s honestly become second nature to me at this point. Anything goes slightly wrong? ****. A little more serious? ****. Genuinely worrying? ******* ****. Exasperated? Jesus ******* Christ. And these are only some of the curse words I use. You can also flip them: ******** **** or add some enriching words: ************* ******* ****. I could go on listing curse phrases for ages, but that’s beside the point. The point is, that I curse a lot. This habit has actually been detrimental to my well-being several times. Just a few weeks ago, at the dodgeball tournament, I was scolded by a teacher for yelling f*** you at the top of my lungs to someone in the stands. I also get in trouble for cursing around children. I’ll be having a conversation with someone (usually when I am responsible for taking care of small kids), and I’ll just start loudly exclaiming several curse words. It’s the worst feeling when you turn around and see dozens ...

  In my 16 years of being alive, I’ve developed many skills. Skills are subjective. What makes you good at something? Is it the look in people’s eyes when they see you do that thing? Is it your outlook on the thing you are doing? Or is it the fact that you can do more than the average person? I don’t know. My eavesdropping ability is skillful, that’s for sure. I might even call it a craft. A craft that requires several important steps that I’ve learned and perfected through the years.  There are several kinds of eavesdropping, some of which require more skill than others. The easiest form is the “outside the door” eavesdrop. This technique is seen in books, movies, and pretty much every other kind of entertainment. All it requires is two people having a conversation in a different room, and silence from the listener. You stand outside the door, eavesdropping, making sure that no one opens the door. The more commonly used technique is much more difficult to execute: what I’ll c...

  Humans are weird. We’re strange, unnatural, hypocritical beings, and many of us still don’t understand compassion. Just turn on the news, and you’ll see some story of indescribable hate and lack of empathy. Some murder, some terrorist attack, some robbery. Some world. The song that I think describes where I am right now describes where I am at any moment. It describes an aspect of human life that can only be found in people who are apologetic, who admit to their wrongdoings and try to move on. I think that almost everyone at Uni is like this, so most of you should relate too.  The song that I’m talking about is actually a love song, but I understand it as much more. It transcends topics, ideas and people. Even its name, “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, could be interpreted as almost anything. The song describes a man who has done something bad to his partner, and is, as a most rudimentary term, apologizing. At first glance, the song is undoubtedly a love song, there is no argument...

  When I was eight, I battled a dragon in the lonely mountain. I swear I did. When I was ten, I also vanquished the most powerful wizard (arguably) of all time. Oh, and did I mention that time when I single handedly defeated the titan Kronos at the battle of Manhattan? I’m sure that by now, you’re thinking that I’m delusional. That I took a wrong turn in the forest and picked the wrong mushrooms. But I haven’t lied so far. I did all of these things, I’m not joking.  If you still don’t understand what I’m getting at, I’m going to give you a push in the right direction: I did all of these things in my head. That’s right, I’m talking about books. Oh, those incredible books. They are the physical manifestation of ideas, shared with countless others, which allow people to connect to the story in their own little ways. Have you ever read a book, and realized that the setting it is describing subconsciously turned into a place that you know? That you made Jonas’ room in The Giver ...

The best time in my life so far (or at least the time with the best memories) was elementary school. I know this is unconventional, but I stand with my statement. As an elementary school student, I wasn’t burdened with as many worries and insecurities that burden me today as a highschool student. There was no college to think about, no things to constantly be taking care of, and there was almost no homework. School itself was easy for me, so I spent my time having fun with my friends and having new experiences. But let me be clear: if I was able to go back, I don’t think I would say yes. To reverse the maturity and learning that I have done since then would honestly be very stupid. You have to remember: returning to childhood innocence would in turn require a return to childhood ignorance, something that I don’t wish on anyone, including myself. Even though, in times when things are especially tough, a part of me does wish I could go back to a time when everything was more simple, I ac...

     There's one thing that has been grabbing at my attention since the beginning of Sag Harbor, and I think I should write about it here. It has to do with an aspect of Benji's personality/writing style that kind of shows who he is as a person and his opinions about life.       I'm talking about his extremely complex understanding of society and societal problems. Throughout the book, he makes constant references to small behaviors in people/differences between his culture and others that show this really big analysis that is going on in his head. When he talks about race, for example, he seems like an expert, and can see between the lines when certain things happen. I think it's important to contrast this with Jason Taylor, since they're both pretty close in age but also completely different. Jason doesn't really understand what's going on in life. It takes a big event to teach him about the gravity of the Falkland wars, and he doesn't really know ab...

     I know this is a broad topic, but I thought it was important to address Jason's broad coming of age in this book, and, more specifically, the ways in which we can tell. His behavior changes a lot from the beginning to the end. At the beginning, we can tell that he is uncomfortable, immature and scared to speak up, even when other people are hurting him. However, he goes through many growth experiences throughout the book that open his eyes, the most notable of which being his interactions with Eva. She points out many interesting things to him that he hadn't noticed before, and kind of exposes all of these things that Jason has been keeping locked up inside of himself (like his stammer and the "hairy barbarians").      One of the biggest changes we notice in Jason is the fact that he stops using the word "gay" to describe things, and even sometimes uses words that he would have described as "gay" before (like "beautiful" when he'...