There should be a law against this.

Living at home when you graduate from college should be against the law.

It's so troubling that you spend 4 (or 5+) years finding your independence and experimenting with your boundaries as a free individual, to go back to square one when you move back into the house that you escaped from in the first place. Yes, of course, we could sit here and talk about how our parents really care about us and how they want the best for us so they shelter us for our own good - but who the hell would want to talk about that? Let's face it, we're grumpy, bitter college kids who are spoiled by freedom, and adding younger siblings and parents into that mixture is DEADLY.

College is a big tease.

You spend so much money and put yourself into so much debt for that piece of paper that supposedly tells the world, "I am capable of doing X, Y, and Z," and you hope and pray that with your combined college extracurriculars and your fancy piece of card stock paper that you can earn enough money in a new job that will help you continue to live and enjoy that freedom and lifestyle you've grown so accustomed to. It's a fallacy y'all.

On top of that, trying to explain to your parents that you're just acting like _____ or ______ (insert: whiny, lazy, bitter, pissy) because you are going through independent withdrawals is a lost cause because the only thing you're hearing in return is that you need to be more _______ and _______ (insert: responsible, focused, motivated, nice to your younger & annoying siblings). It's a cycle of them not wanting to hear you out, and you not wanting to hear them out. This just doesn't work!

So I guess by now you're thinking I'm going to tell you what the solution for these problems are....

Do I look like I have a solution?! I'm clearly this angry, bitter, ex-college kid, and we don't have solutions. I can't change my parents just as much as they can't change me. I know I'm going to pay for this when I have kids one day, and that I'm going to be telling my kids exactly what my parents are telling me, but I've grown to accept that this is a cycle of life - since I have to deal with being an annoyed recent graduate, my parents are going to have to deal with my bitterness. Hey, no one said being a parent was easy. I know I'll get over it eventually, but considering I just got out of the best experience of my life, aka JMU, I'm going to give myself another couple of months to grieve.

Freedom, this isn't a goodbye, but it's a see ya later until my job pays me enough to not be so bitter.

Peace & Love,

Candace

p.s. the "Under my roof you follow my rules" line is sooooo 1953.

Is this what hurt feels like?

"You're not annoyed and you're not angry. You're hurt."

That's what my mom said to me tonight. I've been feeling terrible lately because I've been bottling up a feeling inside me for a few days. I don't really want to talk about what it actually was because I don't want that person to read this and know it was them causing me that much pain, to be completely honest - I'm not ready to confront them and tell them how they made me feel, so I'm going to put it off like I did all my college papers and projects. The point is that I was trying to express my feelings about a certain incident, and I kept using the words angry or annoyed or frustrated, but my mom told me that truly what was happening to me was that I was feeling hurt.

And that's when it hit me...

Rarely do I ever use the word hurt to describe my feelings. A lot of times when I do feel hurt I try to cover it up by saying that I'm angry or annoyed. All I'm really doing is building up a wall in front of my heart, because I don't want to admit that I'm not a hard ass like people think I am, and that truly a lot of things just plain hurt my feelings. Vulnerability is just not something I'm a fan of, and because of my complete fear of it I've often turned down the wrong emotional road to run away from it. Well, that's got to end and it's ending right now. From now on, I'm going to promise myself to let myself feel hurt. Let my heart feel pain and sadness. Not let myself turn that heartache into anger because it's all a lie. No more. Time to change.

Feeling hurt - it's a new look.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Try Ignorance

Motivating students to want to study is the hardest job I've ever had to do.

Everyday I struggle with my students trying to figure out different ways to motivate them to want to be in school. I think I've run out of stories in my memory bank of how important school is, why you need to try to graduate, and the opportunities that become available to you if you really dedicate your time to some education. Recently though I read a quote again and it finally really clicked in my head how simple the concept was. The quote reads: "If you think education is hard, try ignorance." One of the teachers in my department has it hanging up in her room, and I stare at it almost everyday, but it finally processed fully in my head. When I first saw it I thought oh sure that make sense but I guess I didn't really completely open my mind to it.

Try Ignorance. Try Ignorance. Try Ignorance. Try Ignorance. Try Ignorance.

This has been my mantra for the last week as I think about it deeper and deeper. It's such a simple and complex concept at the same time. Can you imagine how much harder your life would be if you didn't have even the basic education that you do? Honestly, now that I think about it, I've seen how difficult it is even in my own family. My grandpa for example never was fully educated, and it was so hard for him to make a life for himself here in the USA. Now I'm not saying my grandpa isn't brilliant, because he is probably one of the absolute smartest people I know, in wisdom and experience. Plus, watching the Discovery Channel 24/7 does actually improve your IQ if you ask me! But I just try to tell these kids, especially because my students are all immigrants to this country, that while they may think studying for this test is hard or learning a new concept is hard, it's nothing compared to how hard living a life of ignorance can be. It's so simple, just like that.

Yes I know these kids are all young, and I know that all of us at that age might have been a little rebellious against school, but I think that just telling yourself over and over again "Try Ignorance" really can impact your perspective on how important a simple education can be in your life. Motivating these kids is a daily struggle of mine, but I think little by little I'm getting to them everyday :)

Peace & Love,

Candace

Too old for Halloween?

Apparently, you can never be too old to dress like a skank on Halloween.

This year was my first Halloween in my neighborhood because we moved into this new house when I was a sophomore in college. Since I've been away at JMU, I haven't really gotten a chance to build the close relationships with my neighbors like the rest of my family has. I found out that apparently the man across the street has an annual Halloween party where he invites a bunch of friends, makes a ton of food, and the only entrance fee is a bottle of your favorite liquor and a costume. I decided to go to this Halloween bash on Friday the 29th, and I was very amazed with what I found...

First of all, the house was decorated so beautifully and I was impressed with their dedication to the party. We dropped off our bottle of liquor and I started to look around. The very first thing I saw was a group of women that had to have been in their mid 30s to 40s in extremely short skirts for their "costumes." I felt like I was at JMU all over again but with MUCH older women who were highly inappropriate. I guess I've just gotten so used to seeing the typical college girl wearing next to nothing as an excuse for the holiday celebrations, but I thought that when you graduated from college that all changed. Boy was I wrong.

It only got worse the next day. On Saturday I went with some high school friends to a bar in Reston to check out the Halloween scene. None of us was dressed in a scandalous outfit, in fact, I was a monk this year, and we were curious to see what other "adults" were dressing like these days. It was more like what these adults WEREN'T wearing that was worrying us. My gosh, I could talk forever about the different types of people I saw at this bar. I did a lot of reflecting the next day because I was just so amazed at how some people continued to act even as adults. I guess I've just been expecting this huge change in people once they graduate, but it's clearly not there. It's not all bad though, I did enjoy myself with these older folks who were still trying to act like they were in college hahaha. It was just a strange experience I suppose.

Anyway, I guess all this means is you can be 40 and still wear a slutty Halloween costume. You may be judged but hey, it's a free country so whatever. Let it out sexy mama!

Peace & Love,

Candace

Momma Lumbergh

I often find myself making connections between my mother and Bill Lumbergh from Office Space.

Do you have a friend (acquaintance is more accurate) that when you see them you immediately turn the other way and try everything possible to avoid them? I had a few of those people in college and high school, but I've recently noticed that most of my "Lumbergh Alert" instincts come when I'm around my mom. She has this habit now of calling me or texting me when we are both in the house, and 9 out of 10 times it's because she wants something from me.

"Take Junior to the football game"

"Bring the dogs inside"

"Can you go buy me some tacos from Taco Bell?"

"Come up here and read my [enter random document from work]. Does it look good?"

"Go pick up Erick from school"

"Go fold the clothes"

"Take out the trash"

I feel like Peter Gibbons, trying to rush and turn off my computer before Lumbergh does his usual Friday afternoon stroll to ~~convince~~ force me to come into work on the weekend, but lo and behold, my computer didn't shut off in time and now I'm stuck doing meaningless work for barely any pay. Not only that, but like Lumbergh she tries to pull the whole "Can you d

o x, y & z?" even though she knows that whether I want to do x, y, or z it wouldn't matter because I have no choice.

Here are some strategies I've learned over the past few months:

1. Keep my phone on silent in the house so that she can't hear ~~me rejecting the call~~ it ringing

2. Avoid being in the house at the same time she is - local Starbucks are a good hideout

3. If I do come home before her, park down the street and lock myself in my room without making a peep - she won't even know I'm here! (trust me, this works)

4. When she's calling my name in the house and I'm not answering, and she finally comes down and opens my door, pretend to be asleep

5. Tell her I'm too busy shaping the minds of young children through lesson planning - most of the time she understands

So if you have a Lumbergh in your life, there are easy steps to take to avoid any and all contact. The number one rule is you've got to be stealthy - I would recommend taking pointers from kittens. #workedforme

Peace & Love,

Candace

One side of learning please

Today was my first field trip of the year.

We took the Gateway students into DC to visit the Natural History Museum. We got there around 10am and stayed until 1pm. At first I was freaking out because since it was my first field trip, I was really worried that I was going to lose some of the kids or forget to bring someone home. Well, yes I did lose the majority of them after about 15 minutes, but the other teacher assured me that they will all come back eventually, which they did. Note to self: if you've lost your kids on a field trip, the first place to look is at the food court. About an hour before it was time to leave I went to the food court and found about 90% of the students.

The students had a really great time walking around and learning new things. In social science we are learning about fossils, so this museum came at an appropriate time in the lesson plan. It was nice for them to get a more concrete understanding of the things they read about in their textbooks. A lot of them were asking questions and were really excited to see all the information they had about dinosaurs for example in their home countries. Making that connection between what seems so foreign and their home countries really brought the idea home with them.

All in all, the field trip was a success. Looking forward to my field trip to JMU next Friday with the Latin Dance Club!

Peace & Love,

Candace

Maximize Madison

Growing up is not as fun as it sounded like when we were younger. I'll take a one way ticket back to 9th grade please!

Over the past few months after graduation I've been realizing that I'm pretty darn miserable in this thing called the "real world." The bills are unbearable, the stupid jobs are tiresome, the close friends are scarce, the amount of alcohol consumed is nearing empty, and the numbers of hairs I've pulled out of my head from frustration of living at home is slowly making me bald.

In Dr. Warner's Leadership class when it was nearing the end of the year, he told us that JMU, while being the best place on earth and a great time to spend your undergraduate career, should not be the "best years of your life" forever. He told us there was more to come, and that there will be better years down the road. Now, I love you Dr. Warner, and I hear ya, but frankly I just don't see that anytime soon. I can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel that supposedly leads me to my better years. I know I just recently graduated and I'm still in recovering mode, but the possibility of having "better years" in my near future is looking positively bleak.

I hate being a pessimistic patty and all, but I guess my message here is that JMU will be some of the best years of your life, so don't waste them. Don't waste them by getting wasted to the point of oblivion every weekend, or not showing up to class, or sitting in your room every night playing world of warcraft. JMU offers so many amazing opportunities for you to grow, meet new people, have new experiences, try out things you never thought you would, challenge your academic strength, and build truly lasting relationships with peers, teachers, advisors, administrators, and many more. Take advantage of that and make the most out of your Madison experience. I'd be a hypocrite if I said don't ever drink and don't ever skip class (sometimes we just need to unwind), but definitely expand your horizons and take more risks - college is your practice for the real world, and trust me, you are gonna need that practice.

Good luck JMU students this year, us alumni are out here waiting for you and we are rooting for you every single step of the way. And please take care of J Maddy for us, we don't want a repeat of April 2010 ;)

Peace & Love,

Candace

Internet Addiction Hypocrisy

When you point a finger, 3 fingers are pointing right back at you.

I am really sick and tired of people judging me and calling me an "internet addict" and that I "have a problem." The reason it bothers me is not because I don't agree that I love the internet and use it every single day and depend on it. I don't know what I'd do without my email, or my internet. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't gchat everyday, or browse the web on my droid. I do depend on it very heavily - but I'm not the only one.

It's funny to me that you judge me saying that I'm on facebook too much or that I love the internet too much, you, the person with the iphone, the droid, or the blackberry. You, the person who wakes up and uses the internet to check the weather and the news. You that uses the internet on your phone or your computer to look up a funny quote or look up a picture. You that checks the movie schedule for the theatre online. You that updates your fantasy football charts online. You that youtubes your favorite shows and videos for a good laugh. You, that lives on the internet in just as many ways, if not more, than I do.

People complain to me saying that I tweet too much or I use facebook too much, and that I'm way too addicted to the internet, but the fact of the matter is that they are giant hypocrites - and that's what I absolutely cannot stand. Everyone uses internet differently: for me, I prefer to use it for social media because I love to connect with many friends. I'm a personable person, so I enjoy contact with people that I cannot physically meet all the time. That's the beauty of the internet - staying connected with whoever and whatever at all times. So whether that be staying connected with the college friends you miss now that you graduated, or staying up to date with your favorite football team, or staying current by reading the news, or watching your favorite old TV shows - it's all the internet, and we all need it. We all couldn't live without it. We all have the right to use the internet for what we so choose, and we all should be given the freedom to do that without being judged or hassled for it.

That's my stance on the issue. I'm very passionate about this because I am constantly fighting with people about it. Get your hands off my facebook and off my twitter, they are mine to enjoy and you all can truly go screw yourselves if you have a problem with it.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Favorite Droid Apps

advanced task killer - kills apps

car home - helps you get what you need while driving

bump - exchange business cards by bumping phones together

barcode scanner - scans items

DC metro transit info - DC metro info, when buses are coming, etc.

calorie counter - helps you map out your diet and exercise

fandango - see what movies are playing

food finder - see what restaurants are around you

fxCamera - really cool camera effects

Google Goggles - scans items and gives you google results for what they are

iheartradio - listen to radio

Key Ring - scan barcodes of your rewards cards and store them in cell

imdb - info on movies

PicSay - photoshop for your phone pictures

pandora - music

places - look up something near you, store, restaurant, etc.

online banking (for your own bank) - do your banking via cell phone

skype - can talk for free! and video chat!

shopsavvy - scan items in store, see prices and info, see which stores surrounding you have the same item for cheaper

shazam - listen to a song and it will tell you what the song is

ringTone - download free ringtones

speak pad - speak what you want it to type, notepad

tippy tipper - tip calculator, really neat

twitter - duh

tunewiki - best music playing app (in my opinion)

youtube - obvi

wikidroid - wikipedia

Double Dominion Titan!

Today I got a call from Christie in the Loudoun County Public Schools Personnel Office to offer me the teaching assistant position for ESL at Dominion High School!

Sure, it doesn't pay too well, and sure, it's not a full teacher position YET, but it's a foot in the door in education and hopefully this time next year I can be prepared to teach in my very own classroom. I'll start off teaching English as a Second Language but eventually I want to be a Spanish teacher. I'm definitely enjoying the comfort of being back at my old high school because I already love my principal and I always have, and I love a lot of my colleagues because they were my old teachers, and I'm obviously loving the 2 minute commute versus the 3 hour commute I was making everyday to Maryland!

So my journey begins on September 1st. I will make my mark in Loudoun County and hopefully prove to them that I am competent enough to be a teacher someday. I may have had to put my dreams on hold for a minute, but I'm not letting them slip out of my fingers forever. Afterall, I just graduated from college a few months ago, I've got lots of life to live and you better believe I'm gonna live it well.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Blocking the Bill collectors

So, I'm pretty much like the real life Rebecca Bloomwood from the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic.

I have a lot of bill collectors calling me all the time, and I just simply don't have anything to give them being a recent college graduate. On top of that, I have the payday loan people calling me every 5 seconds because I (like an idiot) gave them my number thinking it was going to be important since I desperately needed that money, but in the end I never took any money, and now they're begging me to take it. Talk about annoying!

But luckily, mama's got a new droid, which means I can BLOCK calls that I don't want or just send them straight to voicemail. Talk about convenient! So now, I can live spammer and bill collector free. Oh and p.s., I put the bill numbers in my phone as Derek Smeath from Confessions of a Shopaholic - if you get that reference I'll give you $1,000 - oh wait, I'm broke, I forgot!

Peace & Love,

Candace

Transitioning the new Student Body President

Today I met with Andrew Reese, James Madison University's new student body president for the 2010-2011 school year! Andrew is also known as my "little brother" as we created a sister-brother relationship this year in the SGA. I'm so proud of his accomplishments so far and I'm really excited to see what he does with the presidency.

After talking to him today I got a really good vibe from him and I think he's got the tools, the drive, and the skills to make it through the year. But don't think he's doing it all alone, because I equipped him with his very own Student Body President 101 Binder filled with a womping 72 tabs of useful SGA information, along with many google docs, emails, and files that will accompany him into the new year. We've started calling this massive book the "SBP BIBLE" because of it's massive size.

Please note: the student body president has rarely ever had a transition binder in the past, but this year I made it happen, and it took everything out of me! What an exhausting amount of materials to collect! But now he's all set and here's the happy face and the SBP bible to prove it:

Good luck Andrew, make big sis proud this year! And remember, I'm only just a phone call, email, or facebook wall post away :)

Peace & Love,

Candace

10,000th Tweet Celebration!

Today, I am celebrating my 10,000th Tweet!

About 35 tweets ago I noticed I was approaching this momentous mark in my young 2 years of tweeting and I got really excited, but worried that my tweet would be insignificant and that I'd forget about it.

... which, I did forget about! But LUCKILY it was actually a good tweet!

I was so happy when I got a text from Rheanna telling me that I finally had my 10,000th tweet. You know someone's a good friend when they remember the little things that make you happy!

Peace & Love,

I highly regret ever trying to sign up for a payday loan.

I was really desperate last week because I needed $2,500 and FAST. I decided to take the risk and apply for a few of the loans because I needed this money or else I would be majorly screwed. Well, in the end my neighbor let me borrow the cash and I got it all figured out, but now I keep getting phone calls and emails and texts from these crazy people! UGH what a nightmare! I'm at the point where I'm going to change my phone number, but I feel so stupid for putting my real email on there. I have another email that I use specifically for subscriptions that I don't want to hear about and I never check it really. I should have sent it there but I thought that I really needed the money and I wanted to make sure I was getting the emails in case the money was coming - which it never did by the way. UGH how do I get out of this nightmare? Let's file this one under Candace's stupid mistakes #5748

Peace & Love,

Candace

Harry Mean Potter Girls

Harry Potter + Mean Girls = PURE MAGIC.

Peace & Love,

Candace

You found a Leprechaun?

I heard a story a few weeks ago about a leprechaun and how someone had found one.

Apparently So, my fellow advisor told us about a friend of hers from her church, who had a son who was mentally challenged and finally he got to the point where the mother could leave him at home alone and he would be fine. One day he called his mom while she was at work (she's a teacher) and was like "mom come home, I found a leprachaun!!!" and she was like wtf no you're crazy and didn't believe his tomfoolery. Then later she gets home, and he's like "look mom I have a leprechaun!!!" and he goes to the closet and he opens it and a MIDGET runs out! Turns out, the midget was a census worker and came to talk about the paperwork , and the mentally challenged guy, who is HUGE and could obviously overpower the midget, thought he was a leprechaun and grabbed him and shoved him in the closet for over 6 HOURS.

hahahahahahahaha PRICELESS.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Awkz.Biz

This is my friend Andrew. When he was young.

I don't even know what to say.

Peace & Love,

Candace

I've been stressing out about my car troubles and the car crash and how I can't afford to buy a car, but I can't forget how lucky I am to be alive. I just needed to take a minute and remember to count my blessings. All those material things don't matter, it's about the fact that I could have been hurt or hurt someone else. This blog post is just a reminder to myself, to be thankful for every blessing I have every single day. Just a mental note :)

Peace & Love,

Candace

Messi is Overrated

Personally, I don't think this guy is such a big deal. I know everyone talks about how he's up and coming and he's one of the best players and all, but he didn't impress me. I mean, can he even score goals? The funniest was when someone was like "well, he was sick that day" (of the Germany vs. Argentina game) and I was like right, because anyone even gives a damn about whether your sick or not - no excuses! Whatever, I don't care what people say about Messi, I don't think he deserves ALL the hype he's gotten. Some of it, but not all of it.

Peace & Love,

Candace

I never liked that Geco

I hate this stupid Geco. I never really liked Geico commercials or Gecos but now I REALLY don't like them. Why you ask? Oh maybe because Geico is the worst car insurance ever and they aren't helping me ONE BIT for my car after my crash. I just don't understand what the heck the point of car insurance is if they aren't going to INSURE you when your CAR breaks. UGH. How stupid is that? Whatever, I'm so done with Geico, I'm ready to make Flo from Progressive my new best friend. She's cuter anyway. Stupid Geco.

Peace & Love,

Candace

Predictions for the Semi Finals: World Cup

Crashing is nothing like the movies

So I crashed today. WHAT A NIGHTMARE.

I was almost home and I was driving on I-495 and I was literally one or two exits away from my exit and we were in a lot of traffic. This was my first day of work at PGCTF and I had been struggling all day to stay awake due to a work product that I hadn't quite finished and I spent a lot of my night before working on it. I was so tired to the point that I basically fell asleep at the wheel, and going about 25-30 MPH I crashed into a white van in front of me. It had 2 construction workers in it, and they were unharmed and their car barely had a scratch - but not mine. My whole bumper collapsed and green juice was leaking from the car. It also disconnected the battery so all power went out immediately. I freaked out for a second because I couldn't unlock my door and I thought it was trapped, but I didn't realize that I needed to unlock my door manually, lol.

I am safe though, I only got a bruised up knee and a bruised boob (awkward). I miss my peace mobile though, I hope she's okay at the junkyard. I had to have my dad's coach come pick me up because of course this happens to me when my family is away on vacation. And my phone was completely dead and I had no idea why - I found out later that it was because phones lose battery really quickly when they are fighting to get service. I didn't have service all day in the building I was in so I guess that's what did it for me.

What a great way to start my first day of work right? Check out some damages here: http://twitpic.com/21tdbh

And now I'm off to find a new car and figure out how I'm going to make it through my first week of work with no car. BLEH.

Peace & Love,

Candace

1GOAL

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about this promotion I saw called 1GOAL. I noticed it when I was going Tim Howard crazy (USA Nationals Team Goalie) and I saw that he promotes this cause. Basically the 1GOAL is that everyone is educated and that we invest time in our youth. Clearly I'm a huge supporter of this cause, so I'm hoping that you will be too. Check out the website, it's a good read, seriously.

http://www.join1goal.org/

Peace & Love,

Candace

Soccer Fan since 1988

Lately I've had a lot of haters trying to tell me things that they frankly have no clue about. Trying to tell me that "I don't know anything about soccer" or that I'm a "bandwagon fan" for supporting the USA in the 2010 World Cup. The thing is, these people don't have any idea what my soccer history is. So I'm going to lay this out for you right now, so that everything is out and in the open.

Myth #1: "I've been playing soccer for half of my life, so I should know more about soccer, what do YOU know about soccer"

Right, because I've never played soccer at all in my life. WRONG. In fact, I've been playing ever since I could move my two little baby feet. When I learned how to walk Grandpa Avalos would kick around the soccer ball with me. My favorite past time and memory as a child was the time I spent with my Grandpa playing soccer in the backyard - and this happening even before I was old enough to play on a team. Plus, I've played on house leagues, travel teams, and I was a goalie for my High School's team for 2 years. Clearly you don't know a damn thing.

Myth #2: "You are just recently a World Cup fan, I've never heard you talk about it before"

First of all, let's think, the last World Cup was in 2006, when I was still in HIGH SCHOOL, so for any of my college friends saying they've never heard me talk about it until now, WELL DUH, I didn't even KNOW YOU in 2006. Plus, where would you have heard me say it? In person? It's not like Facebook or Twitter was a big deal in 2006 - or any earlier for that matter (because it either wasn't popular or didn't exist yet) so how do you expect to know whether I talk about soccer or not. Unless you are a close friend of mine, of course I've never talked about it. And I am DEFINITELY not a recent fan - I've been watching soccer with my family since I was tiny. Sure, I didn't understand it until I played it, and sure I recently got more into the brackets and point systems because I just didn't know how to access that information like I can now (via internet, etc.) so how do you expect to have known a damn thing about my World Cup interest? This isn't just something that I enjoy, it's an Avalos tradition thank you very much.

Myth #3: "You are a bandwagon fan if you're rooting for the USA"

First of all, I despise bandwagon soccer fans - or bandwagon fans in general. I've been a fan of Germany for the longest time because my family liked their team and because I've always liked how they play soccer. And, how dare you call me a bandwagon fan for supporting the USA! I'll always support the USA because they are my HOME COUNTRY. If Guatemala was in the World Cup (they won't ever make it that far) then I'd be supporting them too. I've ALWAYS supported the USA, in anything sport related. But frankly, I just don't care about a lot of other sports, because I was raised on soccer and nothing else. If anyone is a bandwagon fan it's those people that "support Brazil because ... er...well they have 5 world cups don't they?" Now THAT's what you call a bandwagon fan. USA has always struggled in the world cup, but every year they get better and better and I continue to support them through thick and through thin. So don't even try and tell me that I'm bandwagon, when I've been a part of this fan club since I first started watching it. USA 'til I die.

Myth #4: "You don't know anything about soccer if you support a team that isn't doing too well"

WRONG. Just because I supported the USA during the entire USA vs. Ghana game EVEN WHEN THEY WERE MESSING UP, does not mean I don't know anything about soccer. Yes, I get that you can't wait until the second half to start playing. Yes, I agree that a weak defense and oversight by the goalie really hurt us in this game. Yes, I agree that they were playing very lazy in the first half. BUT, just because I love my team enough to be SUPPORTIVE of them instead of trying to bring them down with all of my negative comments, does not mean that I don't know anything about soccer. I support teams MY WAY, so I don't need you telling me how to support the USA. Yes, I was upset that they were screwing up, but I have faith in them and I will encourage them until the very last second of the game. So you go ahead and continue to be pessimistic, but frankly that's just not how I roll. Don't try to tell me that I don't know anything about soccer, you have NO IDEA.

Long story short:

I know a lot about soccer. I grew up on it and it is an Avalos tradition. Just because you personally have never heard me talk about soccer does not mean it's not important to me - you're just clearly not important to me. I think it's ridiculous that you tell someone they don't know about soccer when they are just trying to be encouraging. I've played it in some way or another for my entire life. I have never been a bandwagon fan. I'm tired of all the haters. Don't pretend like you know me. USA 'til I die.

Peace & Love,

Candace