October 10, 2019 – AHA Walk

October 10, 2019November 1, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Today I went to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) walk at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. Children’s Fairyland is the name of the park, or at least I’m sure.

I thought of the idea of going to this walk a week ago. I sent an email to the American Heart Association Bay Area a long time ago, but I got now response. So y’know what, I’m going to meet with them in person.

My goal for going to the walk was to connect with people. I had to convince my mom that this walk was worth missing school, but I think she was in a good mood.

My mom dropped me off at the park, and it was pretty confusing. I think I was the only kid there. I wandered around and it seemed there were a lot of corporate employees.

I was too scared to go up to anyone, but my mom was kind of boss. She went up to the volunteer tent and blatantly said “Hi, Justin wants to volunteer for you” and gave me a shove. I then met someone that gave me their business card.

My mom was talking to a guy, and when I got there I saw they were talking about healthy habits. He emphasized that eating healthy is important. He’s a bodybuilder, and he showed me a picture of him when he was 17 (in his prime).

When the rally started, the mayor came up to the podium to speak. She introduced herself as the mayor of Oakland, and she also said she was a Skyline High School alumni. I thought, “Hey, that’s where I took my SAT!” Anyways, she declared October 10 Thrive day in Oakland because of all the support Kaiser Permanente provided to the city.

After the opening speeches, I met the CEO of the American Heart Association Bay Area. I gave her my business card, but I have to say I’m shy of giving away my business card (it makes advocacy seem like a corporation). It was awesome meeting her because I accomplished my goal of the day!

I didn’t plan to participate in all of the walk because I had to return to school, but before I went my mom decided to grab some food from the food trucks. Unfortunately, since the food trucks require a ticket that you received when you registered for the walk, we couldn’t get food. My mom said yesterday, “No, it’s fine, we can register at the walk.” But there was no place to register.

This really nice lady offered us free tickets for the food truck. God, the food was amazing. It was some great eggplant, chicken, and rice concoction.

So I unfortunately had to go back to school. I came back later than expected and wound up in the middle of math. My classmate saw I posted the story on social media and asked me how was it. I said “good.”

October 14, 2019 – Meeting Kelly from AHA

October 14, 2019November 1, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Today I met Kelly from the American Heart Association. Ever since the AHA’s walk at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland (October 10, 2019), I’ve been communicating with her over email. She said she wanted to meet up and I love that idea.

We met at Peet’s Coffee. It had a beautiful interior, but we sat outside.

Kelly told me what she does, and I’m so impressed. She heads the youth programs in the Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles area. It’s like woah, all at once?

Our conversation can be broken into three things:

Me telling her about what I’ve done
Me asking her about “the next big thing”
Kelly asking what she wants from me

1: Me telling her about what I’ve done

I told her about everything: my blog, my cookbook, and my Tasty video. Kelly was impressed. It seems like everyone I meet knows about Tasty. They might not know the name, but the format is widespread nationwide. She said it shows up on her Facebook feed, and I should probably use Facebook. Even though I have a Facebook page, my mom is the one updating on it.

2: Me asking her about “the next big thing”

I shared with her my idea for my next big project. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you about it. It has to be a secret. 🤷‍♂️ I am so grateful for Tasty, but I don’t anticipate it being my only thing.

She said it’s not her department, but she said she’ll send it over to someone who can help. However. she’s on vacation right now. She’ll be back in a couple of weeks

3: Kelly asking what she wants from me

My next big project is an ambitious thing, and Kelly said she does more grassroots things. She told me she did something called the American Heart Challenge in high schools, and it’s to promote health in the heart, mind, and body in high school students.

She does a lot of health programs in elementary schools, and usually the American Heart Challenge takes over for them. For high schools, they’re usually student run.

Kelly also communicated it would be awesome if I could participate in kick-off assemblies. She asked me to look at my schedule and tell her how many days I could take off school, which is definitely on my agenda.

October 16, 2019 – Hanging out with Beth from Make-A-Wish

October 16, 2019November 1, 2019 ~ Campjustin ~ Leave a comment

Guys, can I tell you how awesome Beth is? We met Beth on August 9, 2018. She’s the director of Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area. In fact, she’s the one that introduced my cookbook.

Today my mom and I decided to meet with Beth. Since today’s PSAT schedule, I have the entire morning open to myself.

Beth is retiring. Woohoo! I am so excited for her next step. I understand she’s a little uneasy, but I believe in her. She pondered over it and made her final decision, and I support her.

We met at Oakland. More specifically, at a coffeehouse called Modern Coffee. There are apparently 3 Modern Coffees in Oakland. My mom dropped me off at the wrong Modern Coffee (which I gave her directions her to), and I had to walk 15 minutes to get to the other Modern Coffee. My mom already met Beth by the time I arrived.

We talked a lot about my future. About my college, I’d want someplace in a city. Not in California. Beth told me education is extremely important. I have to get a college degree. About my job, you’d think I’d know what job I could do. But advocacy doesn’t pay the bills. Beth said I could always work at Make-A-Wish. In fact one of her coworkers was a wish child.

I said I would be going to the conference in Phoenix. The national Make-A-Wish conference is held in Phoenix, Arizona (where their national headquarters are), and this year yours truly was invited to speak. Beth said to have fun, and I for sure will!

We talked about Beth. Of course I can’t write it down and share it with you (it’s her personal stuff), but she did recommend to my mom for her to shelter foster children. I mean since I’m going to go to college, my mom might have some time. She can fill that empty hole with foster children.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I had to get back. Thankfully there was that PSAT schedule, and there was *shrug* no use in taking it. I had to go back to math class. My classmate saw I posted a picture of Beth and I on social media and asked me how was it. I said “good.”