So lately I think that I have been drifting away from my religion. I was raised Catholic and thats still the religion I am involved in today. I used to be very very involved in our youth group at church. My mom is very concerned about why I have stopped going, after I used to go every Friday and Sunday. I keep telling her that I cannot preach things I don't believe, yet she doesn't understand what aspects of the religion I don't believe in...
Yes, I am a spiritual person. I believe in Jesus and all the amazing stuff he did for us.
It just concerns me that a retreat our youth group had (the last retreat I attended before I stopped going, and which i was a leader to) the person preaching to the teens was saying things that I believe he shouldn't be teaching those teens.
Pray to the Lord everytime you have thoughts of masturbation or any sexual behavior.
Teens need to stop having sex and stay abstinent. He has hating on schools who offer contraceptives.
If you have thoughts of being gay, pray the Lord changes you.
Abortion is the devil.
Birth Control and contraceptives are the devil too. That's why God made women have periods (Calendar birth control method).

Nuh uh! I am not about to be such a hypocrit to be teaching these things when I REALLY don't agree!!!

In the end, I still have trouble convincing my mom that I still am a spiritual person, yet the Catholic religion doesn't suit my beliefs...

Any thoughts on what I should do?

I had posted a blog earlier this month about a super cute Valentine's Day idea. At Dalton State College in Dalton, GA, we made 200 Valentine goody bags. The baggies had candy, a condom, and a cute message on the outside from Concerned Condom. :)
We had 2 tables in the student center, one upstairs, one downstairs (Thanks Kamal for setting this up!) They were put out around 8am and by 10, I had to refill the tables. It was awesome to see the people taking our baggies.
Later when I got to work, one of my friends told me she was going to show me the Valentine's presents she had recieved. She got a teddy bear, some chocolates...and yes! one of our goody bags. She was so excited that someone had made that for her. I thought about telling her that I helped put them out at the campus, but I won't burst her bubble. She felt special for recieving the baggy. She got the info and a rubber to keep her safe. Thats all that really mattered. That was the whole point to the project. Honestly, I even felt a little special that she said that was her favorite of the gifts. :) In the end, we both won. :)

Thanks GACC for donating the condoms which were used for this project!

OMG! OMG! OMG! It was our turn to go up in from of all those fancy people! :)

Last night at GCAPP's Legislative Reception. I had the honor to be one of the four ladies to speak in from of a crowd of legislators, their representative, and many people from the state of GA working towards the sexual health of teens!

Our speech was totally moving! (We even had a couple people tear up!) Our voices were definitely heard in that room! We were then later told that our part was the best part of the whole reception!

I would like to encourage everyone to go to click on this link http://bit.ly/yad11 to let your voice be heard! Contact your representatives today!

YOUTH ACTION DAY!

In the Dalton part of GA CAMI, we have handed out Valentine's goody bags fro 3 years now! Its super fun to make and the message has a great impact.

Materials:
Candy
Goody Bags
Condoms
Printed Message

Instructions:
Put candy and a condom inside a goody bag. Tie it. Print out these little labels and staple or tie on the outside.

These are some that I have made. The top one for this year; the bottom was from last year. When i copied the cell onto this it didnt bring along my cupid. They are suppossed to have a picture of cupid on the corner.

Feel free to use these, or make your own!
Have fun!

If you want the WORD document, email me at kgarcia@daltonstate.edu.

CNN Link

I'm in class at the time, but I had to post this artcle! In Uganda it is illegal to be LGBTQ. Read the atricle! It'll totally piss you off!  "Hang them!" "Top 100 Homosexuals" posted ina magazine to be killed? "They wanted to burn my house..." AHHHH! This is sickening!
Time to listen again. :)

I was soooo excited to be able to donate my SafeSite condoms to our Student Activities office at my college for World AIDS Day. I finally met the person who was working on what our school was doing for that day! I had talked to her through emails and finally, I went into her office to just talk about what I do. I had mentioned to her before that I wanted to do an event to distribute the condoms out to the college. She mentioned she was having trouble getting some from the health department for World AIDS Day. PERFECT! I can bring them in! By the way, I go to a small college, 6000 students, in Dalton, GA... Dalton State College.

December 1st came along. We had a scheduled guest speaker, who has HIV himself. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the event, but I heard it was awesome! They had condoms set up at that events, PLUS all over the school!!! I saw them in the student center and even in the girls' locker room! Thank you AFY for making this possible for our school!

Urban Retreat was amazing! (Yeah, I know it's late!) GYUPP is so ready to work in GA for reproductive justice and youth equality! After getting home from DC, the normal day schedule was back....school and work. I was so excited about what I had learned that I just wanted to let everyone know what I went to DC for. I talked and talked and finally people were listening.

I work at TJ Maxx in Dalton, GA as a cashier. While I was working the cash register, I would find the most random ways to tell people about my trip and what I did! "Ahhh, it's so cold outside today! It wasn't like this before I left on my trip to DC!" Random, I know, but it got the conversation started! "What did you do in DC?" they would ask. Haha. There it was! The question I was looking for! :) So I would tell them about all the amazing training we did and how we lobbied at the Capitol for comprehensive sex education. Some knew what it was and others didn't. I was sooo happy to find out that of all the people I have talked to about it, only 1 lady was super pissed off that I would want "sex involved in schools." Yeah, like people don't already talk about it!!! Apart from that rude lady, because not only did she not agree, she was rude about it, everyone else applauded our work! So there you go AFY 2010 Urban Retreaters, a special thanks from shoppers at TJ Maxx in Dalton, GA! :)

In the end, I was so excited to know that people are starting to understand bthe significance of our teens being safe!!! I'm so ready to do amazing things again this year!

My favorite story was closer to the end of this year. All year we had worked on trying to get out in the community with presentations and booths. Finally, one day, I was walking into the rec department to get some water after a jog. There it was! I couldn't believe it! A huge poster about teen pregnancy prevention. Not only was it about an issue I care about greatly, but they have a picture drawn that said GYUPP! It was awesome! I couldn't believe what I was looking at! We really have made an impact on this community! 

Well... Our training in Dalton was on May 15! It was the first training that the Dalton GYUPP kids had organized, and it turned out better than expected! We had a turn out of about 40. At first, the kids didnt seem interested in what we were talking about, yet by the end, our STD presentation got them up and ready to learn! I was so excited that we all got through our presentations! It was quite a learning experience, and I'd be ready to do it again anytime!

Pedro Marin, state representative GA, came to Dalton, GA on March 14. He was interested in listening to a small portion of the most well known Hispanics in our area to learn about what Latino outreach programs are needed in NW Georgia. Luckily, I was invited to attend this meeting! His whole speech was in Spanish, which made him relate to us in a huge way. He mentioned he rarely got to speak Spanish anymore and he felt at home with us... After the meeting was over, he personally introduced himself to everyone. I told him what I did for teen pregnancy in the area, and he loved what I do! I got his business card and will keep in contact! :)