Category: Understanding Life

Infertility and Genes (Part 1)

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Science Behind Infertility

What is infertility? It is the inability to reproduce and it can affect both male and female due to many reasons. Genes can play a role in the infertility of men and women, but what are genes? Genes are part of the chromosomes that determine different characteristics passed on from the two parents, yet genes can still contribute to disease and/or syndromes. When it comes to determining if genes are causative of infertility, scientists must study the disease further into the chromosomes to determine what particular gene. Before we can get into genes, it is important to understand the way fertility works for both sexes. When a male is fertile, they are able to produce a high sperm count making them fertile once they reach puberty and continue to produce them from then on. On the other hand, women are born with a certain amount of eggs that are released once they are around the age of 12 when they start to menstruate. This means that women have a certain amount of eggs that can become fertilize to get pregnant. So, how do both men and women become infertile? Sometimes we only think about environmental factors, yet there is the need to take a deeper look into the genes that are present since birth to understand how they can affect fertility.

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What Does It Mean To Be Selful?

Ivan MartinezLeave a comment

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Understanding one’s self is a task that many of us take on for our entire lives. We search and search in order to uncover who we are. We listen to all sorts of advice telling us how we should be, we read all kinds of books telling us how to behave. We look for answers to the questions that haunt us most. What do I stand for? What am I doing? Who will I be?

Truth is, we do not have to work hard at discovering our selves, for who we are at this very moment is who we are. Every thought that comes into our mind is actively defining our self; every action that we decide to take molds what we stand for. We are the sum of every experience that we’ve ever had; not just of what happened, but of how we have let it affect us.

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What Makes Someone Successful

Lawrence KotovetsLeave a comment

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My father was a violinist. My uncle played the saxophone. My cousin’s grandfather sang and played the accordion and the piano in a restaurant he owned.

I felt that I was born with musical talent. So, I decided that I would learn how to sing. I gathered my friends and enrolled into a singing class at my community college. We learned scales, went to karaoke, got a practice room to practice in daily, and took advantage of all office hours. I was ambitious and put in a lot of effort. I took singing classes for a year and a half and even took a couple of private lessons. And I’ve got to tell you…I still can’t sing. As much effort as I put in and as much musical I believed I had, the other classmates were years ahead of me. They were improving faster. And it made me wonder:

What is it about some people that makes them just so good at things?

and

Is there anyway to tell if someone is more likely to be successful in life?

But first, what does “Success” even mean? Continue reading “What Makes Someone Successful” →

What The Man In The Wheelchair Taught Me About Caring

Ivan MartinezLeave a comment

mother and her dead son statue

I’d like to share what I experienced the other day. It was on the bus. In the front row was a veteran, trembling in his wheelchair, still wearing his USA attire. His hair was long and grey; he looked worn out. At that moment, I wanted to see his point of view. I wanted to understand him a little better. I imagined what it would be like to experience life through his eyes.

The fight was tough but it was exactly what I had wanted. The amount of vigilance necessary in order to survive was demanding, I thrived off of that. Every day you don’t give a fuck what goes on out there, you go out there to do what they want you to do. There is a mission to accomplish and you’re making sure you keep your part, because you know you’re capable of it. When else are you tested to your full potential? This is what I live for, and if you would like to watch, go right ahead. Enjoy the show because I’m a fucking monster.

I imagined the days that made him a veteran and I pictured him as a total badass. I felt the thrill and surge of power that comes when you’re defending yourself. You’re sent over there for a reason, making your sole priority to accomplish the goal and survive. I could feel the hustle that it required.

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Sometimes I Forget That I’m Alive

Ivan MartinezLeave a comment

17099096b7e9b0b36a75a7b238aca66b_largeI get caught up thinking about other’s thoughts. It’s not about what others think about me, just what they’re thinking in general. Thinking amazes me. Every body is doing it, yet everyone does so differently. The problem is that it reaches a point of distraction. I get caught up thinking about the world that I lose my sense of placement. I forget that I am currently what exists. I am alive; a part of the present and everything in it, capable of interacting with any body and experiencing what is out there. The trees are amazing, the sun is incredible, and all that surrounds me is beautiful.

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Understanding Life: God

Ivan MartinezLeave a comment

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Growing up I was raised as a member of the Catholic church, attended mass every Sunday, and went through the processes of baptism and first communion. I mostly viewed all this as a way to spend quality time with my family, but it did open my eyes to great powers. It taught me the power of  hope and faith; the way it allowed those who had reached a dark abyss to manage to turn their lives around. These people told their stories with great passion, great sincerity, and in the end the message was always the same; “I thank God for showing me the path and giving me the strength I needed to fight for my life”. My question was always the same as well, “Who is God”?

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The Voyage To Understanding Life And Why I Decided To Take It

Ivan MartinezLeave a comment

Road_to_the_Universe_by_BabyNoob

There is one idea that has stuck with me since the day I learned about it: What we are is an incarnation of the fabric of life with the ability to consciously create, question, and control our reality.

Essentially, everything in the universe is connected, and all the parts are affected and influenced by one another. Our concept of having different realities, different life experiences, is caused by our ability to change our perception of the information around us. There are no limits to how far we can travel, to what we can create, and who we can become, for these are false boundaries created by the same mechanism which allows us to explore the deepest corners of the unknown.

Continue reading “The Voyage To Understanding Life And Why I Decided To Take It” →