Jeff Velez

Health professional and dancer Jeff Velez shares his experience moving to Eugene from Chicago. His interview partner for the evening is in the following episode!

You can read more about the project, about Wordcrafters in Eugene, about our sponsors and community partners, and send in your own Lane County, Oregon stories at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org.

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

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 You're listening to StoryHelix: intertwining
 stories past, present, and not yet
 
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 imagined in Lane County, Oregon.
 What's up, earthlings? I'm Leah Velez and
 
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 I'll be your host. The stories that
 follow are raw footage. So let's open
 
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 up our ear nuggets and give these
 community submitted stories a listen. Hi,
 
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 my name is Jeff Velez and my
 pronouns are he and him. Belonging, to
 
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 me is, you know, feeling
 needed, feeling loved, feeling accepted
 
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 by a person or a community.
 But not only just love, accepting you
 
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 for all your faults and everything else
 in between. It definitely has a smell
 
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 and taste. It depends on the
 scenario. It depends on where I'm at
 
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 and who I'm with. It could
 smell like the air at a certain place
 
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 by the ocean, or it can
 taste like food growing up-- to your mom
 
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 when she was cooking Pancit. 
 It smells like Adobo.  When you're listening
 
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 to music and you're cleaning the house
 and you're just jamming, you and your
 
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 mom. I moved around quite a
 bit when I was a kid, but
 
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 never in like the west coast.
 I'd never been to Oregon prior to actually
 
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 moving here. So that was kind
 of crazy. When we first moved into
 
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 East Campus Housing. Just a few
 miles away from Hayward Field. You know,
 
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 I just came back from Chicago.
 I came from a place where everybody
 
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 were first generation, BIPOC, or a lot
 of people that were immigrants to America.
 
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 Just super mixed. Cultures too, are
 very, very family oriented. Like
 
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 you're always around your brothers, or you
 always around your mom, and you're taking care
 
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 of each other. Coming to Eugene, I didn't feel that. You're on your
 
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 own and now, you have to kind
 of like, do your own thing. Like
 
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 okay. A lot of what I
 was doing, a lot of my identity
 
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 was taking care of others and
 being involved in that.  That was
 
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 a positive thing a little bit.
 I was able to like self isolate and
 
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 work on myself. That was kind
 of nice, but it definitely didn't fill
 
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 that void of like belonging or community
 or feeling comfortable. More resentment than anything.
 
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 It was hard. I felt very
 lost. You know, I left
 
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 my mother too, that was sick, and my family. I really felt
 
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 like, in terms of rejection, I
 guess I didn't feel a community at first.
 
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 I didn't feel comfortable. I wanted
 to leave really bad the first year
 
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 we were there. It took us
 getting out in and being involved in
 
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 the community to see that there were
 more to Eugene. The dance community definitely
 
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 helped me open that door for myself
 to talk to locals, people that were
 
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 there, like they were super cool. The university environment was... we met a
 
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 lot of people there that were really
 cool, but it wasn't the environment that
 
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 was cool, the people that came
 out of it, that were involved in
 
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 it. Those are definitely like long
 friends that we have now, or I
 
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 have, but it wasn't because of
 that. It was just the people themselves.
 
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 But being involved more in Eugene, you
 meet a lot of really cool people.
 
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 I guess like, when we really started
 to get more involved in like Lane
 
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 Arts and like Lane dance and
 like the City of Eugene, we started
 
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 doing performances for them, doing like
 little demos for like Downtown Eugene. We
 
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 did a few things with them and
 in seeing our friends so involved in like
 
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 Lane Arts and the City of Eugene
 outdoors and the events, us being involved
 
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 in that, or me being involved
 in that, really felt like I felt
 
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 accepted or I felt like I was
 actually part of the community and I'm making
 
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 an impact in some sort of way, that I'm able to share this dance,
 
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 and this passion that I love, and
 performing it, and inspiring other people,
 
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 getting them to see dance and the
 culture, what it is. Definitely has
 
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 been positive for me. It's definitely
 made me grow out of my shell a
 
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 lot. A feeling of belonging takes
 you back to certain moments.  In Salseros,
 
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 the sound of Salsa, Merengue, 
 Cumbia, Bachata, that smell
 
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 of that old Vets Building...It has a
 very particular old smell... I don't know how
 
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 to describe it, like an old
 library or I don't know, like can I
 
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 say it retirement home kinda smell,  but the sound
 of the music, of the echoes in
 
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 the hallway, not even like 
 any particular song or genre of music or,
 
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 sorry, style of music, but
 just how it echoes off of the
 
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 walls, like going to get a drink
 of water, reading like the ads on
 
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 the wall. It's just like that
 feeling of bliss in a sense of like
 
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 I'm not overthinking, I'm not self-conscious, I don't feel anxious. I
 
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 feel like I belong here right
 now. I feel like I belong
 
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 in this moment, and in this time, and in
 this space, and I feel like myself.
 
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 Whether that's dancing, talking, just
 being in that environment, makes me feel like
 
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 I'm accepted. It's an amazing feeling
 and that space is very healthy and helped
 
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 me grow into the person I am. Thanks for listening. You can find
 
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 us wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you've got your own Lane County
 
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 story to tell, we'd love to
 hear it, 
 
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 at StoryHelix.Wordcrafters.Org