This one month of rest and respite has become overrated. Obviously it sounds like music to the ears when you're in the midst of a full-blown academic takeover, but after some time, it comes to the point where you are actively looking for things to do. Since I am only here for a month, I have taken some short-term projects, but find that they are quickly dwindling. I have however become addicted to the show '24', and have gone through the first two seasons within the last four days. Trying to find a way to actively pass my time for the next three weeks before I leave for what will surely become a quick two remaining months.
Congratulations Trent. To the best of our knowledge, you managed to actually get to graduation and graduate. Madison was what I expected and better. Smut 'n Eggs could've been better. I'll try to make it down there one more time before the lodge heads its separate ways around the world.
I was blog-surfing this morning and came across my old blog. I read every entry from May 2003. It was certainly a psychiatric introspection. I can't believe how much I've changed in the last two years. How I perceive the world has been the most drastic change. Around May of 2003, I was teetering on the edge of finding myself and fulfilling others expectations. Retrospectively, it was a critical point in my life. I don't know what made me make the right decisions or what led me to the point of enlightment. I used to be like this (May, 2003):
It was somewhat motivating though, I really feel that I need to make certain adjustments to my life where I can put 100% focus setting my life straight for the next few years. It sounds bad, but I don't want to invite any distractions for the next two years so I can just do things right academically.
Granted, I did focus on doing things right academically, but no distractions? What does that mean? At the time, distractions meant going outside of my comfort zone: relationships, heavinly involving myself in extracurricular activities, and almost anything that strayed me off my path to reach my academic goals. Reading this following quote still perturbs me (June, 2003):
I suppose there is so much I want to do with my life and such a short amount of time to do everything I had planned and I'm starting to wonder if I have to sacrifice some opportunities to take hold of other ones. For example, given the academic plan I'm under right now, I will most likely never be able to travel to Italy and study abroad and still complete my majors in 4 years. But that might be alright, considering the experience of traveling and studying abroad is something I will never be able to do again. Stuff like that has gotten me thinking that I am taking life too seriously. Maybe I should forgo some of the more 'professionally-oriented' goals in place of other more exciting challenges.
Is that true? I'll never be able to travel abroad? From the quote above, it seemed that I wanted to pursue my avenues abroad. But here I am, 4 years of college later, and I never had the chance to chase my ambitions abroad and really see what I could have done. I definitely regret it. My summer in London is hardly representative of the true experience, or at least what I've heard from others who have undergone that "experience." However, given the chance that I have four years of school remaining, mark my words that I will spend one of my summers uninhibited, adventurous, unselfishly taking myself to another country and really seize that opportunity I missed in my undergraduate career.
I think the following quote was my awakening period. In late June 2003, I pulled myself out of a metaphorical hole and found my purpose:
Oftentimes I've asked myself why I joined AIESEC and why I stay in it. Trent was the one who first introduced me into it and he said to join because of the people and he was very right about that. I had this wonderful conversation with Jamina about what it means to know the people in AIESEC and how the friendships are worth staying in the organization but also what kind of the difference I can make. Shirley also mentioned that I need to go to a national conference or 'some sort of life-changing' experience like a conference so I can get the true meaning of what AIESEC is. So I'm going to try and get to California in August for the SSC conference which should be a blast.
So I didn't make it to that conference, but I went to quite national conferences after that. And Shirley was right. I needed to have this 'life-changing experience.'
I go on the next few months to discuss my transforming social life, the inner demons of pleasing increasing expectations that still plagued me, and how I overcame them. And those so-called apprehensions I had about really going after life (which I previously labeled as"distractions"), were thrown out the window. I've never been more proud of myself that these "distractions" meant pursuing love, finding true friendship and living my life to its fullest. Needless to say, I have not done nearly everything I've wanted to do, but at least I have gained the cognizance to know what I must do to attain that personal gratification and it is fulfilling to see how much my goals have remodeled in the last two years.
December 2003: Finally, I feel like I was happy with life.
To take the words out of Mix's mouth. T-24 hours. I was going to make a stop by Holly's, but academic pressures are looming in their futures, so the trip will have to be postponed til possibly next week.
This past weekend had a rather interesting occurrence. Some of the guys from karate and I decided to go camping. In the early pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning, a woman drives up to our site in a shoddy, rusty Ford Bronco (think OJ Simpson's Bronco, but all beat-up). As she approaches our tent, we naturally become curious that a semi-attractive woman is coming to us in the middle of the night. We have had a fifth or two in us by then. She cautiously steps towards us and asks, "Guys, I have a weird question for you. You see, I have 25 DVDs of porn, and I was wondering if you want to buy them for $20." Our jaws dropped and Will proceeded with the purchase. We invite this woman to sit with us. At a closer glance, she looks pale and emaciated. We all look at each other with more serious looks on our faces. She begins to tell us the story of her life and why she desperately needs this money. It turns out that she ran away from her boyfriend, took her four year-old daughter, left her at her parents' house, and is now evading life by camping out for a few weeks. At the time, it seemed like a well-fabricated sob story, but she must have shown us an entire scrapbook of pictures, signifying some sort of truth.
She was still there the next day (which compelled us to believe we weren't being bamboozled). Anyways, this incident reinforced my belief of giving people the benefit of the doubt. I don't even know if her story was true or not, but I'd like to believe that my friends and I were aiding this woman in need. I'm not trying to glorify myself as a "good person," but I try to see the good in all people. However, there have been certain instances in my life which have slapped me in the face and made me believe otherwise. My parents often compare me to my cousin by claiming we have good-natured hearts, but that we're easily malleable. I refuse to believe that. Over the years, my internal radar has certainly picked up simply because you have to adapt to certain environments in which people will have alterior motives. Additionally, I try to believe that ill-intentioned people will eventually get what they deserve. And the same happens to those with good intentions.
Alright, no more Aesop's fables courtesy of Arnaub. Looking forward to to the weekend. Trent, Marc and I will pick up the Cato masks. Burbs, save the couch that Omar didn't pee on.
I've managed to go on a posting hiatus again. Dammit. It's just that the last couple of weeks have been a bit busy, with graduation and all. Speaking of which, I have graduated. They even passed me in all my classes. Therefore, it is official. I'm at home (or what I consider home) in Minneapolis until mid-June, and then I depart for North Carolina for the remainder of the summer.
Graduation itself was fantastic, melancholic, long, and exciting. The whole cliched phrase of 'a new chapter opening up' finally set in for me on the night before graduation. I jaunted down the streets of Ann Arbor that Friday night and every place I passed had some distinct memory. I figured it was only fitting that I try to amass all of my favorite memories from college and list them below:
Freshman year: - The night before classes started - some random dorm party at north campus. The first time I threw up due to over-consumption - Using fake frat brother aliases to sneak into parties - Pledge term - as much as I hated it, it created some of the most memorable moments (i.e. mud night, cross-over, hell-week, the first party) - The countless conversations at Jimmy John's and Panchero's - The $200 taxi ride, $65 tickets and $10 worth of food spent to go see Stone Temple Pilots, Static-X and Linkin Park for the Family Values Tour in Auburn Hills - The summer in London - Trent and I ran into each other in the elevator at LSE on the last night. We start drinking at 3 pm (right after the last final). We go from bar to bar and eventually end up at the Hippodrome, which was having a crazy foam party that night. Trent and I stroll up to the bouncer, but our very stupid friend was drinking a bottle of scotch right in front of the bouncer. We were denied entry. Determined to get back in, Trent and I change shirts, he takes my glasses, and we go back to the door. Surprisingly, we were denied entry again. We end up passing out on some dorm room floor at 5:30 am. He makes his flight the following morning.
Sophomore year: - Orlando: Getting caught drinking up the escalator of the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios on the way to a party. Security asked me for my license and I told them no. They took me to a secret room and took my real license. Then they pushed in a videotape into a player, clearly depicting me drinking a Miller Lite (I must have already been wasted) up the escalator. They proceed to ask, is that indeed you drinking up the escalator?" What could I say, they kind of had me pinned against a wall. I muttered yes and apologized. Much of my conversation with the officers is a daze, but the end result was that they didn’t give me a minor and I ended up getting my picture posted on a wall and if I was ever to return within a year to any Universal Studios premises and if I was to be identified, I would receive a felony. Thankfully, one year has passed, and I didn't visit the theme park during my probation. - My trip to Detroit with Andrew to see Paul Oakenfold - on the ride home, the cabbie actually tells us he needs to leave his car to get gasoline. We're stuck on highway 94, with no coats, in a stalled cab in the middle of winter. So we figure the smartest thing to do is to start running to the nearest exit. It was seriously like 1 mile away, I don't know what we were thinking. So this shady Ford truck pulls over and picks us up (the kind of truck that has a confederate flag sticker on the back window, with a shotgun in the trunk). He turned out to be a nice family man who actually drove us all the way back to Ann Arbor. - First casino night: meeting Mix and taking care of Trent's mono - Getting drunk before the first physics midterm and getting a 95 on it - Spring term: during the night before my spring term physics final, Andrew and I proceeded to drink a fifth of rum, a fifth of vodka, and a bottle of wine and sing a huge winamp playlist of old songs that we knew word-for-word for about 9 hours. The following morning was the worst hangover of my life. - The summer in Chicago: all the hookah, the jello-wrestling party way down on the green line, the entire Roc' the Mic Tour experience with Hsu and Kiwi (the fake tickets, the shady establishment where we got them, the Amtrak to get there, the nasty lemonade-vodka combinations, the bus-ride to the concert, asking the random girls to get to the venue, getting impaled by the stick in the marsh, the Purdue girls, missing the last train out of Tinley Park, the 5 mile walk at 2 in the morning on some country road, that amazing glass of water at the only open bar in the city, the walk to the gas station for sweet, sweet food, and then Di driving us home) Junior year: - CLE with the ResStaff - shopping cart racing down the hill at Bursley…..so many late, great nights - 1st semester AIESEC recruitment resulted in some of my favorite people joining the LC. It was the first time I successfully ran a recruitment drive. - The YES conference at Michigan - so many laughs (creating the name 'chachi,' stealing liquor from AIESEC Indiana, the AIESEC Michigan stripping roll call) - Playing truth or dare with Rickesh, Chris and Paul at Carly and Sarah's. - Every amazing DJ that played at the Necto - Paul Van Dyk, Pete Tong, Armin Van Buuren - Homecoming gameday 7 am: Rickesh and I drag a full keg up four flights of stairs to Suzanne's apartment - That amazing night at Rita's place with Carly, Alissa, Rita and Rickesh. The next day, failed the biochem midterm. It was so worth it. - Madison Halloween round 1: the car ride there with Jamina, Carly, Luis and Thad. Spending the first night in Dody and Adam's apartment (crazy white Russians night), then spending the day in Chicago, getting drunk with Thad on Michigan Avenue while the girls shopped, hanging out with AIESEC St. Cloud for the first time :), Madison itself, the AIESEC party, the penthouse hotel suite we should've gotten kicked out of had it not been for the extra money we slipped them, and the exhausting car ride back - Finishing my first semester finals and staying an extra week before winter break, just laying around in bed all day and watching snow flakes fall from the sky. - WSC in St. Louis - on the car ride there, Bryan's car breaks down and we spend a nice 5 hours in Gary, Indiana. The auto shop garbage can was riddled with bullet holes. - YES conferences: Kentucky (the car ride back was magic…..Greg, taco bell will never be the same and Edward Norton is forever scarred) and Chicago (the first strip incident, the dim sum the following morning at Phoenix) - Playing frisbee and having a picnic in the arb with Greg, Carly and Alissa - My 21st birthday: night one - drinks at Gracie’s….night two - sake bombing at Champion House, then Alissa's…night three - Casino Night - First trip to Miami with Carly - deep sea fishing (for me, that means throwing up off the edge of the boat, then bagging a halibut) - Second trip to Miami with Carly, with Rickesh on board....those horrifyingly strong slushies on the beach nearly killed us - Cabrew - the road trip down there (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme), the party (aka passing out in Kaiser’s bed), and camping/canoeing the next night - Road trips with Carly to NYC and Miami - The summer in Washington DC (bar nights the Front Page with the roommates, dinners on Pennsylvania Avenue and that amazing restaurant by Columbia with the view of NYC, my going-away party) - SSC Atlanta - probably my favorite AIESEC conference
Senior Year: - The party in Detroit with the RAs - the "gallery" which was actually a warehouse, Diviin almost killing us on the way down there, male:female ratio was about 40:1 (considering it was a gay party), Karan throwing up on the highway on the way back home - Madison Halloween round 2: car ride there with Alissa and Greg (stopping at the adult store, "The Lion’s Den"), Thai whiskey with Burbs and Bruni (rough, rough stuff), the best Michigan football game I've ever seen (wish I was there, Michigan defeats Michigan State after triple overtime...it was a heart-stopper), party at the Miflin house, riots, 5 am bedtime - Kiwi, Jacki, Dahiaka and Hsu visiting for the Michigan-Northwestern game and Kiwi's 22nd birthday: sake bombing (at Sushi.com, where they don’t even serve sake, we provided it ourselves), Kiwi throwing up/passing out at Charlie's, intense games of Michigan vs. Northwestern flip cup/beer pong at some random house, the dress-up party at 423 - Every late-night conversation I had with Greg, staying up til wee hours of the morning, listening to one chill-out song after another and talking about life - WSC Chicago - the biggest AIESEC impact for me was when we all lifted Mazzy through each person of the delegation and when we all came together on the last night. I will also always remember Trent’s Salaam speech. - Colleen and I skipping the first day of classes to be at the last day of the conference. Coincidentally, there was a massive snowstorm that day. After missing our first train back to Ann Arbor, we go on to miss the second train and instead have a nice Chicago-style pizza in the city, talk life, and catch the third train. Much to our pleasant surprise, Nick and April were on the return trip with us. We finally get home at around midnight, wait in the train station (a shady establishment) until 1 and then proceed to go home. I was late for my second day of classes. - The UIR formal. Drinking behind the laundry machine in my substance-free dorm was a plus. Indeed, alcohol makes everything better. There is a crazy video of me utilizing my martial arts skills on Greg, who was hiding in a closet. That was an insane night. - ROKS Purdue - What a great time. I believe that was the second strip-tease. It was worth it: winning the virginities of four lovely ladies - Spring break at Myrtle Beach. Enough said. - My trip with Bryan to Colorado for Mountain Mayhem. One of the greatest two-day excursions I've ever taken. - Armin Van Buuren with Greg, Mike and Colin. This was my favorite AVB show. - My 22nd birthday/Casino Night. The details of that weekend are up in an old blog post of mine. - All the late nights in the library. Believe it or not, studying with your friends at the Grad library were some of the best times I've had in college. This was evident when I put in 20-30 some hours for the cellular biology exam and managed to pass - Graduation. The last Resstaff meeting, the night before graduation, graduation itself.
I apologize for this post being a bit lengthy and drawn-out. Obviously, not everything has been summed up here. I encourage you to remind me of events I may have forgotten. I don't feel much different now that school is over. That's probably because the whole "real-world" setting hasn't really hit me, considering that I'll be a student for another four years. However, the future holds a new setting, change of environment, and need to adapt again. This has already hit me. Come August, we'll see just how ready I am.
