When I was a child growing up, I dreamed in becoming a professional basketball player. Michael Jordan was a God to me, I remember wearing his jersey every day, even wearing it under my church clothes. I held on to that dream probably until fourth grade, and then I let it go. It seemed with Jordan's retirement, I let go with basketball itself. He came back three years later, but in that time I still did not love the sport like I did as a seven year old.
After that, I started realizing I had a head on my shoulders. I guess that's why I saw fourth grade as a bit of a turning point. Less physical, more mental building (ironically fourth and fifth grade was a period of growth spurt!). I always knew I was bright, I just thought I was better at playing basketball than anything else, and not that my game was anything to sneeze at, I was pretty darn good. It's the fact that I've been playing basketball since the age of four that keeps me a solid player even now when I don't play. But I realized I had a mind that could take me places exponentially farther than what my skinny frame and short stature could take me in the basketball realm. I would keep that in mind, but still play for fun and for recreation, joining Vallejo Middle School's basketball team in 7th and 8th grade. In fact, our team won the 7th grade division when we were that grade! Fun times...
Getting into high school, I didn't find a subject that I really felt passionate about until 12th grade. Up until that point, I would go crazy going back and forth thinking about what I could become, College majors and stuff. I found out I was a solid overall student. I was a solid essay writer, great math student, blind science student, great history student, active in leadership and student government, played sports. Note that I say "blind science student". I did not see the importance of science until I took physics. Well, I see everything differenty because of physics. But that is a subject for a future blog entry, and will probably be a blog to remember, when I get around to it. But I digress...
I bounced back and forth about what I should get myself into. Accountant stuck for a few weeks. Psychologist for years. Then Psychiatrist. Then Politician possibly. Author perhaps. I thought I was really going to get my MBA and go into Business. Then finally, I thought I was stuck on becoming a doctor. And I really thought I was going to be that until I found good old physics. Now I am committed to becoming a Mechanical Engineer, I love that stuff!
Now I thought it was ironic for me to land on being an engineer, when my father was the one who initially pushed me to become one, even at a young age. He's the one who dragged me out of the house all day to sit around and work on the car. He's the one who would bring me to his work to watch him hammer, nail-gun, skillsaw plywood together to construct additions to houses. And I didn't bat an eyelash. I dismissed ever going into engineering at a young age. But look at me now, haha
I believe in dreams, I believe in realizing what you are good at and what you are passionate about and following it hard until you grow old. I believe that if everyone loved their job, then they would do their job to the best of their abilities, and the world would be a better place. It is only when people who do things for the money do you get people doing crappy efforts. That's why I disagree with guys saying they want to become a nurse because it pays good, and kind of lose respect for them. It shows that they are choosing things for monetary reasons, not for more substantial factors such as trying to make a difference in life, or for the love of their profession. I think that is disappointing.
So kids, it does sound cliche, but follow your dreams, and never stop in doing so.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Man Vs. Wild
On a lighter note I thought I would share a youtube I think is quite hilarious. Bear Grylls, the survivor expert from Man Vs. Wild, well...surviving! hahaha
"good to eat, good to eat raw!"
"good to eat, good to eat raw!"
Coming of Age.
Growing up, I've read in my English classes about many stories where the character is said to go through a process of "coming of age", where through the story and plot, he/she matures and changes from an adolescent to a young adult.
I never understood a word of that junk. Probably because I didn't care to read any full novel in its entirety throughout high school (YES, ALL FOUR YEARS, JUST BITS AND PIECES OF NOVELS, OR ENOUGH TO WRITE ESSAYS OF AND TO CATCH THE GIST), but maybe more importantly because I don't think I would have gotten affected unless the story were mine, where I was the main character per se.
I believe I've gone through enough to confidently say that I feel a strong change in my level of maturity, self discipline, and understanding. Some people see me as a very strong person, for better or for worse. I say that because sometimes strong can be a crutch, in which you can pass off as insensitive to others, and as an advantage, in which you can endure much more pain, suffering, and setbacks than the next person.
Actually, people offhand probably cannot even tell what I've been through. But in all actuality, who can tell what people have been through in that way? I digress.
I believe I do have a high level of tolerance and patience for people. I forgive people very easily, almost simplistically easily. I easily keep words but do not hold it against them when others spread a secret I tell them to keep. I try and stay as positive as I can, if someone acts sour to me one day, I come back and try to keep upbeat with them the next day. I never try to stick in negative thought, I believe in myself to a degree where it can fluctuate but never hit zero. I believe in others probably way too much, I would be more of an optimist. And I never say never.
Alot of this is stemmed from two main things: Values instilled in me by my parents, and what I see as trying to "live like Christ" as much as I can.
The first one might not surprise people, but the second one might. Even though I do not bring it up much, I feel I am very rooted with God, and I feel I have good connection with my faith. I would never term myself as "religious" because I was never the type to shove my religion down people's throats either by word or by action, I would not even be termed a devout Catholic. I go to church for my own good and benefit, I take what I take from each Sunday Mass I attend and every Sermon I hear. That is what I expect everyone does. I expect that everyone takes something different.
What I take is that the world would be a better place if everyone strived to live like God; rich in kindness, slow to anger, loving and forgiving. A good Samaritan. Righteous and sincere. That is what I strive to be each and every day, and I will be the first to tell you that I am VERY FAR from being perfect, but I try to be these things regardless. Yes, I've made many mistakes in my life, but because of my faith I believe that in time, I will be forgiven, and I pray for God's and those who I've hurt's forgiveness.
People say they devote their life to their faith, I cannot say that because I am not religious enough and cannot say that I am interested enough in becoming a Priest to say so.
I say I live in faith, love in faith, learn in faith. Hence the name?
Tomorrow, I'll talk about my dreams and aspirations. Really. And how I think that to achieve them, shedding all thoughts of materialisticity and "rewards for the low lifes" are crucial.
I never understood a word of that junk. Probably because I didn't care to read any full novel in its entirety throughout high school (YES, ALL FOUR YEARS, JUST BITS AND PIECES OF NOVELS, OR ENOUGH TO WRITE ESSAYS OF AND TO CATCH THE GIST), but maybe more importantly because I don't think I would have gotten affected unless the story were mine, where I was the main character per se.
I believe I've gone through enough to confidently say that I feel a strong change in my level of maturity, self discipline, and understanding. Some people see me as a very strong person, for better or for worse. I say that because sometimes strong can be a crutch, in which you can pass off as insensitive to others, and as an advantage, in which you can endure much more pain, suffering, and setbacks than the next person.
Actually, people offhand probably cannot even tell what I've been through. But in all actuality, who can tell what people have been through in that way? I digress.
I believe I do have a high level of tolerance and patience for people. I forgive people very easily, almost simplistically easily. I easily keep words but do not hold it against them when others spread a secret I tell them to keep. I try and stay as positive as I can, if someone acts sour to me one day, I come back and try to keep upbeat with them the next day. I never try to stick in negative thought, I believe in myself to a degree where it can fluctuate but never hit zero. I believe in others probably way too much, I would be more of an optimist. And I never say never.
Alot of this is stemmed from two main things: Values instilled in me by my parents, and what I see as trying to "live like Christ" as much as I can.
The first one might not surprise people, but the second one might. Even though I do not bring it up much, I feel I am very rooted with God, and I feel I have good connection with my faith. I would never term myself as "religious" because I was never the type to shove my religion down people's throats either by word or by action, I would not even be termed a devout Catholic. I go to church for my own good and benefit, I take what I take from each Sunday Mass I attend and every Sermon I hear. That is what I expect everyone does. I expect that everyone takes something different.
What I take is that the world would be a better place if everyone strived to live like God; rich in kindness, slow to anger, loving and forgiving. A good Samaritan. Righteous and sincere. That is what I strive to be each and every day, and I will be the first to tell you that I am VERY FAR from being perfect, but I try to be these things regardless. Yes, I've made many mistakes in my life, but because of my faith I believe that in time, I will be forgiven, and I pray for God's and those who I've hurt's forgiveness.
People say they devote their life to their faith, I cannot say that because I am not religious enough and cannot say that I am interested enough in becoming a Priest to say so.
I say I live in faith, love in faith, learn in faith. Hence the name?
Tomorrow, I'll talk about my dreams and aspirations. Really. And how I think that to achieve them, shedding all thoughts of materialisticity and "rewards for the low lifes" are crucial.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Parents.
My parents are pretty good driving forces in my life. They always taught me to earn everything, do things the right way, be respectful to others, and to work hard. They always keep me grounded whenever my head gets too high, always making me feel fortunate for my position in life, just by being an American born.
Just a while ago my father was talking about his upcoming trip to the Philippines, speaking about how my cousin is doing. He told me that he's 27 going on 28 years old, and has become a farmer. This is the same cousin I saw when I took a visit to the Philippines at 24 years old, aspiring to come overseas and try a life in the United States. It seems his fortunes has changed since then, and when I heard the news I thought of how he must've felt, trying to put his hopes on hold and swallow reality in front of him.
Actually, that feeling does feel like shit. But the big thing is to never give up hope, no matter how dark or bleak things seem. Time heals everything, and opens many doors. I dont give up hope on my cousin's dreams of coming to the US, I'll pray for it in the meantime.
My parents keep me down to earth and on the right track. They always raised me to be a better person. I will never admit that they are perfect, but the high character man that my father is, combined with my studious, imaginative mother make a good team. And from personal experience they are far from the most harmonious marriage, but looking at the grander scale I think its obvious they are a good match, whether it was known to them or not at the time they got married. They make me the person I am today, and they always motivate me to be the best person I can be and to study as hard as I can.
It's kind of funny, saying all of this high praise about how good my parents are at being "parents". If you asked me at ages 10-16, I would probably have said otherwise. And looking back at it all, it's not like they worked wonders on me, or ever seemed like they were putting an emphasis on parent skills. I just think its a combination of me coming of age and understanding where they are coming from, and also just knowing that parenting is not about how much you force your kid, its more about just focusing about setting the best examples and values for your kid. Because in all actuality, that's all you can do as a parent, and hope that they realize things one day.
Kind of like what happened with me. =]
PS. I think this entry sparks new thought in future blog entries, such as how everything in life "depends", and other stuff
Just a while ago my father was talking about his upcoming trip to the Philippines, speaking about how my cousin is doing. He told me that he's 27 going on 28 years old, and has become a farmer. This is the same cousin I saw when I took a visit to the Philippines at 24 years old, aspiring to come overseas and try a life in the United States. It seems his fortunes has changed since then, and when I heard the news I thought of how he must've felt, trying to put his hopes on hold and swallow reality in front of him.
Actually, that feeling does feel like shit. But the big thing is to never give up hope, no matter how dark or bleak things seem. Time heals everything, and opens many doors. I dont give up hope on my cousin's dreams of coming to the US, I'll pray for it in the meantime.
My parents keep me down to earth and on the right track. They always raised me to be a better person. I will never admit that they are perfect, but the high character man that my father is, combined with my studious, imaginative mother make a good team. And from personal experience they are far from the most harmonious marriage, but looking at the grander scale I think its obvious they are a good match, whether it was known to them or not at the time they got married. They make me the person I am today, and they always motivate me to be the best person I can be and to study as hard as I can.
It's kind of funny, saying all of this high praise about how good my parents are at being "parents". If you asked me at ages 10-16, I would probably have said otherwise. And looking back at it all, it's not like they worked wonders on me, or ever seemed like they were putting an emphasis on parent skills. I just think its a combination of me coming of age and understanding where they are coming from, and also just knowing that parenting is not about how much you force your kid, its more about just focusing about setting the best examples and values for your kid. Because in all actuality, that's all you can do as a parent, and hope that they realize things one day.
Kind of like what happened with me. =]
PS. I think this entry sparks new thought in future blog entries, such as how everything in life "depends", and other stuff
Saturday, February 28, 2009
New PSP
TOUCH SCREEN! Unfortunately, thats about all the new hardware about it. Or so ive heard at least...c'mon Sony surprise us!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Embrace my flaws, Know my worth!
Halfway into the third quarter, I continue to go along my path with a good idea of how to go about things, but knowing that compared to those like me outside of my current educational institute, I am far from polished. And really it's natural to feel that way. Being a senior in their second semester, your mind starts to shift towards the outer world, other places, better schools. Yes, maybe what I do now can get me A's at Vallejo High School, but things are in much jeopardy if I continue like this at the collegiate level.
What I do understand as my strengths is this five part list:
1. My imagination. It's going a million miles a minute, it's crucial when physics problems require essential assumptions to solve them, in labns, and it is my secret weapon. I believe this alone separates the "fires" from the "buckets".
2. My Ability to be crafty. Whether it is typing up notes instead of writing, utilizing technology, coming early for tests and labs, and plainly just recognizing what I need to focus on in each unit is a great strength of mine. Common sense is very handy, and it stabilizes imagination.
3. My Awareness. I am very much in tune with what Tillay says in class, I take them to heart and integrate and apply them as best I can. I don't know if people are engaged like I am, but I know I am locked in and it is very beneficial to my success as a fiziks student.
4. My Problem solving skills. I am always one of the people up doing problems at the board, plus I enjoy fiziks word problems x10000 better than Calculus problems, ANY
DAY.
5. My passion. I have never been so interested and excited about a school subject than how I am with Physics. It really is the highlight of my day. The rest of the schoolday consists of menial work, pointless work, and work I'll never be able to apply to my life. Such as, how does analyzing the sameness between two lines on a graph by using their derivatives, apply to my life?
Now with my strengths recognized, lets venture in about my Weaknesses:
1. Inertia. I'm like a car that takes a few tries to start, but once I start I'm good. I must work on getting myself to start, and start now. I must be able to live with perpetual urgency.
2. The mystery of young women. I said it before, and I'll say it again. I'll never understand girls. If I have a problem concerning them, I just feel all crappy about myself and everything else and I just don't feel up for anything. I must remember that time worrying is time wasted, and that there's some things in life that work themselves out.
3. Math skills. I'm far from a math person, I just don't understand the connection of why are we finding a purely numerical answer, and when will knowing how to find convergence or divergence of something will ever pop up in my life. I'm bright enough to get grades as high as math people, though. haha
4. Time management. Most students deal with this very problem, everyone has been stricken by the slacker bug at some point. I need to be more organized with planning out the minutes of the day, and not to procrastinate.
5. My "Squeeze-and-release" tendency. During the school week I put in effort, sometimes not even getting good sleep. This sets me up for a very unproductive weekend because I am trying to recover from the past week. I must learn to pace myself and my energy in order to maintain myself and not crash every friday and saturday.
Right now in my life it is not a matter of success in high school. It is a matter of forming a routine and self-culture that will succeed in college. This, like learning, is a process, not a destination. There will always be things you can add to better yourself, always.
But it all starts with being honest with yourself, embracing your flaws, and knowing your worth.
What I do understand as my strengths is this five part list:
1. My imagination. It's going a million miles a minute, it's crucial when physics problems require essential assumptions to solve them, in labns, and it is my secret weapon. I believe this alone separates the "fires" from the "buckets".
2. My Ability to be crafty. Whether it is typing up notes instead of writing, utilizing technology, coming early for tests and labs, and plainly just recognizing what I need to focus on in each unit is a great strength of mine. Common sense is very handy, and it stabilizes imagination.
3. My Awareness. I am very much in tune with what Tillay says in class, I take them to heart and integrate and apply them as best I can. I don't know if people are engaged like I am, but I know I am locked in and it is very beneficial to my success as a fiziks student.
4. My Problem solving skills. I am always one of the people up doing problems at the board, plus I enjoy fiziks word problems x10000 better than Calculus problems, ANY
DAY.
5. My passion. I have never been so interested and excited about a school subject than how I am with Physics. It really is the highlight of my day. The rest of the schoolday consists of menial work, pointless work, and work I'll never be able to apply to my life. Such as, how does analyzing the sameness between two lines on a graph by using their derivatives, apply to my life?
Now with my strengths recognized, lets venture in about my Weaknesses:
1. Inertia. I'm like a car that takes a few tries to start, but once I start I'm good. I must work on getting myself to start, and start now. I must be able to live with perpetual urgency.
2. The mystery of young women. I said it before, and I'll say it again. I'll never understand girls. If I have a problem concerning them, I just feel all crappy about myself and everything else and I just don't feel up for anything. I must remember that time worrying is time wasted, and that there's some things in life that work themselves out.
3. Math skills. I'm far from a math person, I just don't understand the connection of why are we finding a purely numerical answer, and when will knowing how to find convergence or divergence of something will ever pop up in my life. I'm bright enough to get grades as high as math people, though. haha
4. Time management. Most students deal with this very problem, everyone has been stricken by the slacker bug at some point. I need to be more organized with planning out the minutes of the day, and not to procrastinate.
5. My "Squeeze-and-release" tendency. During the school week I put in effort, sometimes not even getting good sleep. This sets me up for a very unproductive weekend because I am trying to recover from the past week. I must learn to pace myself and my energy in order to maintain myself and not crash every friday and saturday.
Right now in my life it is not a matter of success in high school. It is a matter of forming a routine and self-culture that will succeed in college. This, like learning, is a process, not a destination. There will always be things you can add to better yourself, always.
But it all starts with being honest with yourself, embracing your flaws, and knowing your worth.
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