The final chapter.

Well, this is it.

I'm in my last semester of college, so I thought it would be particularly fitting to revive my blog and talk about my final days in the academic world. I started this blog during my freshman year because I was a narcissistic asshole who thought I could somehow become a popular blogger (or something childish like that. Idk what I was thinking..). It would be interesting to see the growth I've experienced since then...(if any...kidding, I definitely matured..just like a fine wine. So classy).

Anyway, this is just an introductory post since I'm too lazy to be reflective/introspective at 1:25am. We'll see if I can actually commit to this blog like I somewhat did almost 5 years ago.

Peace out, girl scouts.

Bringing it to a Close

Today I finished my last day of classes. The only thing that awaits me is finals, which starts on Wednesday.
It's a lazy Friday for me right now, so why not write a new post?


At this moment, I am watching 500 Days of Summer (in Spanish). Why, you may ask? No reason at all.


Anyway, this is not what I wanted to write about. I have been doing some reflecting on my freshman year in college. I can honestly say that I have learned so much about myself as a semi-independent student living thousands of miles away from my parents. Being away from home really made me analyze my belief systems. Why do I hold on to certain beliefs? Do I actually believe them or do I believe it under obligation from my parents? These types of questions really were influential in reshaping my worldview, and I know for a fact that I would not be experiencing all this if I were still at home.


I actually feel comfortable with who I am as a person because I really had to pick and choose the certain values and belief systems that only I agree with. With that being said, I'm glad I'm in college. I would not trade this experience for the world.


This college experience was a good learning experience in the areas of friendship. At the beginning of the year, I felt desperate to find friends, fearing that I might end up being perceived as a loner. Unfortunately, I lowered my standards in the quality friends I made, so I shouldn't have been surprised that these so-called friendships were phony. Yes, these poor quality friendships I made ended up horribly, but it was another life lesson that I will never forget.


As for living situations go, all I can say is that it's tough. Having a roommate for three quarters of the school year and abruptly leaving half way through the second semester, was probably the most frustrating event throughout my school year. I know I am not a perfect person, but I really did try to work things out as a civil roommate. Frustration, anger, and betrayal were growing inside of me even to this day, and it is still so difficult to let go of bitterness and animosity towards someone who lacks maturity in certain situations.


On that happy note, freshman year was not what I expected. Even though my situation was not close to being 'ideal,' I am grateful that all of the little mishaps occurred; without them, how will that make me a better person? Sometimes in life, trials come along to make you a stronger person. These life events give you the experience needed to succeed in life. This most certainly has been a growing year for me, and I will gladly accept life as it comes my way, whether good or bad.

Where have I been for the past 3 months?!?

It's been such a long time since I've been on blogspot! I have about 2 weeks of my freshman year left, and once finals finishes up, I hope to write a legit post about the summation of my first year in college!


For now, instead of studying for finals, I've been pretty active on tumblr and youtube. Since I am such a master at procrastination, I have attempted to edit a video to one of my favorite songs by Jenny & Tyler. Their whole album is for free! click here and enjoy some wonderful music.


To make this blog entry appear longer than it actually is, here is the video I edited to the song "As Long as Our Hearts are Beating"

I AM SO ASIAN

It's Sunday, I go home tomorrow, and I'M OFFICIALLY DONE WITH FALL SEMESTER!!


I had finals from Thursday to Saturday, and I am so blessed to say that I finished my first semester well.  I literally spent 76 hours in the library--excluding getting something to eat and taking showers--(yes Mommy, I practice good hygiene) studying for finals. Yes, you heard that right. 76 straight hours in the library. I brought my pillow, my blanket, and toothbrush with me at the library. If you saw me in the library, you might have thought I was homeless or something. That's hardcore studying for you right there. I AM SO ASIAN


No worries, I didn't have a mental breakdown/freak out like this girl:

And I have to say, all that studying paid off because God has blessed me with wonderful grades this semester. I started this semester not knowing how to study, socializing more than I could manage, and getting little sleep. Everything has changed (except the sleep part), and I am so grateful for everything. I am looking forward to seeing my family, getting plenty sleep, and eating healthy food. Seriously, I take all these for granted.


In any case, life is good. :)

PROUD TO BE A BAYLOR BEAR

At this point, many college football fans (and other random people surfing the Internet) know that Baylor's very own Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy last night. Though I am not a huge fan of organized sports, (I'm pretty sure I only went to 3 home football games this season), I guess RGIII is awesome advertisement for our already rich school.

Sure, Baylor has an awesome athletic program, but if it wasn't for the strong accounting program (we're somewhere in the top 10 schools in the CPA passing rate), I wouldn't be here. It's too damn expensive.

"Bad Company Corrupts Good Character"

This is going to be a serious entry. Much has been going on since last time I posted. Everything that has happened to me in the past month made me realize my priorities, who I am as a person, and what influences have affected me.
First of all, academically (I know I said this before), I am refocused ono my goal. It costs nearly $40,000 to attend Baylor, and I don't want to regret not using up my whole potential. I chose to come to Baylor because it has a strong Business/Accounting department.

I am not here to party.
I am not here to get involved in petty friendship dramas.
I am here to get an education.

Secondly, I realized that by being here at Baylor has made me grow into a more independent person. It's just me and God. I don't have parents telling me what to do. I make my own decisions whether that involves my social life, job, etc. For this reason, I think I have been more assertive in situations; I have become an even more practical person moved by reason.

By "growing up," I branched off from the group of "friends" I hung out with. First off, I'm not saying now that I'm away from college, I am the most mature person in the world and that I have such a firm foundation in myself. No. I'm saying that I'm looking at life in a new perspective. The friends I made in my first few weeks of college were not helping me in any aspect of my life.

Now here's the good stuff ;)

We all know the saying: "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." I realized that I was associating myself with a bunch of people who did not value hard-work like I do. They feel that life is handed to them on a silver platter, the world revolves around them, and that nobody can mess up their perfect little lives. I was associating with people who only cared about themselves.

I left my so called "friends."

I didn't leave just because I didn't like associating with a bunch of ignorant, rich kids that were full of themselves, but there was so much drama, backstabbing, and gossip that it was too much for me emotionally.

By leaving the group, that was one of the best decisions I made in college so far. I have been doing better academically, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. The Bible really is true when it says "bad company corrupts good character."

SONG OF THE WEEK!

My sister suggested that I listen to this song, and I'm already in love with it! :)

Fall Break

Last weekend was Fall Break. I have no idea why Baylor, or any other college for that matter, calls it "Fall Break" when it basically is just a weekend with Friday as a bonus.

That's beside the point. The point is, I went to the Houston area for Fall Break, and I had an absolute blast. Being from Oregon, and my other friends being from Illinois and Colorado, we didn't really know what was in Houston, so it was a fun little adventure riding in a convertible around town.

We went to NASA...

And the Kemah Boardwalk

As well as one of my friend's high school homecoming football game

We also went to this restaurant called Le Peep where I also met The Little Couple from TLC! They were so nice to me and my friend, and it was such a surprise to see them on our little vacation.

After our little shopping rendezvous in Houston, we went to the Woodlands, which is not too far away. It was an interesting experience there. Just by looking at the houses and the people, one can tell that the Woodlands is a very well to do area, and I didn't find myself very comfortable there. I didn't feel "rich enough" and I felt that an above average number of people were judging me and my friends for our "not rich enough" demeanor.

Overall, I had a lot of fun. I guess it was better than staying on campus the whole weekend ya know?! :)

WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST MONTH?!?

Oh hi! Yes, I am fully aware that I haven't had a new blog post in the past month, but do realize:

MY STUPID TOSHIBA LAPTOP IS AT TECH SUPPORT!!!!

The only access I have to the cyberworld is through the public computers at the library, and honestly I don't  want to write a blog with people hovering over me, waiting for me to get off the computer.

Ok, I'm done with the excuses. There are certain things I learned/experienced in the past month.

1) I do not know how to take tests
2) I socialize too much
3) It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to go on a diet in college
4) I WENT TO THE PHIL WICKHAM CONCERT AT COMMON GROUNDS!

There you go. That's the outline for my little ramble. So first, I do not know how to take tests. I realized that yes, I know the material, but I think too hard. With all the multiple choice questions I always think to myself:

"why did the instructor choose THAT as an option? it's probably because they're trying to do reverse psychology or something crazy like that. stop trying to mess me up with 'all of the above' 'none of the above' 'a, b, c, except d'"

For that reason, I haven't been doing well academically (in my Asian standards of course) so far, and also partly because of my crazy social life. To keep things clear: I DO NOT PARTY. I think it is stupid to go kill brain cells and to lose your inhibitions to do crazy things. My social life consists of going to the library to "study" with my friends, and that usually leads to hilarious conversations that keep me up to 3 in the morning. No worries. I realized my problem, and I'm making it my goal to go to bed by midnight and to work on my homework by myself.

Part 3: dieting in college. For the first month of college, my friend and I tried to be vegetarian. There are limited options, such as a veggie burger that I had to wait for 20 minutes. I stopped being a vegetarian, and attempted to go on a low-carb and no fried food diet. I literally lasted for 1 day because there are just too many temptations around with all the fries, grilled cheese, pizza, burgers and tasty Mexian food.

Last but not least, I went to a Phil Wickham concert last night! It was at Common Grounds, an awesome coffeeshop with an amazing indie vibe to it. Phil Wickham is like an angel sent from heaven. His voice was perfect, and I was so blessed by how it was more like a worship time rather than a crazy rock concert. It was so amazing hearing all the people in the crowd singing to God and raising their hands in worship. Yes, I took pics, and yes, I will post it in the next blog, as well as a video of him singing his song Cannons.

Ok, that's it. It's currently 10:25 in the morning. I went to bed at like 4:30 in the morning and woke up at 9ish....so I might go back to bed? haha

BRITTNEY GRINER!!!!!!

If you don't know who that super tall girl is, then I pity you. It's Brittney Freakin Griner!

A little background info, she's Baylor basketball superstar and she's like 6'8" or something like that?

Basically what I'm trying to say is that she's a BEAST.

Don't I look like a total dwarf next to her?? :)

First Official Week of College!

Yes, it is true. I finished my first week of college and survived!

Things I learned in this past week:
1) Read the Syllabus: it shows everything I need to do for the semester, so I can efficiently plan out my study schedule.
2) Attend Class: this seems like a no brainer, but at Baylor, attendance is required 75% of the class days in order to pass the class. Plus, I can't afford to fall behind!
3) DO THE READING!! I never read so much in a week!

Even though I learned so much in the past week, I feel that high school did not adequately prepare me. I felt like most of my high school teachers babied us, and personally held us by the hand so that we would not fail in high school. College professors are like, "If you want to succeed, YOU have to seek out help. We're not going to be your mommy and make life easy for you."

Similarly, professors do not delay their lesson plan if it was not covered in the class or if some student was falling behind. I like the whole idea of keeping up with the schedule, so I guess that works out for me. :)

Anyway, most of my classes are 100+ people, and my English class is only like 20 people, which is nice.
 If you want to know, I'm taking Religion, Intro to Psychology, English, Management Information Technology (aka Intro to Computers), and Intro to Art. So far, life's good, and I can't wait til all the activities this weekend!!!!! :D

Welcome Week!

I am a complete failure at posting blogs on time. I did not realize how much free time I DON'T have anymore. There is no way I'm going to be a YouTube addict with so many activities going on. heehee :)

Anyway, I moved into Baylor on August 18. My parents and I drove down from Dallas, and once we arrived at the Baylor campus, a whole herd of volunteers attacked my car, unpacked all my belongings, and brought it to my dorm room. The only thing I moved was my laptop and my pillow. Pretty cool, eh? :)

That afternoon, all 3,000 Baylor freshmen (and their parental units) gathered at the Burleson Quadrangle and ate a burgers and all those artery clogging foods. It would've been a more enjoyable meal, IF I DIDN'T HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE FOR 45 MINUTES! By the time I got my food, I wasn't even hungry anymore.

On Friday, my small group and I attended an extremely boring Academic Convocation. I honestly don't remember anything that we did, except watch a bunch of professors walking in their formal robes and all of us putting cheap little Baylor pins on our shirts. That evening, we ate dinner at one of my professor's house. All I remember is the lasagna tasted grrrreat. :)

Saturday, all the new students attended a church fair. I got so many fliers to different types of churches (there seriously are so many Baptist churches in Texas!). After that, we had a residence hall gathering. Basically we did some activities to get to know the girls living in our hall, and also meet the Community Leaders aka CLs (they're basically the same thing as an RA).

Sunday morning, I went to church at Antioch Community Church. I totally loved it! The worship style was very contemporary and I really enjoyed every aspect of worship, the people, and the message. I guess you can say it was Pentecostal (even though I'm pretty sure it was non-denominational) but I felt like it was a perfect fit for me. :) Finally, at night, we had a candlelight ceremony which was a worship service for the whole freshman class. We went outside at like 9 at night, lit some candles, sang a few songs, and prayed. It was a nice way to end welcome week and start our college experience. :)

A New Beginning

Just last week I finished summer session at Baylor University. I took Communication Studies 1302 which is Speech for Business and Professional Students, and I'm happy to say, I aced my first college course! But now, I have three days before I move in for my fall semester, and I think it is a perfect opportunity to start my blog!


I realize that starting college full time is a new beginning for me, and for this reason, I want to document my life as a college student so that I can see how I change down the road. Plus, my friends and I sort of made a pact to start a blog... so here I am fulfilling my promises! :D


In any case, I officially start classes in exactly a week, so expect to see a new blog post sometime on the weekend...that is, if I'm not lazy... or bored... or dead from heat stroke. :)