Story

Everyone has a story. In fact, life itself is one. YOU are the author. However you want your story to go, write it. Weave it the way you want it to look. One setback; does not matter. Do not let the one thing push you back. Even if it's not one thing, even if it's failure after failure, disappointment after disappointment, don't give up.

"Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak. Sometimes it means you are strong enough to let go."

It's not the bottle half empty. It's the bottle half filled. Or cup. Whatever. It's your story. How do you want the ending to be like? What is the outcome?

All of it is in your hands. You are writing it. There is no one that can change your story for you. Unless you want them too. Even so, you are still in control. You're the main writer. You make all the calls. You tell them what YOU want them to do.

Even if you hit the bottom and you can't climb back up, think of it this way: When you are at your lowest, there is no where for you to go but up. No matter how long the journey or fight is, you will eventually go back up there. If you fight for it. If you sit and sulk and give up, your story will be left unwritten.

The saddest stories are not the ones with sad endings. It is the ones that never got finished. The ones that were given up half way.

Complete your story. Write it. Make it up. If reality is not the way you want it to be, change it. You are in control.

Little things turn into big things. Take everything one step at a time. Take all the blows one at a time. In fact, return them.

"If someone throws a rock at you, throw a flower back at them....but just make sure the flower is still in the pot."

Life is truly a story. And guess what? It is all yours. Now all you have to do is go write it.

Changing the World,...one statement at a time

I've come across a new mission. Lately, I've been playing this game: Restaurant Story (the app, not the facebook game). I know what you're thinking: No, this is not an advertisement or anything. They have neighbors stuff and all that thing on it and one day I was messaged with a quote (instead of the normal "tyb, thanks" or "3x tips").

"Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle."

It was just so simple. Nothing else was said. All there was, was just that one simple quote. As I perused more restaurants, I've discovered a lot of other owners leaving behind encouraging or merely inspiring quotes.

Mundane Things that Satisfy Me

Everyone has that little thing that makes them go "OMG I am so happy!" ...or something like that. I have one too. ...okay fine. Maybe more than one, but it's still doesn't matter.

What matters is the one I am talking about now. In the 21st century, internet and computers rule our lives. Technology, in general, is the essence of humans. Of course, no other species have invented computers or other technological (sometimes not useful at all, but fun to have) devices. And as I continue rambling off about nothing, the mere waste of time and space I am using will irk you.

Fast forward to key point: Youtube. The Library of Congress for music. Videos. Other humorous things that occupy our time when we have so much other things we need to do. Congrats to the dude(s) who invented it. Time is of the essence. NOT anymore. Now we waste time on the internet doing nothing and simply enjoy doing nothing.

Right. Back to Youtube: mainly a youtube video in which I dearly commented on, trying to be humorous...but a little Freudian slip came out. Oops. Nevertheless, this clearly made my day.

Check it out: Top Comment


Is that not amazing? :D That is f(x)'s Nu ABO music video. If you want, go check it out and you would DEFINITELY agree with me. :)

Nine Eleven, Ten Years Later

Songs:
I Believe by Blessid Union of Souls
Where is the Love by Black Eyed "Peace"
When I'm Gone by 3 Doors Down

10 years ago, on this day, something happened in America that changed lives forever. I was only in first grade then, but I remember the horror my parents felt when they saw what was on the news. I lived as far from NY as I possibly could, but still my parents were determined that I stay home the next day. If a mere child on the West Coast was kept indoors due to something that happened on the East Coast, what do the people in the East Coast feel like?

9-11. A day that marked the beginning of two major wars, a torrent of anger and fury unleashed. From that day on, America lived cautiously, the security went up, our defense spending skyrocketed. Security checks became more frequent. Paranoia was present. Fear was here.

Fast-forward 10 years and here we are in 2011. A new "beginning" in a way. Osama bin Laden was dead. Obama is our new president. Bush is gone. Yet every year, the horror of this attack still lingers. Nearing the date of September 11, people start being more cautious. Tense. Prepared for the worst to happen.

"The past cannot be changed for it has already occurred. The best we can do is look into the future and learn from our past. Live life to the fullest as you do not know what may happen tomorrow." Remember 9/11.

Senior Year..begins

Finally. 3 years of high school. A total of 540 days of school. Then: first day of SENIOR YEAR!

Honestly, I was so excited I was singing in the halls. Literally, skipping, jumping, screaming, and singing, "I'm a senior! Oh my gosh, we are seniors!" Yes, I'm so cool.

Needless to say, my friends think I'm totally crazy and the rest of the LOWERCLASSMEN think I'm a freak. Oh good, then I don't have to explain my actions to the rest of the human population. :)

But first day of school: So weird. I honestly have just two hard classes: stat and gov/econ. Everything else is pretty chill. Well, English but I like my teacher. I've had him before, so it's all cool.

Spent the last day of summer chillin' in the park with my best friends. We reenacted Romeo and Juliet (my teacher would be so proud of us) and planned how to start off our year with a BANG! or rather, a scream. ;) Movie's coming out Friday. Ready for some fun?

To all seniors: IT'S PARTY TIME!

New Game

At rehearsal today, I learned a new game. It's one of those games you play during parties or something, kind of like truth or dare.

The game? It's called 10 Fingers, or "Never Have I Ever". Most of you probably has played it. I have heard of it, never played it. And like all teenage games, it gets sexual.

But it's a great game to learn more about someone, an "icebreaker" sort of game.

How to play: Everyone has 10 fingers. (I sure hope this is true! ;D) Someone starts off saying, "Never have I ever...." and they can say something they've never done, like: "Jumped off a car roof". If someone has done that, they will put one finger down. The game continues with everyone taking turns until the game ends with the winner with the most fingers still up (or you can end early, if it gets boring, and restart). It's easy, fun, and quite the shocker, especially when some people reveal what they've always kept quiet about.

Be sure to have fun with it and come up with new ideas and twists!

Junior Year Memoir

Senior year is about to start. I thought that maybe I should post something about my junior year before it is over forever. and ever and ever and....

So, here it is:

Junior year. The worst year of high school. Why? Because it’s the year before all the fun and the year after all the innocence.

The year of AP tests. SATs. More tests. And finally, the fall: college applications.

By the time most sophomores reach junior year, in the beginning, it is a pleasant journey. I know because I was one of them. I went into junior year thinking it was going to be easy because the only hard class(es) I was taking was APUSH. The other possible hard class I could have is physics. None of my other classes were all that tough. So I thought.

I had some friends who had basically whizzed through sophomore year, taking AP calculus, chemistry, whatnot. But junior year, they too had some struggling. Maybe it’s the overwhelming of tests and quizzes. Maybe it’s the pressure from parents, teachers. Whatever it was, the stress was there. It was bearing down on us. Hard. Each one of us felt the pressure, felt the weight. And the only thing we could do was struggle to not go under.

I struggled. A lot. So did many of my friends. Whenever someone asks me, “how was school?” I’d usually reply with, “okay.” I couldn’t explain to them that I was struggling because they wouldn’t understand. (Note that mostly adults ask this). And if I do reply that it was hard, they would immediately become concerned, asking if I needed help or tutoring. Then as the questions become more insistent and seeking, I would flip. I would lose my self-control and snap at them.

I don’t know how many times I lost my temper at someone I cared about, whether it be my family, friends, or even my beloved baby. The need for independence was great. I wanted to be able to succeed on my own. To be able to overcome the challenges and show the success to my parents. But whenever I hit a wall or fell, I struggled to go on. I was proud; possibly too proud. I didn’t want anyone’s help. I refused to challenge myself further and I lost motivation and will to move forward. Nearing the end of the school year, there was a month of ongoing testing. AP tests. SATs. Finals. ACTs. It never stopped. At one point, I just gave up. I went home one day after a full day of testing and I just left everything. I didn’t open a book. I didn’t look over notes. I ignored all invites for a group study. I locked myself away in a place of nothingness. And I regretted it the next day.

My word of advice for all you incoming juniors: never ever give up. Once you let the control slip, it’s over. You can’t reverse time and redo it again. Keep pushing yourself, motivating yourself. Don’t procrastinate. Skip the fun and do the important things first. Or even better: incorporate the fun with the work. My APUSH project was to make a skit about a time period. The ending: we had created a rap about the entire period we were covering and it was a lot of fun. Definitely helped me study for my finals because it was an easy way of remember what went on in that time period.

I know this is sounding so dark and depressing. It actually isn’t all that bad. I was able to pick myself up after that one downfall and I made it down the final stretch. I finished my tests. I checked back into the world. I moved on.

Sometimes you wish you can go back and redo something. So did I. But my dad taught me something: “Whatever you did in the past is in the past. move on and think about the future because that’s where the present will be and that’s what you should think about instead of worrying about what you did wrong earlier.”

his simple advice helped me move from worrying about how I did on my physics final to studying for my APUSH final. Move from the spat I had with my best friend to organizing our next outing.

Most importantly: never ever try to pull all-nighters or cram in an extra hour of studying. Make a study schedule and start at least a week early. I tried doing the day before test: no workie. In fact, it made me even more nervous because I didn’t have enough time. Go over everything slowly, spanning over a few days and the last night before the day of the test, scan everything. At school, run a few things over with a friend to clarify or maybe quiz each other. Then the period before the test: forget about it. Do not look over any notes. Because then, all you would remember is the stuff you looked over right before.

Now everyone has their own method of studying. The said above is just my advice for you. You can chose to follow it or not. It doesn’t matter to me. Do what you feel works.

Now studying. It doesn’t sound all that fun, right? I know. But for me, there was a time where I really enjoyed it: 4th period pre-calc. it was the “study time” for APUSH. I had at least 5 other APUSH students who were in the same class as me. We threw nuggets and quizzed each other, pulled our desks in a circle, and received dirty glances from our math teacher. It was lots of fun.

Speaking of fun, between the hard work load and month of testing, prom. I wrote a commentary about this for my radio show. That is another story for another day, but prom is definitely a lot of fun. a relief from the school work. a day to hang out late with your friends. And of course, the date.

I definitely have much more to say but let me say this: no matter how hard it gets, there is always a fun side to something. “When you are at the bottom, there is no other way to go except up. And up you go.”

Final advice: organize outings with friends every month or so as a stress reliever. Seriously: it really works.