Oh Happy Day

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Hope y'all are looking forward to 2010 because I sure am. 

So my 21st Christmas has come and gone in quite a memorable fashion.  BUT, before I talk about Christmas, let's recap on the past week shall we...

I had a Yonsei reunion with some of wonderful people I met and got to know from Korea last summer while also spending the whole day with Miss Seong-Ah. We had part uno of our L.A./SoCal adventures.  Lots of driving and chatting.  :]  I think we can both say that we ALMOST came close to the whole year Seong-Ah was abroad in the "motherland".  I will post more pictures once we complete part dos.  To the left we have Seong-Ah's first visit to one of L.A.'s "historical landmarks" - Pink's Hotdog.

I also got a lovely reminder in the mail of important dates for COMMENCEMENT 2010!  Yes, I am excited and happy to graduate and have achieved success and knowledge about the world, other people, and myself, BUT I am still nervous about entering the real world.  I could picture the day of commencement to be really anti-climatic - reading the list of at least 500 social science students, pictures with friends and the fambam, dinner, and a final farewell to UCI.  Bittersweet no?

Back to the holiday mode - I must say this Christmas was unique, which can also be considered an understatement.  I don't think I have EVER eaten as much as I did during the past day and a half.  Usually, Christmas is based around "family-time" and we have a casual dinner and presents opening aka 'receive money' time, but this Christmas my Aunt went all out with the food!  This dinner could have quite possibly competed with Thanksgiving dinner.  This was the first year I got to join in on drinking alcohol legally, which was totally fun because my family definitely became happy with all that liquid in their bodies.  The next morning I woke up to Sarah Brightman's Las Vegas live concert blasting at maximum surround sound volume - fun.  I also got to watch Michael Jackson's This is it and I suprisingly enjoyed it.

 Our Korean Christmas Feast

My FamBam

The Cousins

Sappy

I laugh at myself publicly.

I recently changed up the format of my blog because I now naturally have 200% more free time compared to when school is in session. As I look at my "Oh, life is perfect" picture with the phrase "livin' the sweet life, while balancing between the good and beautiful", I start thinking 'Oh my gosh what was I thinking?!' hahaha.

Really...
Life is not all THAT good or beautiful, I suppose this really depends on the type of life you are living. Don't get me wrong, I am very appreciative of where He has placed me and the family I was born into, but life is definitely far from being perfect. Life is both good and beautiful, but obviously everyone knows that there is more to life than these simple adjectives can ever describe. I suppose my dolce vita persona is from my more optimistic outlook of life, not necessarily the most realistic.

Header picture by moritake

REALization

One word sums up my entire winter break thus far -- lounging.

As I got older, I have become more accustomed to staying at home for longer periods. I can definitely assert that I am a homebody and I thoroughly enjoy spending my days at home, some may call this vegetating at home. Unfortunately, I still do feel the pressures of how I am not maximizing my life by spending my time at home all day and seeing each day go, hour by hour.

My blog is a record of some of my most crucial thought that I think are important to share with me, some of my readers - if I have any, and with the world in general. I feel that my past few posts have all dealt with the issues of my future, and you can expect this post to be about my future once again. I went back and read one of my more critical posts pertaining to my future decisions because I recently thought I was straying away from my actual intent and vision - lucky for me, I wasn't. I really despise this period of life, I have never felt so uncertain about anything in my life, but I suppose that is what life is truly all about- not really knowing what is going to happen next. I really enjoy thinking about my future with my friends because we all know that we are all in the same boat of having an unknown future.

Recently, I have been stressing myself out, and have been really thinking methodically about what I am going to do with my future. I think what stresses me out is the expectations I have of myself and what expectations my parents have of me. I really do value what my parents think because not only does their blood run through my veins, but for most decisions that require their opinion, they have never lead me to choose the wrong answer. Realization has finally hit me in the head that I will not get my dream job right out of college, and I am going to work my way up the change of command till I land the position I want. Start from ground zero. My mission is public service.

So, I thought I'd end with showing some l-o-v-e and to having HOPE&faith. Until next time, adieu.

Dunzo.

Today was my last official day and now I can say that I have completed my last undergraduate fall quarter ever. I have lived at the library for the past five days and seems as if I cannot leave this place.

There is a beautiful image that is created when all the students are studying diligently for their last couple of finals. I never realized this until I took a step back, and there is a great deal of serenity, with students studying - all sorts of different winter clothes and laptops acting as a source of academia and music. I suppose I am glad that I am no longer studying for any finals, but it is indeed fun to watch others, not because they are suffering and I'm not, just the imagery is amusing. Good luck to all those with Friday finals.

<3

Berry Fulfilling

So this is my 4th day studying for finals, and it will probably be another 12+ hour study day with a short break to get some sort of food in my system. For the past couple of days, I have been eating/drinking an original Jamba Berry Fulfilling in order to get some healthy foods in my system. Like my residents said, I hate finals week because everyone has a worse habit of eating any possible food that will satisfy their hunger aka fast food. Everyone goes into this mode where grades matter the most in their life, and really could careless about the other things going on in their lives, including eating meals.

During finals, unless you are studying with me, I will basically disappear off the face of the earth. I go into my corner and seclude myself from the rest of the world. I'm sitting her in Langson, tired from not getting my usual 8 hours of sleep and instead only getting 5 hours of sleep. Funny as I sit here drowsy as heck, when I got up I was so cheerful and energetic (that did not take long to die down)..

I am definitely thankful that Langson and student center are open for 24 hours, but I hate the competition students face in order to find a seat or desk. Glynnie gets here early in the morning, bless her soul, and nabs a table as the rest of us trickle in and "hold down the fort" while others may go take finals or have to go to meetings in between. I should be writing my final analytical paper for my upper div. writing class, but my brain is not function to talk about political represetation.


UGH. Finish the dang paper now!

Ohhh la la

Sometimes life runs at such a fast pace that people really start to forget about the minor details. I have recently taken a step back again to look at the whole picture - to see life in a larger perspective, and realized the wonderful minute details that mother nature has created -- it's amazing. I especially love to examine the food I eat, really putting an emphasis on fruits. Next time you eat, try to do the mindful eating exercises, these exercises really encourage you to be grateful and appreciate the food that you eat.

As for the picture, I'm really am feeling this image. Look at all the details of the faces and expressions. I really enjoy Anne Hathaway's expression, and the different layering to this image. People definitely have different reactions to this piece, I asked one of my friends how they felt about this picture, they replied that they saw this image as being "freaky".

Oh the effects and ability to have double eyelids. Hah. I guarantee that a majority of the world does not understand how that is a privilege to be naturally born with such features. Plus, Anne Hathaway is beautiful.

Anne Hathaway & Fornasetti.

<3.

Focus

For the past few months, I kept searching for the answer of what I want to do after I graduate (as stated in my previous posts), and WHY I wanted to partake in particular programs.

I think I FINALLY figured it out! Hurrah!
I need to really focus back on to the vision I have for myself - wanting to really empower other people. Focusing on my personal leadership, I need to do this for myself as well - I need to really empower myself and have faith that I can do what others have done i.e. apply to a prestigious law school, get accepted into fellowship programs, go participate in AmeriCorps.

Through the different positions I have partaken in on campus during college, have for some reason had a common theme of helping others especially freshmen. Many of the positions I have had obtained deal with mentoring and seeing other people succeed. My focus is to continue helping others who may need to overcome situational difficulties. I am a first-generation college student who understands the challenges my parents have overcome in order to succeed within the U.S. I understand the different needs that students have and really want them to succeed. My goal is to help people who do not have the advantage of that others have and make an impact within the fields of international or immigration law.