so begins a new period in my life where I can decompress my mind and regain my sanity...
To start off, the ten events and people who have affected me the most in 2008 (in no particular order):
1. richard choi
More than an inspiration for starting this blog, I've learned a lot from our relationship. We grew up together starting at the apartment complex on Artesian street but only when we lived together during his freshman year at NU did I really learn to respect and love him as a friend. Before, it was our mutual desire to have fun that united us, along with our other friends, and defined our friendship. But now, as adulthood begins to claim different responsibilites for each one of us, and as we are only able to spend so much time together, our friendship along with our core group of friends, josh, aug, wes, david, sam, and now isaac, has evolved to become a brotherhood in which we will always watch each others' backs and can lean on and be leaned on by each other throughout our lifetimes. I still think that he's losing his sanity due to his inability to stem his over-thinking mind. At the same time, I find beauty in his struggles to find himself and "formulate the rest of his life". Moreover, through our relationship in the last year, I learned that there are many people who need someone to just listen to them and to understand them. There are, of course, many other things I learned from our relationship including learning to appreciate art and music, and finding joy in reading (hobbies of most introverts I might add). But the skill of listening and understanding someone is something that people outside of yourself can cherish and I think I've finally started to learn to listen to him and others. Classic richard quote: "alas, woe is me."2. chris lee
Arguably, the only person that I would truly call a hyung, chris has taught me three important things that have shaped my character in the last year. Similar to richard, the first thing chris taught me was to listen to another person but for a different reason. We used to argue a lot because we, for some unknown reason, found joy in arguing with each other. I think mainly because we used to argue about the most stupid things and laugh about it afterwards. But he would always tell me that if I didn't listen to the other person, I wouldn't know and understand what the argument was about and my mind would always be closed. Closely related to the first thing I learned, the second thing chris taught me was to think and to use logic. Think about the situation or what a person has said and think about what you want to say and what your point is. I used to be very stubborn and quick to blurt out things and never think about what people were saying to me. But his influence and his ability to discern things just by thinking about what people has said has helped me to both understand others and speak at a level where the other person can understand my viewpoint as well. Chris has used logic on numerous occasions to dissect my argument and rip me apart (in a most humorous way). Thinking along with logic has become a useful tool in my social life to both understand people and defend people and myself from the most ridiculous arguments. Therefore, chris valued silence. For most people, silence can be defeaning but silence for chris meant many things. Silence acknowledged the other person's presence and company and gave time to all people to reflect on what was being said. The third thing I learned from chris was to always learn something from any given situation. I argued that there were some things that had no point, but to chris, having no point was having a point. It took me a long time to understand this and I really believed that he too, like all my other friends, was losing his sanity but in retrospect, he was right. Our friendship began in the summer of 2007 and I learned a lot from him even when he moved to OSU in August of 2008. The last thing he said to me was that we would definitely see each other again, and argue. Favorite quote: "wwwhhhhat."
3. LA
Seeing my old roommates and friends from NU, skiing at the "second best free style snowboarding mountain in the US", winning money in Vegas, getting a little out of control in LA, and being on the west coast for the first time in my life, I have to admit, this was the best vacation ever. However, although the location is important for providing a variety of things to do, I valued the people that I spent time with on my vacation to the west coast. We were able to talk about what was going on in our lives and encourage each other through the stress and struggles that we faced. Unlike other vacations where I just went to have fun, this vacation helped us to strengthen our bonds, especially on our 11 hour drive to Big Bear mountain. And yea, we had a lot of fun. After a night of clubbing, I came back to Charles' and Eddie's place to see 13+ people sleeping on beds, couches and the floor and then exactly at 10am or so, they would all wake up and begin another day of fun-filled activities. More importantly, this event was so monumental because I like LA. The people are similar to me and their lifestyle is something that I could fit into. I was born in Atlanta and grew up in Chicago but I feel as though LA would probably be the best place for me to live during the latter half of my life. I guess I'll have to find that out later. Favorite quote of the trip by jeff kim whenever charles kim tried to give an excuse for his tardiness: "shut the fcuk up!"
4. Barack Obama
On 01/20/2009, Barack Obama gave his inaugural speech. Honestly, I was not impressed. From all the hype and from listening to his earlier speeches, I was ready to be moved to tears or go out and change the world. Instead, President Obama gave a speech in which all the Americans could have a sober look at what the United States was becoming and change. In truth, I voted for McCain but through this speech, impressed or not, I could tell that President Obama would work hard for the United States.The three things I got from his speech were:
1. change; as the world changes, we need to change with the world.
2. struggle; we have to accept the problems the US faces, whether we like them or not, and struggle to fix them even if it means that we would get our hands dirty (with dirt, not corruption)
3. fight to the end; through hope we can see the horizon and be able to fight to the end.
I especially liked the fact that he quoted George Washington at the end of his speech because it not only gave us hope for America but also moved us to take action. And we is the operative word. Not just Barack Obama, but all Americans must work together to change the US. I'll probably write more about his speech and his first 100 days on another blog since this is already getting really long.
5. NYC
Although NYC is known for its night life and other expensive things, traveling with richard choi, a very pleasant traveling companion I might add, I was able to see and explore the more artistic side of NYC and appreciate the many things that I would have otherwise missed. The more notable things we saw were central park, MoMA, a great comic book store, Time Square during busy times and at the dead of night, the metropolitan, Tim Keller's Redeemer Church service, and the NY Mets game. The first time I went to NYC, I enjoyed the people, the night life, and the food. This time, however, I was able to appreciate the things that people have created both physically and socially. It opened my eyes to see the world in a different way and I have begun to not only appreciate people and their social presence but also their creations. Favorite quotes of the trip: "this is a mecca of..." and "did you shave this morning?"6. YDC
Unlike the many years before this, I was moved by the environment at this YDC and was able to really think about my relationship with God. Of course, there was some milkage, but everyone was focused on learning something about the love of God and it really helped many people to grow closer to God. I also think that the many years of experience that we gained from hosting the YDC has helped us to promote the good things and cut out things that have been deleterious to the spiritual health of the program. Finally, at this particular YDC, I was able to read someone's key verse testimony. Through her testimony I began to have a desire to know God. All throughout my life, I prayed for what I wanted, which were usually unrealistic, and for God to show me something. But at this conference, I realized that I was trying to build the wrong kind of relationship with God. Therefore, for 2009 I want to trust God's plans for me and be able to come to him, yearn for him, not according to my own motives but according to God's love for me. 2009 Key Verse: Jeremiah 29:11-13.
7. josh's and aug's Wedding
Joshua and Mary Jeon, August 2008. Augustine and Vannesa Sohn, July 2008. Two of my closest friends got married (not to each other) and helped me to realize that we are growing up. Whenever I think about their weddings, it gives me hope (not for marriage, I'm not that thirsty) for our future. We've grown up and learned to take our responsibilities and contribute to the world. We have become men...I laughed after I wrote that sentence. Favorite quotes: "campii" and "dahhhh!"
8. charles kim
My former roommate of library place, he was the guy everyone likes, but for me the reason why we grew closer was the fact that a sincere and genuine commitment of friendship took place before he left for LA. I've learned so much from his honesty and sincere attitude that it has helped me to live more honestly and learn to value things that I would have otherwise forsaken. Instead of brushing off the cons in my character, he's pointed out my bad qualities and constructively criticized me to strengthen my moral fiber. Charles is truly a people person and I wish he would change his career to becoming something that would involve him with helping people in a social setting but he's pretty dead set on becoming a dentist. The other thing that charles was good at is telling stories. If I retold any of his stories, no one would find them interesting but whenever he tells the same story, everyone gets really into it. A more lovable characteristic (or character defect) is his love for food. One time at a restaurant he got really silent and I asked him if he was okay. He looked over at me and said, "I'm trying to decide on what I want to eat. This is really imporant. I have to impress my stomach." Ask him to tell you the story. Favorite quote: *his contagious laughter
9. my present roommates
Living with jacob kim and john martin has been a good influence on me in a spiritual way. Both of them live as Christians in different ways; jacob is quiet and likes to write and spend time thinking about the Word of God while john is more active and likes to talk about and even preach to others about the Word of God. I'm not sure where I am with my faith but everyday I hang out with these two, I can see that God is with them. Their spiritual lifestyle might be explained by their characteristics. John is super aggressive and has many stories while Jacob likes to listen and laugh. Having dinner with them is always very interesting. Favorite quotes: "I'm the best at ..." and "women should..."10. my dad
When I was a child, I feared and respected my father. When I became a teenager, I was rebellious and saw him as an authoritative tyrant. Nowadays, I respect him as my father and as my friend. I've learned a lot from my dad and in 2008 I learned to work hard. My parents believe that I am gifted with an above averge, almost incredible intelligence but I'm finding out everyday the weaknesses of my mind. Therefore, when he talked to me about hard work and how he had to struggle to come to America and how he struggled in America, I realized that he was trying to bestow upon me the wisdom of hard work. I've changed most of my past behaviors in order to work hard for everything including, recently, my applications to medical school and the work that I do at work. I can't say that a "work hard" spirit has been totally instilled in my life. But I can say that I am working hard to work hard. Recently, my dad has been traveling a lot to all parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania. He sends me two to three emails a week and everytime I read them I smile, somewhat due to his grammatical mistakes but mostly because I can tell that he is very happy. Favorite quote of my dad when we went camping: "let's cook marshmelons!"
I know this is long and hopefully I'll be able to write more blogs and therefore, shorten the length of each blog. And hopefully, I'll be able to look back at my posts and learn something about myself.
So begins the filling of the pensieve...
