Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Night Before

Whenever I am waiting in anticipation for something the very next day, the night before my mind is riddled with sleepless thoughts. When I was younger, it was the beginning of a new school year and the thoughts of seeing all my friends again after a long summer's absence. Graduating from high school, it was the first day of college that had me awake the night before with innumerable questions. What will be college like? am I going to fit in? I hope my roommate is chill and cool! (Alex, yes you are) More recently, the night before my departure for Viet Nam, a country that I haven't set foot on for 12 or so years had me brimming with excitement. Thoughts of seeing old friends, family, and relatives made it unbelievably hard to close my eyes and wait for the next morning.

And as I write this post, the culmination of these three experiences aptly describes my current condition. I am excited to meet the fellow volunteers, but the idea of making new friends all over again is a bit daunting. I am eager to begin my post in Mongolia, but the thought of living in a new country for more than 2 years hit you with a little trepidation. So yes, the butterflies are fluttering.

Do I know whats fully ahead? No...
Do I want to know? No...

I guess I will just take it one step at a time, and I just hope that there will be more of these wonderful "sleepless nights" in the near future.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Ever Closer...

Received my ticket and itinerary from Sato travel today, so the date is drawing ever closer. And a little over a week from now, I will be boarding a plane for San Francisco and then on to Mongolia we fly! So friends (the ones I didn't say good bye to already), make your appointments.

To those that were with me this past weekend, THANK YOU! thank you for a wonderful time, it was an experience that I will never forget (Flaming Lamborghini+ Scorpion Bowl= death of Trinh). Thanks to those that came out for the World Pub Golf, and thank you for the extremely awesome going away gift. I'm sadden by the fact that many of you were too far away to make it to the event, but it is your thoughts that makes me appreciate it even more.

And of course the Worcester HS crew, it was good seeing all of you again! I'm glad to see that we can revert to our HS ways on the flip of a dime. 5 years, so long.. so much has changed, yet I'm glad that we still retain our childish immaturity.

And thus ends my sentimental post.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Moment

This was a post written way back in '05, and its my first declaration of wanting to join the Peace Corps, enjoy.

Monday, May 02, 2005

So it draws to an end...the year is almost over and my college career is so close to being done. Thinking about this makes me sad...but thats how life is, so I will accept it and just enjoy the present moment.

Sophomore year has been GrEaT.
As I type this entry, memories flood back. I remember the first few days of the year, how excited I was to be back, to see all of my friends again. We were all single then, each one of us with a goal to find a girl, (yeah its true..lol..im just trying to be honest.) Sad to say that I have not reach my goal yet, but I'm happy for Giac and Jae for finding two awesome girls that they can share their time with. I can only wait.

Through the year, I have also made new friends. My basketball friends, my tennis friends, my partying friends, and friends through other friends. Its sad that we do not have enough time to hang out, but I am sure that we will keep in touch.

As for myself, there is definitely some personal growth that I have gone through. Behind the veneer of child-like immaturity, I think I have finally made some progress as what I want to do with my life. This is not gonna sit well the 'rents, who along with all the other asian parents want their sons and daughters to become doctors or lawyers. It would have been great to be a doctor, but the sight and sound of the hospital makes me uneasy. As for lawyers, aren’t there enough of em already?

So what then is my true calling? I have thought long and hard about this, though some of my old friends might find this hard to believe, I really do want to join the Peace Corps. This is not my attempt to be cool and do something that is different. There has always been a part of me that wanted to do this, go back and do the same thing that people have done for me when I was in Vietnam. I can say that my first two years at Tufts have also influenced my decision. Seeing so many passionate people with tremendous goals have made me look into myself, and what I noticed was that I was lacking this passion.

I can truthfully say that money/wealth/material goods are not goals in my life anymore. I used to dream of such things, but then again what is it all worth in the end? Sooner or later we all die, yeah..its true, we do. So my new outlook is pretty simple, live a life that will make me happy. And I’m HAPPY right NOW…so that’s all that matters.

Wow, I wrote a lot...sad to say that this is the first entry that I wrote with actual content. But its good to let this out...now its time to start the 10-12 page paper...its on evanescence and change, how appropriate.


Friday, May 2, 2008

Staging Kit

My staging kit just came in the mail, how exciting! Now I finally know that staging is going to be in San Francisco from May 30th to June 1st. Yep, so another packet from the Peace Corps with a bunch of reading materials and more forms to fill out, but this time I am happy to complete it. I just called up Sato Travels (Peace Corps travel office) to set up the travel arrangements, and it seems like I will be heading out of Boston in the wee morning and be in San Francisco a tad before noon, just in time for registration... I foresee it already, its going to be one hectic day!

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