Future Career in Journalism?

The one thing I regret most from my 4 years at Tech is not getting involved with the Technique, the school newspaper. Writing is something I’ve always liked but actually being a journalist never really crossed my mind and no one encouraged it, probably because most people didn’t know about my writing skills/interest. As I stay here in Warner Robins, I’m thinking that when I make a job/career change, it will be to teaching or writing – teaching French or writing about sports or a critic of some sort. That time certainly isn’t here yet and I don’t know when it will come, but there will definitely come a time that I want a new full-time job and I want to be prepared for a smooth transition when that happens. I am glad that I got something formal from my interest in France – a minor, which will qualify me to teach French or get into a Master’s program in French at some point. As for writing, I don’t know. Maybe these blogs and a few articles I have on associated content will be a good starting point for getting a journalism job or admission to a graduate journalism school in a few years, but for the forseeable future I'm an engineer.

When it’s after 2am, just go to sleep

“In one night, I managed to hurt 2 people I cared about… and none of it would have happened if I had just listened to my mom. So I guess if there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s this: when it’s after 2am, just go to sleep.”

Recently I started watching “How I met your Mother.” I know, it’s been on TV for 4 years but I hadn’t seen it until a couple of months ago. I loved the one half of an episode I saw so I added it to the list of shows to watch when I have free time again. In the past month I made it through season 1. While the tv show is hilarious and a little over the top, I can really identify with Ted, the main chartacter - a nice guy with a good stable job, who is eager to settle down with a woman but the women he is most attracted to are too involved with their careers to give him much of a chance, at least in season 1. And there are some good ugly truths about relationships that are presented. The quote above is one that sticks out in my head now, not intending to imply that I've been getting into trouble after 2am lately.

Partly due to the "How I met your mother" influence, my new confidence, and my new interest in making my voice heard, I may try too hard sometimes and try some things that are really too much. Doing grand gestures for someone – like buying her a computer or writing her a poem or singing her a song or driving 4 hours to visit her just so you can do her laundry and clean her bathroom and cook (not saying I've done those things, they're just examples) - is sort of an all or nothing thing. Either she really likes it or really hates it. I was kind of tired or people being pretty much apathetic toward me. I was tired of being apathetic myself. When you speak more freely and do unusual things, you’re bound to make more enemies and have more fights but you’re also bound to make more meaningful friendships. I made more enemies in 2009 than ever before, but I also made more real friends in 2009, and reconciled with more enemies in 2009 than ever before. That’s the new me. For now.

Flights to Europe in May are expensive now. If you happen to find a good deal on flights from Atlanta to Paris or Rome or Berlin near the end of May, let me know.

2010 Travel Plan

It's a new year, and that means it's time to make a tentative plan for using my vacation time. In addition to the 11 holidays, I have about 22 days available to use this year counting the carry over from 2009.

Hilton Head, SC - February 12-14
Reno NABC – March 17-21
Berlin/Rome/Paris - May 29-June 6
River of Life Mission Project – July 7-10?
New Orleans NABC – July 24-31
Montréal Regional tournament – August 4-7
Orlando NABC – Nov 25-28
Charleston Regional – Dec 30-Jan 2

That amounts to using 17 vacation days so that sounds like a reasonable plan. In addition I hope to be in a play in the spring and start work on my master's degree at Mercer in the fall.

Seasons of Love

I travel a lot, I have a very wide range of interests and friends, and I’m typically (at least I had always thought I was) very scientifically oriented, but I spend an awful lot of time looking for love and thinking about it and imagining how the romance might progress. All that really does, though, is set myself up for disappointment and maybe give me a false sense of reality. I may be good at math and scientific things but I live and behave largely on feel and emotion.

During the production of Traditions in Nov-Dec, the magnitude of my emotions was as high as ever before (and if you talked to me much in the last half of 2008, you would know that I can have extremely strong feelings, even though I mostly try to hide it). I used to think it was largely because of the role I played, a role in which I previously envisioned myself in real life, but as I think about it now, I don’t associate the two things together. So why was I so emotional about it? Did I fall for “Claire” and screw it up in real life or was I just That moved by the story and the thrill of performing?

Sometimes I think I get involved in so many things just to keep from being lonely and to keep my mind off the quest for love. I know there’s no way to predict when you’ll meet someone you will love, and I know I am very picky about which girls I am interested in.

One thing I can say for sure is that the number one quality, the one and only common quality among the girls I’ve ever dated or seriously considered dating, is that they are all highly motivated and ambitious with their careers or future careers. Included in this group are 2 girls now in law school, a musician, 2 medical students, and 2 girls with or working on graduate degrees in math. It seems a bit strange that those are the girls I am most attracted to because I have never been one to place such high importance on my career. I mean, I want to work my 40 hours a week and I work hard at my job but it’s not the center of my life, it’s not something that defines who I am.

Relearning how to play the Trumpet

The bad thing about being a trumpet player is that it's hard to produce my own background music. I mean, if I played the guitar or piano or keyboard, I could play and sing at the same time. So a big part of me is inclined to learn one of those instruments but I really do like the trumpet.

If anyone knows of a local jazz band or concert band or orchestra or something like that I could try out for, I may be interested in that.

2009 Recap

Highlights of 2009 (in order of personal significance):

1) Visiting my enormous family in the Philippines for the first time in 15 years.
2) Uncle Siegfried passing away in May and attending his funeral in Berlin.
3) The thrill of being on stage performing for an audience, and doing well.
4) River of Life
5) Fall nationals in San Diego and hanging out with Giorgia and Sean.
6) Summer nationals in Washington DC and meeting Giorgia and Mila.
7) The cast and crew of Traditions making me feel so comfortable and welcome.
8) Christmas cruise to the Bahamas.
9) Long weekend in NYC/Long Island with Mila.
10) Long weekend in Pittsburgh with Ayan.
11) Whitewater with Hillery and company.
12) Late nights at Kippers and Steak and Shake with Muhammad and others.
13) Drinking away the sorrows and singing karaoke with Chuck, Jen and Amanda early in the year.

Christmas Cruise

So, the cruise turned out to be a lot of fun. I met some really interesting people to hang out with - Courtney, Shana, Sean, Peter, and Danielle. I didn't really know what to expect, but I kind of thought I would get bored and not meet any other young folks that I could spend time with. And I think I was lucky to meet the people I did. There actually were not many single 20-somethings out of the 2500 on the ship. And actually, 3 of the 5 perviously mentioned people are in their 30's but felt like about my age. The cruise was filled with lots and lots of teenagers with their parents, and the ethnic diversity was a lot greater than I would have thought for a cruise to the Bahamas. I guess all that is largely due to the time of year that is attracive for more families and minorities who may not celebrate Christmas.

In our day at the Bahamas, we didn't do much. I made my parents walk from the harbor in Nassau all the way to Atlantis - probably 3 miles. There were only a couple other groups that did that - most took a guided tour or guided activity or a taxi to the casino/resort area on Paradise Island/Atlantis. I was rather unimpressed with the parts of the Bahamas we saw. The city streets in Nassau reminded me of the Philippines a little bit and Atlantis is just another resort, not unlike many places in Florida. The cruise itself was extremely well run, designed to keep everyone full and occupied, if that's what you want, but it's also easy to just relax and rest. I was kind of restless, always going out and exploring some other part of the ship.