Summer is a time to break out of bitterness

This is how I know I am becoming less bitter and thus better at life.

I used to get pissed off at 3 things in New York: rent-controlled apartments (that I can’t get my hands on), extremely hot guys with steady girlfriends (that I can’t get my hands on), and rich kids getting amazing internships (that I can’t get my hands on)

But lately I have been surprisingly immune to jealousy. The man and his family of 3 in that huge apartment in Chelsea paying only $500 a month does not bother me. And by the way this is not an urban myth.

Relationships are not difficult as long as I keep my insecurity and greed in check, which I admit are pretty hard to do in New York. But I try, I try very hard to

Summer is a great time to take risks, because you are happier and happier people are more successful at risk-taking. I am beginning to swerve into the territories of what I want out of life.

Inauguration of a Lifetime, Part II

The traffic going into Washington DC isn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. It was a mere 4-hour ride from New York and I slept most of the way. All in all, it was one of the smoothest bus ride I’ve taken. I highly recommend this bus company.

Getting a cab at Dupont Circle took a while, but once I successfully hailed one, it was a smooth ride to my friend’s house in Glover Park. I rode down the amazing Embassy Row with magnificent foreign compounds on my right and the Vice President’s absolutely huge property on my left: No. 1 Observatory Circle. I mean, who knew the VP’s house is this grand and exclusive, surrounded by iron gates and trees?

Hope is in the air. I can feel the positive vibe in this city bursting with the anticipation of our first African American President. Even this morning as I watch NBC’s Meet the Press, I cannot help but getting a bit emotional, thinking about what this historic moment meant for this country I have lived in for so long and perhaps more importantly how I should live up to these promises as well.

This is what getting our first Black President means to me:

It means that I need to make not easy choices, but right choices.

It means I need to confront my discomforts and go through obstacles doing the best I can.

It means I need to be courageous enough to recognize truth when it comes to me.

It means I need to believe my heart and make tough choices when they are due.

It means I need to be honest with myself, of my limitations and possibilities.

It means I need to strike the balance because idealism based on pragmatism.

I say these because I am sitting at a Starbucks right now attempting to do some corporate work instead of heading down to Lincoln Memorial to watch the Inaugural Concert with my friends. I do this with a mixture of despaired responsibility and unrecognizable fear. This is my first assignment in a foreign place. I am vaguely familiar with what is going on, so perhaps the best possible solution here is to work and learn as much as I can, and then be honest about what I don’t know.

To be honest about what I don’t know, in corporate America, is perhaps the hardest act of them all. How do I achieve that without looking like a totally lost idiot?

When reading is worthless, and experience is valuable

I practically learned this world from books.  My parents didn’t teach me too much things substantial, except to not break rules, to not be corrupt, and to be decent to others, which I guess are unbelievably substantial.  But I learned about the science of happiness from Psychologists, the ways of American mannerism from books, and the many histories of this scarred nation also from books.  Books are my soul and blood, my sources of not only knowledge, but ways of living and advises of action.

At some point, though, I must have gotten sick of absorbing information, but never experiencing them.  And I realizes today, that I need to stop reading, and start experiencing – all the triumphs and failures that have made me cry in books – I want to experience them first hand.  Right now.

I’m trying to find a job

I’m trying to find a job, because I’m bored.  And after much effort trying to redefine my life and bring purpose and meaning into why I exist, I am so far failing to achieve the kind of satisfaction I crave for.

I don’t know what I want in life, what is it that makes my heard pump (people and career, both).

I don’t know who I am. Is this the so-called quarter life crisis? I think so.

Oh Gosh, what am I going to do?

How to find a relationship

The one lesson I learned in life: is to be yourself.  Not humble, not confident, but who you truly are: a combination of both.

It’s a lesson that’ll get you jobs, relationships, friends, and everything else in between.

Be real.  And in a city with the fasade, being real is difficult!

Obama Nation

It’s been a week of madness and bliss.  The election of Barack Obama is inevitable, but nevertheless unbelievable.

It’s touching not only because a Black man is now the President of the United States, but also that hope won over fear, honesty triumphed lies, democracy got back its power, and intelligence beat connections.

People all over the world rejoiced because the good guy, the underdog, the oppressed, the man from a low income group with an abandoned father and a confused identity, stood up to himself and said, “I am going to be strong despite my setbacks in life” and stood up to the bully and said, “enough.”

Barack is like the most of us, and yet he is so extraordinary, which means that each one of us has the ability within us to be even greater than what we are now.  And that is inspiring.