An Endless Walk

A glimpse of my life from start to finish. hahaha

-I was debating on holding this blog entry off till I finished editing all my photos but seeing how almost two months have passed and tons of photos are still in pre-edit stage, I decided to just go ahead and make due-

The University of Virginia. A school I learned to respect and feel proud towards. Initially, I chose  University of Virginia because it seemed to be the best choice for me financial and education wise. My attitude going into the school was something as simple and plain as "get my degree as fast as I can and zoom on by". Little did I know, I would learn to appreciate and miss the experience I had there....and so, these are my post graduation thoughts and rambles.

Some of the things that I miss seem pretty ironic, such as Clemons Library. This is a place that I, without intention, made my second home. A place that, without fail, gave you a waft of people grubbing on Yuan Ho and contained a musky air that was inevitably filled with coughed-up influenza virus, is where I often spent countless hours studying for quizzes and exams. I even think the most sunrises I have ever witnessed are from the 4th floor Clemons window and as horrible and unpleasant as this may all seem, I still find myself missing the place because of the countless hours my fellow friends and 동생s suffered with me.
Clemons, in a way, is a place that tests your real friendship. A place that knocks down your guard with lack of sleep and brings out your true inner self. Come midnight, like a werewolf on cue, people start acting funny and laugh at any and every little thing... so of course, this was my favorite time of the day.
Then people would try to burn off their freshmen 15, sophomore 20, junior 25, and senior 30, by walking over to Little Johns and/or Dunkin Donuts and getting some snacks to eat.. passing by the Aviator statue which was often clothed with different materials by a random club/frat/sorority.
One of my most funniest memory happened exactly where the picture is. On this particular day before finals week, our fellow College Council decided to give out free T-shirts and Redbull infront of the library. Smelling the free-bees, a mob of college students suddenly gathered in front of them, my friends and I included. The Council members not knowing what to do, decided that the best way to distribute the goods was to back up and yell "go for it". As anyone can imagine, this created an instant mosh pit situation. Luckily, my friends and I were at the front closest to the merchandises when this whole thing started so we all were able to grab a shirt and some red bulls and that is when I witnessed it. I heard someone repeating "Oh my god, Oh my God, Oh my, Oh my" and naturally turned my head to see what was going on. What I saw was Yuta leaning over the table that held the free shirts, getting dry humped by the people grabbing for the shirts with the most priceless face expression possible. After about 5 minutes, he asked the person behind him, "Let me out", and the person, I assume finding pity, yelled out "LET THIS MAN OUT", which created a parting of the sea of people to give Yuta his freedom. It was just one of those you had to be there moments. So funny!

Yikes.. its 3:10 am and this is taking longer than I thought so To be continued....

    For my second blog entry, I decided to write about awkward situations. I am not talking about the kind that you often get between your friends where a simple use of "awkward turtle" or "awkward pyramid" can solve. I am talking about the ones that happen when you come across people you know of but do not know personally.
    I have been questioning myself more so lately after situations like this occur. Just the other day at the gym, I happened to pass by a person who I knew attends the same church service that I do but it just felt too awkward to go up and say "hello, isn't your name...  ". Then after it all, I just thought to myself, why is it so awkward? Why do I just let these moments pass without even introducing myself? When I seriously think to myself, it logically makes no sense to let it happen. The worst that could come from it is a "I don't recognize you but hi, my name is.." and the best that could come from it is a new found friend... so then why do I continue to let it happen? Maybe it is a pride issue where I don't want to let down my "wall" to vulnerability, a lack of courage or even a lack of care to make any more friends. Whatever it is, I know it is something I should (and will) work on the more I notice it but as for now... all I can say is sorry to all of you whom I allowed these awkward moments to occur (even though it is silly saying this since they will never even read this seeing as we aren't friends). Perhaps, even with the short time that I have left here at UVA, we shall become friends =)... and if not, I can at least work on it so I can prevent it from happening in the future.

      As I sit here setting up this Blogger website, I can't help but feel a sense of nostalgia as I am taken back to when I journal'd on a website called Xanga. It feels weird trying to get myself back into the habit of journaling again since I have been away from online journaling for almost a decade....but here goes nothing!