First 5K was fun. 80s theme! Ran it in 25 mins. Proud of this small accomplishment. Think I’m finding a new obsession with running.

This past weekend was a good break, a teaser if you will. It was great seeing family, and friends for a little. For Thanksgiving, we have our family tradition of going around saying what we’re thankful for. And it always puts a little perspective as to what am I thankful for, and what should I really be thankful for.

Simply, I’m thankful for life, love, family, and friends.

As much as we yearn for more exciting lives, we should at least be thankful for living the lives we do have. I may not live the coolest, craziest life, but it would be one that millions of people would give the world for, and for that, I am thankful. Many times, I take this life for granted and don’t make the most of it. But having this thought in the back of my mind will remind me to do my best in what I do.

Love comes in all forms, and I’m thankful to have it, and to give it. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my dogs, I love living in California, I love PCE. I am happy to be where I am in my life right now. It’s weird to imagine it any other way.

I hadn’t seen my family in what feels like forever, since I’ve been really busy with school. I’m always thankful that we can all be together for the holidays since everyone doesn’t live close to each other anymore. It’s always a fun time with family, whether it’d be pigging out, watching movies, making fun of each other, family stuff. Good thing Christmas is around the corner.

I grateful for the friends I’ve made, and kept. You meet a lot of people in your life, and only a few will remain for a good while. I’m glad to have kept friendships strong, especially those from 1st/2nd grade. That’s a good chunk of my life to have known them. But there are even those whom you haven’t know that long, but have built a great connection with them. It’s cliche, but you know those friends whom you haven’t seen in a long time but when you do its like time never passed? yeah.

thanks, life.

miss this little guy.

Thrift-ing and the Habit with Ading Kayla.

Her first time thrift-ing, my first time at the Habit. pretty good.

Life has been pretty busy, as expected. It’s all been school and PCE. Senior project has been progressing nicely. I think I got the best grade from our midterm presentation, so that made me happy. But since then, I haven’t found myself in the groove to really work on it. Hopefully I can get that back this week. Other classes have been okay. They are kind of taking a back seat right now. It’s almost time to register for winter quarter, and it’s crazy to see my flow chart almost filled. The reality of graduating is slowly settling in.

PCE has been event after event. Friendship Games, FED, Clue Night. Thank goodness there’s a small break this weekend. I’d like to think we are doing a good job at running PCE and taking it in a positive direction. It just seems a lot different from before, with a ton of new members, and being on the behind the scenes of everything. I think it’s what I’ve expected and at the same time what I didn’t, which makes it interesting all the time. All I can do is try my best and do what I can to make the club the best it can be.

Outside of these two, life has been pretty good. For the most part I’ve been healthy, not partying too hard, taking the time to relax. A lot of time has been spent with the girl, and it’s been great. Can’t complain. I just feel disconnected from family and friends from home, since I’ve been having my hands full. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving Break and being back home with family and friends and catching up. But before I can do that, I have to work and push forward! But hopefully time doesn’t move too fast.

i love orange. food included

Today was Culturefest. It was super fun. Weather was beautiful.

I was so happy to be able to work in the Kids Corner, where there were a lot of fun activities and crafts for kids. I had a great time, maybe even more so than the kids. It was fun trying to teach them how to make dreamcatchers, and I didn’t even know how to make them. It’s just refreshing interacting with kids because they just care about having fun and doing cool things, no room for judgement or anything. Even though I was there most of the day, away from all the interaction at our booth and such, it was a great time chilling under the shade of the trees, making dreamcatchers, and just being on the outside looking in.

Reality is really beginning to settle in. All the preparation (or lack thereof) awaiting these moments will show what happens now, and what is waiting to happen. Nothing but contradictory notions will settle into my mind constantly.

I’m ready for this. I’m not ready for this.

I know what I’m doing. I have no clue what to do.

I’m going to do my best to make this great. I’m going to mess it all up.

I feel like I say this often, but I see that now is this time to truly find who I am. I think I’m at this point in my life where I will decide what I seriously want to do with my life. It’s hard to juggle so many different passions. If there was a way to mesh them all together into a net that could keep it all together. I’ll find a way.

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The first general meeting of the quarter, of the year. So many new faces. I normally don’t get that nervous or shaky during a meeting, but today was so much different. It was the one chance making a first impression on these people. I hope that I had made a good one so far. As I was typing the open announcements, my hands kept shaking. Man, what happened to those nerves of steel? They’ll be back. I think it’s just the excitement that’s making me shake. It’s going to be a crazy year.

As summer officially comes to a close, autumn brings a new season, a new school year. I am setting some goals for this fall quarter that I will strive to achieve.

• Do well in school: I would rate my performance in school as adequate. I’ve sadly settled with just doing good enough, and never trying my absolute best. With all the different responsibilities that I have to juggle this quarter, it will be a true test. I want to say I want to try and shoot for a 4.0, but realistically at least a 3.5 would satisfy me. I also have my Senior Project to complete. Although I’m sad to say I’m not completely happy with where my project has gone, if I really put all my being into making it something I would be proud to present then I’m happy with it.
• Try/Learn something new: It’s never too late to learn something. I’d like to take on a new hobby or read up and learn about something. Some things I want to take up: surfing, playing with new media for art (I’m slowly learning to use watercolors), learn a language, add more to my cooking repertoire, and there’s more that I can’t think of right now. Too many things.
• Make a difference: Being President this year for PCE gives me many opportunities to make a difference whether it be for one person, the whole club, or for myself. I’ve noticed things about myself that are already changing because of this, and I’ve got to take any chance I have to do something good. One of the greatest pleasures I find in life is being able to help someone who really needs it and seeing how much they appreciate it.
• Get rid of bad habits: This is going to be a tough one. I’m going to try and slowly rid myself of bad habits, or for the most part being lazy. Being lazy affects so many parts of being productive, so need to make myself less lazy.
• Be happy, healthy: I going to try and stay healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally. Cutting back on food portions, alcohol (beer especially), exercising more, getting fit, avoiding negative situations, surrounding myself with good people. A healthy body and a healthy mind is a healthy and happy life.

Let’s see how this goes.