My Impromptu Bucket List!

Before reading this prompt, I haven’t really thought of any type of Bucket List whatsoever. I was always the type of person who is “Yeah it would be super dope to do -insert activity here-“ and then forget about it a week after. But I guess this would be a good time to list my Top Three things I’d like to achieve/do in the next few years.

First thing off my list is to travel to Japan or go to France with my friends. We always talking about traveling the world and see what it has to offer. The reason why I chose these two locations are pretty important not just to me but to my friends as well. Japan because many of our pastime is heavily revolved around Japanese cultures. Many of my friends and myself are huge fans of their food since most of their history has a large tie-in with their cuisine. As well as, half my friends are weeaboos (if you don’t know what that is, it’s just a name given to people who are addicted to Japanese entertainment such as anime and manga) and would start geeking out when they hit places with Japanese Merchandise. France on the other hand is more of my choosing. Most of my family came from Vietnam which was heavily influenced by France during the Vietnam War and many of our cultures originated form France. So I’d love to visit one day to see how our cultures reflect upon one another.

Second thing I’d like to do is to go re-visit Disneyland and California Adventure. It’s not a big deal to many people but I haven’t been back to Disneyland since 2002 and the sad part is that San Diego is only a good 1.5-hour drive to get there too. Many of my co-workers and friends go frequently and always tell me that so many things are changing, and I can’t relate since I never had the chance to go back. But because many new attractions such as the new Star Wars Land and soon Marvel Land are opening soon, I’m pretty hyped to find a time where I can go to Disneyland and have a fun time.

Lastly, I would love to get out of my comfort zone and go bungee jumping. I’m not super keen on heights but the idea of free falling sounds amazing. I always see people do it at the County Fair and it seems like a whole lot of fun, but I always chickened out last minute. But the saying “I’m here for a good time, not a long time” really motivates me to go out there and enjoy life at it’s fullest. Because in the future, I might not get the opportunity to so if I don’t do it now.

Sucks that this is our last blog. I was getting the hang of it too. I guess for a bonus addition, starting my own blog outside of this class could be another bucket list. But who knows!

I Have a Pretty Successful College Career According to the Internet

All throughout my senior year of high school, everybody has said that college is tough. College is going to make you or break you. That college is going to be the turning point of your young adult life. I didn’t really know what to expect. I always had the vision that college was high school but with more freedom (which isn’t wrong to a certain extent). After a few years of attending college, I can relate to many of the points Annie Murphy Paul talked about in her article.

She starts off her first point as “Pursue with Passion, not A’s”. Being part of the engineering field, many of the classes I’m taking have very high fail rates. Most of my family really want me to do good and achieve a high GPA so I can find a successful job in my field. Yet, the saying “C’s get degrees” slowly became my mantra throughout the semesters. I strongly agree with Murphy Paul, I want to be passionate about my major, yet I don’t want to deal with the burden of grades to come along with it. Even one of my professors this semester admitted that he prefers teaching in an environment where it’s all hands on and no grades at all. I wished many professors had this mindset so it shifts student’s priorities from grades to the topic itself.

Because of focusing more on the passion than the grade, it doesn’t really work that well in a university scenario. I’ll admit, I failed one too many classes that really set me back from graduation in 4 years. Am I proud of it? Of course not. Am I making a difference to do better the second time around? Absolutely. Failing a class is a really shitty feeling and anybody that has failed can agree with me. But I was able to turn that negativity into an optimistic mentality to do better. I wished that many people back before I entered college told me that it was okay to fail. It would’ve helped create a better understanding of how college can really be.

Lastly, she mentions that we should create a personal connection to our studies, I can’t really relate that to any engineering class I took since it’s all theoretical but taking GE classes like Humanities and English/Writing really is a nice breath of fresh air where I could really connect my personal experiences to a platform where I can share it with others. Just like this class, blogging is very therapeutic and gives an opportunity to really speak my mind on a topic.

If I could add on to Murphy Paul’s article, I would add an advice to find yourself in a non-academic point of view. College is a very different environment where you can discover who you are as a person. While academics is crucial in a college career, I believe that making the most of your college life outside of studying and class can really shape the person you are today or as the person you will be in the future.

Opinions

To give some background on my knowledge on analytical/argumentative papers, I’ve be forced to write them all throughout middle and high school, so it got repetitive real fast. But at the same time, it helped improve my writing and analytical skills. As for when a piece of text starts becoming objective to subjective, it’s obvious when the author starts adding in their two cents into an informative piece. I believe it’s okay to add in your own opinion in an analytical piece as long as you focus 95% analytical and 5% subjective. When it starts becoming majority subjective than objective, I’m okay with the writing itself but it should not be categorized as an analytical piece. I do enjoy reading others experiences and their opinions, but opinions shouldn’t affect the accuracy of the information.

I also feel like blogs are an excellent way to express any subjective matters on a topic. There are many reasons why I believe blogs are beneficial towards rhetorical situations. Firstly, blogs are a good platform to show the readers who the author is and what they believe in. After all, that what a blog is supposed to do. Secondly, blogging on your own platform doesn’t restrict you to any requirements and it can be 100% unfiltered if the author chooses it to be. Lastly, being able to blog gives a voice to the topic. Many people go towards blogs and social media to really get a perspective on a topic. Because of blogging, it spreads the word around about said topic and creates relevancy for the author.

As for any rhetorical situations that I would love to respond to, I have a few in mind. Most of them will be involving technology or social media since that is what I’m knowledgeable about. The name one off the bat, I would enjoy writing about net neutrality (Here is a link to explain what Net Neutrality is for anybody that is interested in what it’s all about). While the topic isn’t as big as it was a year ago, it still an ongoing situation that is still generating op/ed pieces and analytical articles. The reason why I wanted to do this topic is also because it pertains to my major as well as it something I feel like everybody should be aware of since most of us nowadays are connected through the internet 24/7. Another topic that seems interesting to do is on whether eSports, or Video Games Competitions are considered a real sport. With video games becoming a mutual platform for people of many discourses to connect to, I think it’s a good idea to dive into one of video game’s biggest form on entertainment as well as the most controversial topics as well.

As for op/eds, I believe that some topics on op/eds only appeal to a specific type of audience due to their biasness. For example, I’m not too big on politics so reading op/ed pieces on politics isn’t as entertaining to me as other topics. But I wouldn’t read an op/ed piece about praising Trump. Overall, op/ed pieces are difficult to recommend to people unless you know what they’re interests in.

Blending Life Together

Growing up in an Chinese-American household, I was given the blessing of having two different discourses, one from my Chinese heritage and one from all the American customs I learned growing up in San Diego. These two eventually became my first primary discourses, which is “... the one we first use to make sense of the world and interact with others. Our primary Discourse constitutes our original and home-based sense of identity…”(pg 7). Because of that, my childhood allowed me to learn to create and adapt to new different discourses.

During my high school career, I was initially very cocooned and took me a while to get out of my shell to experience new things. It wasn’t until my friend convinced me to join the badminton team at my school where I found my athletic discourse. After making the team, I got more and more fascinated on the sport and eventually saw some of my teammates make San Diego Headlines. After my first year ended, I started to put more time and dedication on my physical health by training and exercising more for next season. This conflicted with my primary discourse because I always was a person who was lazy and wanted to work smarter, not harder. In the end, I became a team captain and became district champions but decided to hang up the mantle, ending my athletic career competitively and becoming a fossilized discourse.

As for college, I am able to still connect with all my friends since most of us didn’t stray too far from our high school. Going to SDSU was definitely a different beast compared to high school. Not many people knew who I was so it was a good opportunity to create a name for myself to the new people I meet. Eventually, I was introduced to many new friends from group projects and classes. This then started to shape my college discourse, learning how to become a more social person but also keeping up with school. Few notable things that I’ve done was join a club called SDSU eSports, where a bunch of people meet up just to have fun and play video games. I eventually was offered a position to play on a team for a chance to win a scholarship. Sadly me and my team couldn’t win but it was a fun experience to meet others with the same interest as me. As well as I was able to reconnect with old friends from elementary school and was given the opportunity to be a guest on her KCR Radio Show.

As the person I am today, I have a blend of all the previous discourses I listed above. For example, every year I look forward to San Diego Comic Con where I go explore Downtown San Diego and enjoy the pop culture that comes into town. From this I try to meet new people to make new connections, try different things that I never thought I would do, as well as spreading the San Diego spirit that I grew up to love.

Inviting one wolf calls the pack.

At first glance when seeing these two pictures, you’re probably thinking “What’s the difference? They’re both pictures of Gary and his friends.” You’re definitely not wrong about that observation. That’s me on the very right taking my high school graduation photos. The people next to me were the ones who I survived high school with. Throughout those years, we all learned from one another, supported each other during our ups and downs, and importantly stuck together as a wolf pack.

Fast forward to a few years and you see us at the beach. I’ve grown a lot more as an individual and learned so much more to further myself because of them (and I hope I helped them grow as well). Comparing both pictures, you can see most of the main group of friends from the first picture are in the second with the addition of new faces. From college, I learned to meet new people and become more of a social butterfly. I was able to learn new experiences with the new people I met and see my old friends pick up new hobbies because of them as well. Ever since college started, I've only seen the “wolf pack” grow larger every year.

While most of these pictures are from holidays or special events, we’re always going out of the way to see each other every week whether it’s to see a movie, play board games till 2am, or even to go study for different classes. Wherever one of us goes, the rest follows. I’m happy to call these people my family.