Month: May 2016

You know what always confused me?

When growing up in the Bay Area, everyone was pretttty much expected to do everything. Ask the average student and they’ll tell you about the countless extracurricular activities they’re part of. That’s basically the culture we surrounded ourselves with. Sometimes it went too far, and those who felt they couldn’t keep up felt like total failures. Others simply grew bitter. Basically, academics was highly important (and competitive), but on top of that we were all “expected” to do more. Much more.

See the picture above? You got the arts, sports, music, religion, academics, everything. So naturally, every kid in my class basically attempted, and excelled in most of these fields. What’s funny is the arts are completely necessary up until you get into college and then its game over. It’s almost as if we all paint this picture of trying to be well-rounded yet half the things we attempt never are true goals. I can recall the countless hours I spent, either in orchestra or on my own perfecting the art of violin yet there was a sense of irony. I knew I would never go into the path of being a musician or pursue any kind of professional musical career yet I still put so much focus on it. I guess part of that is attributed to the desire to be well-rounded, and quite frankly, I did get to learn more about my musical side.

At the same time, I spent a good portion of my life in DECA, a high school business organization that focused on career development. Often I skipped school to attend meetings in order to plan larger events for all our 4,500 members across California.

What i’m trying to say is this. For both business AND music, I put equal amounts of effort. However, only ONE remained as a solid option for my future. Why?

The refusal to accept art as a solid career could attribute to the reason why so many Asian Americans today are underrepresented in media. Some may say we are unfairly prejudiced against, and I think there’s a great amount of validity in that statement. I’m also saying that it could be because many of us are not eagerly stepping into these paths ourselves. It goes both ways, and this is a very difficult problem that needs to be eventually solved. Either we have to create a demand for more representation, or we have to supply it ourselves. All I can say is, we simply need to improve in both fields. Though it won’t be easy, standing up for ourselves is becoming more and more necessary.

Below is a video released by famous Korean-American rapper, Dumbfoundead. Always a great artist, he released a song that targeted the way Asians are currently being perceived by the rest of society, and what we can do in the future to foster change. Listen!

So to my asian brothers and sisters, let’s create our own platforms! Relentlessly pursue a space where we advocate for our own well-being. Enough of sitting back and soaking in the subtle racism. I love that this blog is the exact place where I can start. This is the epitome of education combined with a realization of the need to fight for what’s necessary. I sometimes feel like a broken record that can’t talk about anything else besides equality, but if that’s what needs to be done to be heard, I’m willing to make that quota. Let’s go for broke.

We’re not your safes anymore.

 

Image Creds:

http://wylamschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/extracurricular-activities.jpg

I need some inspiration for my final project. I’m thinking something that leaves a strong message. After all, my topic IS on politics and having a call to action that actually gets people on their feet.

 

Both share strong messages. The first? Govt is getting out of hand with spending. The second? Occupy Wall Street has no ethical/coherent message.

If both you and I look at these cartoons, it makes sense and the message comes across clearly. That’s what I’m looking for when it comes to creating my own political agenda (haa). It’s cool because I’ll finally get a chance to change around my own thoughts and create something new.

Potential thoughts:

-Some kind of political cartoon that gets people to vote?

-Trump vs Clinton vs Bernie, have their political views splayed out and change the way they are viewed.

 

Image Credits:

http://acidcow.com/pics/20111110/funny_politicial_cartoon_02.jpg

http://acidcow.com/pics/20111110/funny_politicial_cartoon_38.jpg

With the year coming to a close and only a couple weeks until we’re all out of here, I’d like to formally write out everything that’s been going on in my mind. I’ve done a lot of reflecting on my first year here at SCU and thought it would be cool to share my experiences.

1. Move-in Day 

I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t nervous. Hell, I was lowkey shaking when I got my access card. After making my way over to Graham I moved in and saw my roommate (we’d met before). She had a couple friends helping her move in and I felt so out of place. New experiences ja feel? There was some welcome reception for parents too so not knowing what else to do I kind of just went there and had this sudden moment of despair when I thought nothing was going to work out and my SCU career was going to suck.

2. Week 1

Looking back I’m lucky. So lucky to have found a group of friends so quickly where we all clicked. Though we all have unique personalities it somehow stuck really well. Though I no longer felt as out of place everything was still really new. I think I went home after week 1. I said I’d forgotten some stuff (which I did) but at the same time I really was just craving something familiar. What’s weird is its almost harder going home and coming back to school than just staying at school. You can’t help but feeling like you’ll be missing out on something if you stay home too long, so naturally I visited home less.

3. Independence

I suddenly found the true value of being alone, not lonely. I loved hanging out and having deep conversations, making connections with those around me, but I also learned much more about myself. By forcing myself to take walks, read, write, and vegetate on my own, I began to get a better analysis on the type of person I was, and who I truly wanted to be. In these “hermit” modes, I found solace with two of my closest friends at the time (K and H) and together we talked on existential crisis’s and on self love and on regret and on moving on. I’ve never talked about my feelings so much before HAHA.

4.  Late runs

I started spending a lot of time with my workout buddy, one of my best friends, and we spent many post-workout nights articulating our thoughts on perspective. M is from Chicago, I’ve pretty much grown up here. We ended up at the same institution yet took vastly different life paths. Yet despite our differences, we’re so close. Even today. It’s the little things that allow us to show appreciation. Often overlooked, I really do cherish the moments of downtime where we really just hang out together.

5. Clubs

Barkada and Santa Clara Consulting are the two clubs where I’ve invested time in. Others have come and gone, but these two are staying for a longggg time. Many of my close friends were picked up from here. There’s so much I could say about these two organizations but ima save it for another time.

6. All Emotions are Default

In high school I used to think I had my life together. Generally, things went pretty well. Looking back, what I was truly lacking was the spirit of being more in-tune with my own emotions. I don’t usually express my feelings too much on the outside, but inside there’s a million things going on in my mind. There are days where I just can’t feel “good”, where I have to grit my teeth and push through the challenges. That saying “you can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days where you feel good” really applies on days like these. But there’s nothing wrong with not always being happy. IN fact, that’s a terrible way of living and it scares me that some people still strive for it in a fake or unhealthy way.

Conclusion

Life is HARD! And it’s ok! College is about transition and change, learning and loving, as well as learning to find balance. There are many more things I could reflect on but these are all I have so far.

 

 

 

**Writing out these experiences has been difficult. Even here on this blog, even though I’m trying to be real, I’m still making a conscious effort to sound cooler than I appear. I guess that just goes to further show the effect of social media within today’s society. Anyhow, I’m glad I could write this summary up. It’s always good to do a little more expression than one is normally used to.

It’s currently 3:08pm and I’m sitting in front of Kenna Hall. Class is about to begin but I wanted to go over my final research topic before I move on with my day. After looking through my survey results I’m starting to see a couple trends that are most likely going to form the majority of my argument. I do have to say the results didn’t surprise me but the way they went against my original research kind of makes it more difficult to talk about.

Findings:

Most people at SCU actually don’t know who remains in the presidential race (as of today). See the charts below?

1 out of 4 people representing the Democratic Party didn’t select the correct candidates who currently remain (Hillary, Bernie, and Donald).  About half of those repping the Republican Party answered incorrectly as well. From here I’m going to make the assumption that not enough people are aware of what’s going on in the political race. In hindsight it would have been smart to ask how many people voted or were planning to vote. That could have been a another way to gauge SCU student interest in the political race. Alas, I’ll have to deal without it.

It seems like a lot of my sources have been commenting about the increased demand for young voters to participate in the presidential voting election, and it’s starting to become a reality. Based on the small amount of students who didn’t attend SCU but answered my survey, many of their stats were already much higher. Most had many heated debates regarding political events in general, and almost all were able to correctly answer which candidates remained in the race. Though these two traits certainly aren’t the only determinants for being heavily involved in politics, they certain can tell us quite a few things about the student.

So what we have here is a strong difference between what my sources are saying and what my individual research is telling me.

Sources: Young people are voting more

SCU Students: We don’t partake in political events very often (though obviously there are exceptions).

I’m kinda not sure where to take this now. I mean I’m down to talk about the differences but i’m not down to take an entire 10 pages to counter-argue what all of my research is telling me. Yikes.

I mean I guess that could be my niche where I’ll be able to enter this outlet of my own thought into the bigger picture but quite frankly it’s daunting. I personally think I have only a moderate understanding of the political world at best, and this isn’t going to be very helpful when I’m trying to advocate for greater understanding of the political field. It seems pretty cut-throat to me. Either you get your ideas across correctly or you fall prey to countless criticism on where all your flaws are. Scary stuff.

I’m determined to take a stance on this topic though. One way or the other it’s going to happen, but I’m just not quite sure which direction I should go towards just yet.

 

With week 7 wrapping up, I’d like to take a minute to reflect on something I’ve been mulling over recently. I used to think that the way I went through life was pretty solid. College has been a journey of finding balance with everything from socializing to spending hours in the library. However, this new concept I’ve been thinking about has been so liberating in the sense that I perceive many milestones differently now, and I felt the need to hash it out on writing before I forget about it.

There’s a very negative connotation that goes along with low expectations. It’s associated with failure (which isn’t actually a bad thing), being lazy, or not trying hard. However, I have to completely disagree.

If one can use the powerful tool of having low expectations to their advantage, there are many positive results of doing so.

To start, there’s a difference between expectations and goals. A lot of times, people get them mixed up (I’m guilty of this too). Often, we expect that our goals are fulfilled, and if they aren’t we become heartbroken.

See, that’s where the problem arises. Instead of trying to fulfill each goal with the expectation that things will work out, I invite you to have low expectations, and high goals. 

Why do I say this?

If you live life with the expectation that everything will go swell, a lot of times when shit happens you’ll feel really disappointed. Anything below your expected level of achievement stresses you out, and worries you. Attachment to perfection becomes so real, and it becomes hard to live a fulfilling life.

On the other hand, if you live your life with NO or LOW expectations, then everyday becomes a blessing at the very least. Every small feat of beauty wows you, every minuscule achievement brings joy to your life. You’re truly able to live, not exist. Perfection is not the obsession here- everything you do automatically brings you joy.

But then, how does one actually do anything worthwhile if they have low expectations?

Set high goals. 

High goals are up there because they’re daunting. People should laugh at your self-challenges because of how insanely ambitious they are, yet at the same time, they should respect you for trying. There are no limits to dreams. We should all hunt for our dreams and yearn for them with a burning passion, but at the same time, we must remember to keep our expectations low.

Doing so truly allows one to work their very best with a clear purpose in mind, without being bogged down by small hiccups or unsuccessful attempts to get better. We can all work as hard as we want to fulfill a goal, but the outcome of our work must not be met with high expectations. It must be met with the opposite, and this is how we can truly enjoy any successes we will go through in life. 

We’ve been tasked to create a survey in order to reach the next step of answering our own research question. Why? survey’s provide potentially helpful information that can be personalized for what you are trying to understand. A lot of the resources I’ve come across have been very helpful, but a survey will get me the answers I specifically want.

Especially with the topic of politics, there are so many things that I could ask. The challenge really comes down to what I should include, and what I could do without. My final goal is to find out how the student body currently feels with regards to the presidential race going on. Then, I would be able to take the data and perhaps compare it to some of my sources that focused on what campuses were generally like in the past. To do this, I need to set up a couple things

1. Sample Population

First and foremost, I’d need a sample population. Easiest access would be SCU students, and hopefully I could get different groups on campus fully represented. Needing 30 responses that covers the main thoughts of the whole campus can be a daunting task though, so I’ve chosen to hand out surveys to two of my classes in the hopes that the students in there will eagerly participate. At the same time the survey will be online, so hopefully I’ll be able to garner some interest there as well.

2. Willingness to Survey

As noted above, it can be hard to get people to actually take your survey. Why? Well if someone posted a link about a survey, I wouldn’t just voluntarily click on it and answer it. I have better things to do, yeah? A good way to combat this would be to individually message people on Facebook of Gmail. I’ve done this a lot in the past for various group projects and it’s surprisingly helpful. Last time for an AP Bio project, my group and I got over 300 responses simply because we took the time to reach out to people.

3. Correctly worded Questions

Questions must remain clear. If they get too difficult, people click away. Too repetitive, same issue. Therefore I really tried to spend a lot of time on having my questions potentially prove a point for me, while not being to ridiculously hard to answer. Also, I put a variety of types of questions, some with scales, others with free response boxes. Hopefully mixing it up would give me a good batch of quantitative and qualitative variables, which could eventually be turned into graphs or used for further analysis.

Summary of topic in 7 words: Effect of presidential campaigns on college campuses.

Getting into politics is an important, but difficult process. That’s why when I came up with my research topic, I found it very intimidating. Because political science is such a broad topic in general, I decided to focus specifically on presidential races, and how exactly they’ve impacted students in higher education, over the past few years.

Throughout the course of my ongoing research, I have been looking at ways in which various college students have banded together, or have had heated conversations, all in the name of the presidential election. I’ve also noted voter turnout and any overall trends pertaining to my topic.

These are the key points I’ve picked up.

1. Low Voter Turnout

Election campaigns have changed over the years, each time attracting less traditional methods of caucusing.

Because in general, people no longer rallied together on college campuses for pertinent events, it was apparent that the desire to for civil unity was decreasing. Another one of my sources also pointed to the lack of a strong community bond that would have prompted students to vote. Many college students are not from around the area, making it much harder and less desirable to place a ballot.

2. Less School-Wide Rallies 

In attempts to prove the reasoning behind low voter turnout, many of my other sources also listed the decrease in school-wide rallies or protests particularly related to presidential campaigns. Accounts from students at UC Berkeley and Harvard share similarities, noting that college campuses used to unite to protest the Vietnam War. Today, the shift has been less on political events, and more towards tuition cuts, class size changes, and anything else the current student would care about.

3. Fear of Standing Apart

Additionally, the student from Harvard pointed out another interesting trend: the fear of “looking foolish by being passionately liberal” (Watson 2). She’s referring to the way students don’t seem to support passion for politics because it detracts from the other topics that students tend to focus more on. I do have qualms about this one though- not sure if other Harvard students feel the same.

4. Recent Upturn in Interest

I also took some time to read through articles that broke down the current 2016 election.

Similar to the 2008 Obama race, Clinton, Trump, and Sanders have all said some bold statements, causing quite the stir on social media. The reason why I’d assume that college students are starting to be more influenced by presidential races is because the polls have been on the rise, ever since 2008. One of my sources even noted that students from colleges and universities in Iowa went back to school over winter break, just so they could vote in the primaries for Obama. Other articles pointed out that many students today are having heated debates on the three candidates.

Another reason college students probably want to vote has to do with this man.

If we don’t take action now, we’ll be the ones living with the results.

Conclusion:

Overall, it appears that young voters are really starting to care, and that is a sign that polls will only go up from here. There’s still a lot of information to sift through, so I’ll continually post updates on any new findings I’ve discovered.

 

Links:

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/2010-04-08-McDonald-Turnout-Rates.png

http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/GTY_clinton_sanders_trump_jef_160129_12x5_1600.jpg

https://media.giphy.com/media/xTiTnHXbRoaZ1B1Mo8/giphy.gif

 

 

 

Here’s the issue. All of us, no matter how self-confident, compare the highlights of other people’s lives, with the entirety of our own lives. This creates a riff in reality. How could we compare all our flaws, problems, and insecurities, with the very small snippets of accomplishments other people choose to share via social media?

But it happens. As my classmate Kelly pointed out, in college, girls are encouraged to spend more time trying to be pretty than to study hard. Obviously I’m not trying to make hasty generalizations here, but that seems to be the general consensus, according to many of Kelly’s sources. It’s a known fact made clear by society that girls take longer to get ready, that they should try to be just like every other girl on TV with the perfect life. This is the new reality that societal forces have been trying to impose on us.

Back then without the use of social media, I wonder if women still felt the same pressure to fit into these ridiculous gender roles. It would be interesting to find ways to compare self worth then versus now. Perhaps a survey of how women felt about their body would give an indication to further Kelly’s question of whether or not social media has broadened the promotion of unrealistic female “goals.” 

It’s funny. I would have thought that social media would allow people to see more diverse types of beauty, since it makes it so much easier to share pictures and statuses. Though the number of interactions has increased, the definition of a one-size-fits-all beauty standard has been reduced to almost nothing.

On the flip side, men have also been facing an unrealistic need to always be “masculine” and to hide emotions. For some people, all they talk about is how to get better results at the gym, and they ridicule others for being “weak”. “Grow a pair” or “that’s gay” is casually thrown around in day to day conversation when the phrases themselves hold so much controversy. I’m sure you all have considered this before, but what’s wrong with being gay? And why does one have to be strong by being a “man?”

At the end of the day, we all have unrealistic beauty standards brought upon us by the increased use of social media. And if people want to continue striving after what they call perfection, who am I to say that they shouldn’t? But, if you’re feeling bad about yourself because of comparisons amongst your peers or idols, I’m here to say that it doesn’t have to be that way. Beauty is not one-dimensional.

A couple days ago, I saw one of the best examples of “breaking the fourth wall” ever since I was first introduced to the idea back in my high school AP Lit class.

Uprooted, the culture show put on by SCU’s Vietnamese Student Association in Mayer Theatre was filled with fantastic references to the audience and comedic plot breaks that kept us all engaged. Here’s a quick attempt at a plot summary:

The VSA student board members all sit around on stage and they try to figure out what to make their annual show (the one we’re watching) about. They each pitch random ideas (ex: a Star Wars inspired one), but not one idea works well. Finally, one girl, Diane, suggests they all go to Vietnam in attempts of getting inspiration for the show. During their trip to Vietnam, we see glimpses of Vietnamese culture, as well as the way each character develops to gain better understanding of themselves. Finally, they all come back to America and agree to make a show about their trip to Vietnam, essentially recreating the one we just watched. By randomly acknowledging the audience during various parts of the show, it’s great to see that closer connection.

However, what really got me about this already impressive show was the way Jon, a white Caucasian male, came to direct this show about Vietnamese culture, something he obviously wasn’t raised in. He was able to direct so well based on the fact that he first addressed this obvious disconnection as the “elephant in the room”. A lot of times, we fail to point out some of the most obvious issues because it can be hard.

By first stating that he was white near the beginning of the show, Jon actively pointed out what everyone was already thinking, therefore validating his purpose. It’s certainly hard to do because of the immediate awareness you put on yourself, but it’s worth it.

Addressing the obvious makes it possible to move onto greater things. It’s why, for the rest of the show, the audience was able to comfortably watch a show produced by someone outside of the Vietnamese culture. Doing something so bold is great, encouraged even, if done in the right way. So props to you, Jon!

Perhaps in our own writing we can learn to point out the obvious, or the big ideas that need to be said, before moving on to the nitty gritty details. It’s an interesting point that needs to be made, though a lot of times we forget to do so.

Still confused on what it means to address the elephant in the room? Here’s another great example of Jack Carroll, on Britain’s Got Talent.

Reader, I hope you take away an important lesson from this post. Avoidance is not the answer to moving onto the bigger and better things in life.

 

Link: http://www.danifoxhypnosis.com/wp1/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/elephant.jpg