Tag: Comments

Welcome to a new series I am starting which sort of resembles the countdowns we see on Sportscenter, MLB Network, and various other sports networks. I thought for the series I would begin with top ten lessons learned in the last ten years. Ten years ago around this time I was 15 years old without a care in the world. I had just been told that I had weight issues and this is when I also was informed that I would need to move to a new school in Cupertino. I didn’t want to lose my friends that I already had so I was going through the worst case scenarios in my head. I also had the idea in the back of my head that school wasn’t for me and I really didn’t need to try that hard. Boy, was I wrong as these lessons about life, school, work, friends, hobbies, interests, and habits soon came back at a rapid rate that even I sometimes can’t believed happened. So, the year is 2003 and my life would dramatically change beginning with…

2003- You have to adjust to new settings.

Starting in this year, I started realizing I was growing up and I liked new things. Gone were the days of my obsession of Dragon Ball Z and in came my interest in El Chavo Del 8. I also started realizing that my feelings about girls was changing as well as I kept far away from them and was shy around them as well. I saw them as the enemy and I never really saw myself as being a ‘player’ as we called them in the early days of high school. However, as I finished my first year of high school I looked at how beautiful and good looking girls are at that point in your life. It can be either an attraction or even a personality attraction as well. I saw my friends go through some changes as they started becoming more independent and branching out with other groups of friends. I was now an outsider and I had to set myself apart. I tried to pick up a hobby or two by taking walks around my block during the evening as this helped me lose a little bit of weight at this point in my life. I couldn’t really say that I was helping that much around my house because I was a teenager that had priorities. I was the nerdy wrestling kid at this point and I really had nothing else to me. But, when high school started I really got into school because I was learning cool things like the French language, the electronics side of school, and the importance of delivering an important speech. I took this idea of delivering an important speech as something that became apart of me because before that I was shy due to the idea that people would laugh at me. This is where my confidence building as it was very low at this point and I was doing my best to get it started somewhere. The summer came and it was very fun. However, the one event that I do remember was me getting one of my kidney stones shrunk so that I urinated it out. This was one of the sacrifices that my parents have made for me in my life as I was in a great deal of pain and they had to deal with my crying and moaning as it was very painful. The sad part is that the pain lasted all of one week and there are people out there that have had pain which lasts longer than that. Later on that month, I remember getting the reminder that I now had to attend Cupertino High School and one of the few white lies in my life that I have made is telling a counselor that I took a class which I never did and he signed me up for the next level of math which I had no business being in. The funny part is, this would play a very important part in my journey a little down the road. Once I got to Cupertino, I was scared because the new setting had me worried to the fullest. I didn’t know many people and now that I think about it, it was for the better. When you don’t know anybody, it could be a blessing in disguise because you are going into an unknown situation. If you mess up, so be it at least you tried getting accustomed to that setting. But, if you succeed, all the better for you and everyone else involved. I remember my brother accompanying me to my first class which was tutorial and I was really nervous. It was almost like the first day of kindergarten when you are a little kid. You don’t know anybody and all you know is that this is a school where you learn stuff. The main thing I learned from those few months (and the entire year) was that you really do have to adjust to new settings and it may be good for you. I learned a world of knowledge and being in a new environment helped me discover that success wasn’t built in a day. You have to find that success within you and with it comes confidence. I can remember doing my first speech at Cupertino and everybody loved it due my energy and being fired up. That is how I made my first impression by showing everybody that I had a bit of soul in me as being the new guy. Adjusting to new settings and getting used to them is apart of life and that is how I did this in that aspect. Now, in the 2004 things got a little bit more interesting.

2004- You can never be too tired

For some odd reason, I remember the Superbowl between the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots as being the thing that sticks out in my head the most in this year. As the year started, the stress of my classes started getting to me and I was riding on Adrenaline most of that time. I was hardly getting any sleep and I was also dealing with a bit of a health issue at this point as I started having seizures which seemed to come out of the blue but I discovered why they were happening later on in the year. I realized that just like in wrestling you can never be too tired to put on a show and give it your best. I continued getting healthier and I could feel my confidence building a bit. I also started becoming friends with mostly everyone in my classes just out of curiosity. I would later go onto form a bit of a group with some Asian friends that I made who were all very nice to me at this point. I also started taking a bit of interest in sports as I seriously became enamored with baseball at this point. I can remember watching A’s games and started thinking that this is the sport for me. I had watched games here and there but I always thought it was pointless and slow. Once I started watching it however, I noticed how intense and fun the games can become. The year went by and I noticed no matter where you may be you are always moving. It could be that you’re moving towards a big goal or just moving in general. This is also the year that I happened to meet that person that I have written about here in the past and it makes sense to include her her because she was such a wonderful person that I could have respected much more. Life happens for a reason and this particular year was special because I started building my foundation for who I am today. I still was a bit shy and paranoid but I started changing that little by little. I can also remember saying goodbye to one of my favorite history teachers as he taught me a lot about life and history in general. He gave me a good life lesson as he taught me the importance of writing a paper about the question asked rather than avoiding the question all together. I also ended up going to Mexico this year and it was quite the experience as I had the time of my life with my cousins as we all had a fun time kicking back and shooting the shit about our lives. I must say it was quite the year helped by the fact that my Junior year was just starting and I met even more interesting people. I started realizing that the more questions I ask the more it becomes about them and less about me. I enjoyed becoming a good listener rather than rambling on about myself. I could say that this was the template for how I would build myself up for over the next 5 years. It became apparent that instead of being who I almost was I became a sort of ambassador to hear other people’s problems. This is when 2005 came and it became a year of triumph and tragedy.

2005-Cherish the moment

As I stated in the previous year, I started having seizures and I realized as to how I got them and it was good to find out how I gotten them because if I hadn’t them I would probably not be typing this right now. I was in the moment of noticing that you should never be afraid to ask questions for fear of getting reprimanded. I started asking questions to my parents about my health concern, about school to my teachers about something I was confused about, and even particular people in my life. This was the year that one very important person in my family died and I must say it still kind of stings. My grandmother passed away one day after birthday and ever since it feels like a black cloud floating over our family’s head. Once that one family member passes away, it’s as if one side of your family doesn’t exist. I can see the great divide that is seen between one side of my family and the other side and it hurts. That same week, I had finals going on and I can remember all the finals being very intense due to my thinking that my grandmother had passed on. That was really the first time I had thought of death because it had never really hit home yet. One particular final I had required me to present a scene from the dead and it really had me thinking how should I present this scene as I want it to be seen? I knocked it out of the ballpark to say the least. I realized right then and there that life doesn’t last forever and we won’t be here for too long. I had also failed one of classes (Algebra 2) and for good reason and that was because I never asked for help. However, I told myself to not lose hope because at this point I had already gone past the points needed to graduate with my math completed. I wasn’t too worried and eventually everything worked itself. I also saw the path that some of other friends were headed down and I really didn’t enjoy hanging out with them as much as I did before. This was because they had taken on different interests and I had as well. This wasn’t a coincidence as I had my goals set in mind and they had there’s as well. Sometimes, one group of people has their goals and you have your own. I also had learned that opportunities pop up for the weirdest reasons. One of the few cool things that I got to do this particular year was take part in a few mock trials in which I played a major role in a few of them. I was excited to do this because you never know when you may need this type of jargon in real life. One trial had us deciding whether or not the United States was responsible for the losses in other countries due to the role they played in World War 2. I saw that we might have a strong case for my side (pro U.S.) and we won due to some convincing language and some cold hard facts about the role other countries played in that bringing down the economy. My senior year of high school was also set to begin and boy was it fun. I can remember sitting down in the cafe after my third period and basically doing homework the whole time. When that would happen I would listen to the ‘Jim Rome Show’ and some of his takes had me in tears due to the humor that would come with it. I also would be hanging out with friends a lot at this time due to our common interests. My friend that I mentioned earlier also started taking an interest in me which I had no idea why (check out this post from way back). Things were going well for me at this point with studying, watching wrestling, movies, listening to the radio, my family had stable income, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I basically learned this year that cherishing the moment is the most important thing you can do in this life. It may be there tomorrow or it may not. All you have to do is wish and hope that it never goes away. Be cautious of what you are doing, but have fun doing it. I realized you have to live life and be free. But then 2006 came…

2006- Take advantage and understand that you will fail sometimes

One of my teachers this year talked to us at the end of the year and explained to us 5 lessons that he wanted to send us off on. One of the lessons that stuck out to me was to understand that you aren’t always going to succeed and you fail sometimes. This seemed to be the theme of the year as I was successful in leading a team of underachievers to victory in a scene of the play Othello. The scene seemed very basic but I’d be damned if I said I wouldn’t be giving it my all at that point in time. I saw the scene and I imagined myself and three of classmates succeeding. I knew we had potential and I saw how we interacted which could lead to a good product in the classroom. I recently heard the saying that if you’re having fun then you’re audience is going to be having fun as well. This is what happened here as we nailed out of the ballpark with the scene and our interpretation of the scene was spot on due to our chemistry and adjustments. I also started to see not succeeding can be a good thing in some ways and you have to have a back up plan just in case things go wrong. I can remember hanging out with my friend (described in a blog post of course) and thinking to myself the signs were there but I never clung onto the obvious thought of it. I was too naive and young to understand what crushes from a female’s perspective are like and I couldn’t come to the realization that other people have feelings too. If we had gotten together, it would have been a completely different world in my eyes because I’m the kind of person that usually is hurt really easily and I didn’t want that for her or for myself. Now that I’m more mature, I know that women are what they are and we guys are what we are in the grander scheme of things. My family also became a bigger part of my life as I saw them more as friends because they helped me out paying for my first few quarters of community college and other expenses that I had. The funniest thing about life is that once I finished high school I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and of course I said Business seems easy but I didn’t know where to begin (more on this later). This is where my family would come with suggestions and ideas for me to continue on my educational path but I said business seems just about right for me. As the summer went on and the long months passed, I took a couple trips to Los Angeles and to Mexico both of which were very fun due to the crazy trip ideas my dad had. We took a few trips around Jalisco which seemed like an awesome place to go chill and see the scenery. I must say it was some of the most fun that I had in a while. I also happened to take a trip to one of the famous landmarks in Zacatecas called Organos which was wonderful as I got spend a little bit of time with my uncle, my dad, and one of aunt’s husband who was always super nice to me. What I learned that summer was that you always have opportunities waiting for you in the smallest parts of the world and who knows what may come next. The fall of that year was sort of the beginning of my longing for what could have been as I sped through my classes reading, writing, and wondering when she would come back. I also started going  job searching which was not fun at all after every single job told you “No, No, No”. Once that year was over, I realized two things A) Things work for the best sometimes and B)  I hadn’t reached my full potential yet. The year 2007 was one of the most bleak and forgettable years I choose to acknowledge because nothing could have prepared me for what was to come the next 5 years

2007- Set your goals and aim high

The beginning of the year was a hoot as for some odd reason I would be hanging with my friends from school a lot. We would do the usual routine of hanging out, watch movies, have a pastry, or just talk. I also lost a few friends because I didn’t keep them at arm’s length and they just changed. I can see why they changed as they developed a different outlook on life or they didn’t feel the need to communicate with you any longer. I also started changing a bit but in a more arrogant way. I realized that looking for a job was pointless and I was ready to give up as I went everywhere that had a name to it. The most obvious frustration was that I had no previous job experience so it kind of eliminated the basis to hire me anyway or give me a job interview for that matter. I saw the way that the interviewers came to me and approached me and I saw myself as being better then them. This was one of the few mistakes I made when I came looking for employment as I didn’t know the intricacy’s of what they were looking for and as I went through these interviews I figured out they weren’t looking for the best employee for the job but the job that best fit the employee. Eventually, I figured that one of these places had to hire me and after almost a year and a half of looking I finally found one a few days after Christmas 2007. This was set in 2008 so more on that in the next part. School was also something that kept me afloat as I had tons of fun in my mind control class joking around with a few friends of mine and once again meeting new people. I also happened to see that the classes I was taking were very helpful in helping to expand my field of my study rather than settling on business. I took Geography which helped me see that the world is a real big place and it isn’t that small unless you take other things into account. The one class that really caught my interest was Government which give or take taught me a lot about how senate and congress work as well as well as how different laws are set in stone. During the summer, there wasn’t much going on due to the lack of work that I had in front me but the fall was very interesting due to a few classes I took with a friend and others. My friend in my English 1A talked to me about all the crazy antics he was up to and I told him about mine as well. I would write papers and we would share a few ideas on how to expand on them as well. The other classes that I was taking taught me that I was at least a bit smart because I was understanding the concepts that were put in front of me and all I had to do was try my hardest. But, at this point I also realized that if I had to get a job it would have to be scrapping for the bottom of the barrel. This, I ended up doing and I must say that after this there really was no looking back. I learned two things once the end of the year came A) Baseball watching can only take you so far and B) Get out there and have somehwhat of a voice. The baseball watching was fun but I realized that it’s only good if I wanted to spend my life watching a ball being hit by a bat. Getting out there and having a voice consisted of me reaching out to other people and hearing them out. This was only the beginning of what was to be a rollercoaster of the next 5 years where give or take I was on the road to living a good life or a life where I suffered: In the next 2 installments 2008-2012 and a little preview of what 2013 has been like!