And I Hate When Things Are Over, With So Much Left Undone
My livejournal is now about one year old. Please stay tuned until the end of the entry for a piece of cake.
Please note a new icon. Musical theatre Mets = Crazy Delicious
So an update of where I've been, then a rant, albeit a short one because its late.
Posts have indeed been sparse as of late. In the end of April, I successfully defended my senior thesis and recieved high honors for that. That week I also did my jury for voice lessons, singing my best rendition of "This is the Moment." One thing I was happy with was the fact that I got lots of good "acting" comments, because that week really was the moment when all I've done becomes one. In addition, that and the following week I was the sound board op for the Todd play. That also went quite well, and I was very happy with that. There were a number of big noticeable screwups, and they all seemed to happen when Nigel was there, but I got through them. And then there was the afterparty, which I wrote up already.
After that was done, Ryn and I put on Toscars 2006. I got to tuxify, and everything went rather awesomely. It opened with a sketch that I wrote, combining all the plays from the past year. That went over quite well as did the rest of the ceremony. We came up with an actual physical award to give out to the bigger categories, which we thought perfectly symbolized the college theatre experience: empty beer bottles with new labels. Those went over well too. Big winner was Killer Joe, winning all the acting awards and Best Production. Best Sound went to The Hour, something I was particularly proud of. Some people were heard to say "Best Toscars Ever."
After that, I spent a week struggling to write one stupid paper for Philosophy of Music. It shouldn't have taken nearly as long, but given everything described above, I didn't even start to think about it until after Toscars, and even then I was having a hard time concentrating.
Once that was written and turned in, I had a whole week until graduation. Senior Week. Pictures will be posted somewhere eventually. The highlights included Darien Lake, Cemetery Trip, Starcraft Cannon Defense, Senior Ball, Scrabble and Fuzzy Navels, and the Senior Farewell Concert. There were probably more cool things, but they slip my mind right now.
The one big realization that came from Senior Week was echoed by Ben, Elise, Heather, and some other busy-body people like myself: Why don't we have more time like this? It was so nice to be able to sit around and play videogames or watch movies, and just RELAX for once, enjoy each others company, etc. I realize of course that for some people college is like that. But there are those of us who obsess and attach ourselves to too many projects and then spend all of their time away doing such things, which brings me to the rant portion of the blogogram.
Reflections on my Education: Am I doomed to a life of OVER-achieving?
Let us start out with a quote from Real Time with Bill Maher, in which he's discussing the American Dream and Education.
"Oh, yeah. According to a recent survey, 98% of college freshman agreed with the statement, 'I am sure that one day I will get where I want to be in life.' I'm sorry. You have yourself mixed up with the Asian kid."
Now, I was a little shocked at this. I usually take his jokes in stride, and I realize that it wasn't the racism in the joke that even bothered me. I just never even knew this stereotype existed. Are my successes in life not as extraordinary because of my heritage? Is that just par for the course?
I've had some discussions over the course of the semester with someone, and I realized that I cannot accept second best usually. I always strive for the top, and cannot stand it if I'm not good at something. Case and point, last year's attempt to play on a summer softball team. I sucked so bad, that I could not bare to stay on the team, so I basically excused myself and never went back. Not that Extreme Blue afforded me much time to play, but I still didn't even want to play anymore. I just couldn't take being bad.
It doesn't always work that way. Another conversation I had with someone made me realize that some people think I'm resilient. When I am bad at some things, I keep going until I get good (This is in the cases where I think I can actually get better). My friend commented that she admired me because despite rejection after rejection from acting things, I kept going back.
Where was I going with this? Ah yes. So I have this never-stop keep-going be-the-best attitude toward college. It's done me pretty well. But at what cost? While I don't really regret anything in the past four years overall, the tendency is for me to think that I may have been better off doing less and enjoying my time more. That paper I struggled with for the whole last week was for a completely superfluous course. I didn't need it to graduate, or for my Take 5. It was just because I wanted to learn more. But perhaps I would have been better off playing Starcraft with my friends instead. A thought to consider.
Finally, we get to the question of how I got to be this way. That answer is also pretty clear. I was at an induction ceremony on Saturday, and I recieved a certificate with my name printed on it (most graduation materials this week were missing the !!...many people noticed and complained). This particular paper said "DAVID VINCENT LU". As I took my seat, I was holding both my certificate and program in one hand. The program covered up my first name, so all it said was VINCENT LU. Which, by some bizzare coincidence, happens to be my father's name.
Therein lies the answer to the question. Twas my parents that planted the seed of learning in me. Any successes, any triumphs, and any victories I've had over the past 21 years, be they academic, musical, theatrical, personal or international competitive programming, I owe to them. My understanding of the human brain has led me to believe that there are some things which you cannot change yourself. Sometimes you are who you are. And you are who you are because of who your parents are.
It is worth noting that throughout college, I was always striving to be better than two other David's in my computer science department. It never seemed to work. However, I was informed this weekend that they had a slight advantage over me. Both have parents who are professors of computer science. I don't think that that makes them any better than me, but I bet they knew what a for loop was for a little bit before me. They probably also didn't teach themselves BASIC.
So to end this on a sentimental note, thank you. To my friends, for making the past years so much fun, and to my family, for making me strong enough so that I had something to celebrate this past weekend.
Now, I'm off to bed for the night, then off to the Outer Banks, to visit with Ben Rossetter and friends, with Elise. I'll be back on Saturday.
Good night, and good luck.
Please note a new icon. Musical theatre Mets = Crazy Delicious
So an update of where I've been, then a rant, albeit a short one because its late.
Posts have indeed been sparse as of late. In the end of April, I successfully defended my senior thesis and recieved high honors for that. That week I also did my jury for voice lessons, singing my best rendition of "This is the Moment." One thing I was happy with was the fact that I got lots of good "acting" comments, because that week really was the moment when all I've done becomes one. In addition, that and the following week I was the sound board op for the Todd play. That also went quite well, and I was very happy with that. There were a number of big noticeable screwups, and they all seemed to happen when Nigel was there, but I got through them. And then there was the afterparty, which I wrote up already.
After that was done, Ryn and I put on Toscars 2006. I got to tuxify, and everything went rather awesomely. It opened with a sketch that I wrote, combining all the plays from the past year. That went over quite well as did the rest of the ceremony. We came up with an actual physical award to give out to the bigger categories, which we thought perfectly symbolized the college theatre experience: empty beer bottles with new labels. Those went over well too. Big winner was Killer Joe, winning all the acting awards and Best Production. Best Sound went to The Hour, something I was particularly proud of. Some people were heard to say "Best Toscars Ever."
After that, I spent a week struggling to write one stupid paper for Philosophy of Music. It shouldn't have taken nearly as long, but given everything described above, I didn't even start to think about it until after Toscars, and even then I was having a hard time concentrating.
Once that was written and turned in, I had a whole week until graduation. Senior Week. Pictures will be posted somewhere eventually. The highlights included Darien Lake, Cemetery Trip, Starcraft Cannon Defense, Senior Ball, Scrabble and Fuzzy Navels, and the Senior Farewell Concert. There were probably more cool things, but they slip my mind right now.
The one big realization that came from Senior Week was echoed by Ben, Elise, Heather, and some other busy-body people like myself: Why don't we have more time like this? It was so nice to be able to sit around and play videogames or watch movies, and just RELAX for once, enjoy each others company, etc. I realize of course that for some people college is like that. But there are those of us who obsess and attach ourselves to too many projects and then spend all of their time away doing such things, which brings me to the rant portion of the blogogram.
Reflections on my Education: Am I doomed to a life of OVER-achieving?
Let us start out with a quote from Real Time with Bill Maher, in which he's discussing the American Dream and Education.
"Oh, yeah. According to a recent survey, 98% of college freshman agreed with the statement, 'I am sure that one day I will get where I want to be in life.' I'm sorry. You have yourself mixed up with the Asian kid."
Now, I was a little shocked at this. I usually take his jokes in stride, and I realize that it wasn't the racism in the joke that even bothered me. I just never even knew this stereotype existed. Are my successes in life not as extraordinary because of my heritage? Is that just par for the course?
I've had some discussions over the course of the semester with someone, and I realized that I cannot accept second best usually. I always strive for the top, and cannot stand it if I'm not good at something. Case and point, last year's attempt to play on a summer softball team. I sucked so bad, that I could not bare to stay on the team, so I basically excused myself and never went back. Not that Extreme Blue afforded me much time to play, but I still didn't even want to play anymore. I just couldn't take being bad.
It doesn't always work that way. Another conversation I had with someone made me realize that some people think I'm resilient. When I am bad at some things, I keep going until I get good (This is in the cases where I think I can actually get better). My friend commented that she admired me because despite rejection after rejection from acting things, I kept going back.
Where was I going with this? Ah yes. So I have this never-stop keep-going be-the-best attitude toward college. It's done me pretty well. But at what cost? While I don't really regret anything in the past four years overall, the tendency is for me to think that I may have been better off doing less and enjoying my time more. That paper I struggled with for the whole last week was for a completely superfluous course. I didn't need it to graduate, or for my Take 5. It was just because I wanted to learn more. But perhaps I would have been better off playing Starcraft with my friends instead. A thought to consider.
Finally, we get to the question of how I got to be this way. That answer is also pretty clear. I was at an induction ceremony on Saturday, and I recieved a certificate with my name printed on it (most graduation materials this week were missing the !!...many people noticed and complained). This particular paper said "DAVID VINCENT LU". As I took my seat, I was holding both my certificate and program in one hand. The program covered up my first name, so all it said was VINCENT LU. Which, by some bizzare coincidence, happens to be my father's name.
Therein lies the answer to the question. Twas my parents that planted the seed of learning in me. Any successes, any triumphs, and any victories I've had over the past 21 years, be they academic, musical, theatrical, personal or international competitive programming, I owe to them. My understanding of the human brain has led me to believe that there are some things which you cannot change yourself. Sometimes you are who you are. And you are who you are because of who your parents are.
It is worth noting that throughout college, I was always striving to be better than two other David's in my computer science department. It never seemed to work. However, I was informed this weekend that they had a slight advantage over me. Both have parents who are professors of computer science. I don't think that that makes them any better than me, but I bet they knew what a for loop was for a little bit before me. They probably also didn't teach themselves BASIC.
So to end this on a sentimental note, thank you. To my friends, for making the past years so much fun, and to my family, for making me strong enough so that I had something to celebrate this past weekend.
Now, I'm off to bed for the night, then off to the Outer Banks, to visit with Ben Rossetter and friends, with Elise. I'll be back on Saturday.
Good night, and good luck.