| Whenever I have too much free time, I come back to this site. I look at the old entries, the change in tone and marvel at the past. It allows me to reminisce over the good times and reflect over the bad times. Anyways, here's a massive update on my life (don't really know if anyone still visits my site but I'm doing it more for my benefit anyways).
Quick note, I did change my name to my mother's side. It was a pretty
obvious choice and I'm really glad I did it. It was sort of like I left
behind Mike Dong in Solon and became a different person in Cali.
Case wore me out. It was too tiring being a BME and then I wonder how there are those students that could do it so well, while doing so much more than I did. The problem was that the learning wasn't the type where you can just put in the time and within a reasonable amount of time, you learn it (something like, say, spanish). The problem with BME classes is that you can put in hours and hours of your best effort, not get distracted, and really just buckle down and come away with nothing. If you get anything, it's that you put in hours and you learned how little you actually knew. Very discouraging. You then combine that with all the late/all nights because of programming or calculating crap and you just go "ugh." The people at school are great, the professors are good, but I definitely wasn't ready for such independent learning and eventually, it wears on your confidence. Needless to say, I was very happy to graduate and get out.
The best part of Case was the people I ended up calling my close friends. Some came unexpectedly, others were there for me for a long time. All of them are fantastic people though and I'm so fortunate to know them.
In a lot of ways, I miss the Solon days. There were so many great connections and I thought they would always be there. While at school, it's not on your mind because you know you can see them during breaks but now, that doesn't really exist now. I thought if I made it through college and stayed friends with them, I'd be friends for a long time but I didn't take into account the demands of employment. Suddenly, how often I can talk to them is limited by their schedule, my schedule, my energy level, and the time difference from being on the west coast. This type of driftage makes me extremely uncomfortable but that's what we have to deal with, I suppose. I guess I can take comfort knowing that the people that are my true friends would always be there, as I would be for them.
I convinced a company to employ me! Can you believe that? I was somehow able to convince some poor company that they not only needed my skills at their company, but that they needed to pay me for it! Unbelieveable. What's even more unbelieveable is just how amazingly lucky I am. During Case, the job search was going but wasn't really going anywhere. I decided that I was moving to California no matter what and that the job thing was just going to have to work itself out. So with some money in my bank account (thanks to selling the Porsche) and with Jenny's hand in mine, we went off and moved to SoCal. Sure enough, within a few weeks, thanks to Zack, I had an interview. I didn't tell anyone about the interview, with the exception to Jen, since I needed to borrow her car (she got it on an earlier trip to Cali where she got the apartment, the car, and a job), and I think Jess because I was too excited. Had two interviews and had the job shortly after that. The first thing I did was I called my mom, told her the details and she was so happy and relieved. I think that was one of her prouder moments. The next thing was I told Jen we were going out to eat (was going to tell her at dinner) and when she got home from work, I told her simply because I couldn't wait. The sad thing was she thought I was joking at first but afterwards, realized it was the truth.
As for my actual job, I'm an engineer at a licensing company and at the time, I'm focused on medical products so my education is actually useful for what I do. I assess patents, their validity, and their profitability. Even cooler was how they sent me to Chicago for RSNA 2007, where I smoozed with all the big companies like Medtronic, Siemens, and GE Healthcare about their products and ate pretty freely thanks to company reimbursement. Even better, this job is a great stepping stone to law school, which I'm now heavily considering.
What makes this work so satisfying is knowing that, even at my level, I can impact how much money the company brings in on a large scale. The quality of my work decides how much we make directly and since I have stock in the company, that gives even more motivation to come in every day and kick a lot of ass. I'm paid well enough and hopefully, I break the six figures (salary and stock) within a couple more years, although that means a lot less in Socal than it would in Cleveland (rent in Cali is a mortgage in Cleveland, unfortunately but hey, you pay your dues).
This leads into a newer problem: spending. Coming from such a thrifty background (more by myself instead of family imposed), I've let loose a little too much. The car was fine because I wanted a decent car to drive to and from work. Working in Newport Beach and leisuring in Orange County, the cars there are pretty high end and while I didn't care about being able to compare them, I wanted one that at least made me happy in the morning while I'm trying to wake up. In the end, 240 hp (250 hp with premium gas, Honda engineers confirmed), heated leather seats, moonroof, and satellite radio were the luxuries that made my commute more comfortable and entertaining. At least it was a really good deal. Ended up getting it for $5k less than dealer's asking price and it's a certified used car. With that said, I definitely let loose a little. Things like video game systems, accessories, and eating out were more spending than I was used to.
This leads to my health. In college, pick up games of football were always a possibility and at the least, you walked to class. Now, I'm adapting to driving to work, sitting for 8 hours, and a lot of times, going out to lunch with coworkers. If I go with our lawyers, it's usually sit-down and I usually go burger. If with coworkers my age, I go with Subway. Either way though, even though I work out pretty regularly, my health went south. While I'm not really fatter (I still wear XS or S depending on the brand), my resting heart rate went up from 60 to upper 60s lower 70s, which feels pretty bad. Starting next week, the workouts will stay the same but I will definitely try to be more responsible with what I put in me. What makes things worse is the feeling that my body continues to fall apart. I used to think that there were exceptions to the "too much is a bad thing" saying but now I know that playing sports is not an exception. Shoulder blades move in ways they shouldn't, upper back is always tight, and my back cracks with I take deep breaths. Don't try and tell me that tennis isn't a demanding sport. On the plus side, I've been taking glucosamine so at least my knees have felt a lot better.
California is way different from Ohio. And for me, a much better place to be. The energy is different and the sites are very impressive. Just before reaching work, I'm met with a fantastic view of the ocean. I work near Fashion Island, a very well known, expensive shopping area that would make any shopping center in Cleveland blush. One time, at lunch with our lawyers, we saw Paris Hilton walking around by herself. If I wasn't on the inside of the booth, I would've ran out to get a picture, not because I get star-struck, but just because I could. There are ways that Cleveland is better, though. I don't think there is any collective area that could be dumber than SoCal and the drivers there are even worse than the ones in Cleveland (imagine that...). Once, a coworker showed me a site that showed live statistics of accidents and that day, it had just rained. Sure enough, in our area, there were 430 accidents. It wasn't even hard rain, just enough drizzle to make the roads a little slippery. Further, everyone drives while talking on a cell phone! If they're all terrible at driving anyways, why drive while using one hand with your attention diverted (and local speed limits up to 60 mph don't help either)?
Jen and I are doing great. I can't believe we've been together for 4 whole years! Started seriously looking into rings and found a really good one at Tiffany's. Kinda expensive though :( On another note, we got a kitten! It's gotta be the cutest kitten ever. He's just so smart and cute and we love him to pieces. He waits for me when I get home and then wants to be held. At night, he'll wake me up on me, purring, and licking me.
Well that's about it, I guess. I was really happy that I was able to get some nice presents for my family friends since they did so much for me. I have a promising job, a great girl, live in a great place, have good friends, and I'm able to finally do nice things for the people that did so much for me before (the dream is to at least buy my mom a Lexus, if not a house, depending on my success). Life is pretty good.
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