I am a college graduate

Ruwe, me, claire, and sungah. Friends since international orientation freshman year.


The Daudts and my parents. So grateful for all the things they've done for me; they've taken care of me these past four years.


Sungah, my parents, and me after graduation with our flowers.


I graduated with magna cum laude honors! (3.7 or more GPA)


Emily, me, katie, hannah, and sungah. Seniors from First West Olson :)

Wow. Feels so weird to be saying that. I don't think it's fully sunk in yet.

So... finals week was crazy. In between attempting to study for my 2 finals, packing, cleaning my room, donating 3/4 of the stuff I own, selling clothes to a thrift store and making $150, spending time with friends... time really flew by.
Finals turned out to be super easy after all, even though I hardly studied. So I have As in all my classes and I graduated with a 3.76/4.0 GPA! I think school in America is really easy. Especially compared to school in Singapore. I don't even know how people can get anything below a B here. It's ridiculous.

So on Tuesday we had a wing meeting, because people were getting their stuff stolen left and right. Cash, debit cards, phones, even computers. It was kind of scary. I guess this type of thing is normal as the school year comes to an end, because everyone's moving out and it's chaotic and anyone can just come into the dorm and steal whatever they want. But thank God my stuff was fine, even though I didn't lock my room door.

Went to the Senior Scoop after that to get free ice cream, listen to Habecker (president of the college) talk, and receive our caps and gowns for graduation. And of course we immediately went back to try them. haha. Those gowns are HUGE. But it's exciting. I've never worn a graduation gown and cap before!

And then we went to our last study break ever... at the Dining Commons. Ate way too much sugar and chocolate and chips, got on a sugar high. My hands were literally shaking. And I was so jittery. We had to find a way to let all that energy out... so we went to sungah's apartment and had a dance party. We videoed it cause it's our last dance party together... ever :(

Wednesday claire and I went to Plato's closet to sell our old clothes, books, accessories, shoes, everything. So glad I did cause I have WAY too much stuff to bring everything back, and it's insanely expensive to ship things overseas. 220USD for a mere 20 pounds! But I ended up shipping my guitar back cause it's too expensive to give away and I love it too much to leave it behind. But everything else, I gave away. Pillows, blankets, laundry baskets, drawers, storage containers, printer, hairdryer, stationery, everything. My friends now love me a whole lot more. haha.

I got super stressed while packing and so we ended up going to Indy as our last time together. It was pretty chill... we just made friends at the bar and met people who knew people from Taylor. I have to say I'm not going to miss all this sneaking around and secret drinking on campus. Although it's been pretty fun and thrilling to hide stuff and drink it in places like the Taylor lake, the forest, the environmental science building, the library, the geek room, the playground, and even the prayer chapel. haha. I think I'm kind of done with this whole partying thing though. I need to give my poor liver a vacation. I don't think I can ever be an alcoholic. Just the thought of drinking vodka makes me feel sick.

Thursday I met up with emily, who graduated in january and came back for graduation!! I missed her so much and it was so good to see her again :) We both realized we were thinking of teaching English in Korea in the fall!! So hopefully things work out and we can go there together!! People keep asking me what my plans are, I always say I have no idea. haha. I only know I'm going to Paris, Munich, and Berlin for 2 weeks with my parents, then back to Singapore for 2 weeks, then to Perth, Australia.... then who knows where I'll end up after that. We'll see :)

We also had our last ever noodle party... all these 'last' things... so nostalgic. But it was a good time just hanging out and spending time with each other eating asian food :) there was supposedly a huge party going on in one of the off-campus houses, but I have to say, I wasn't tempted at all to go. I'd rather spend the last day with my good friends than getting wasted with a bunch of strangers. I'll really miss some of these people... sam, ruben, mark, emily, sung ah, megan, claire...

I feel like I didn't get to say goodbye to several people, which sucked. But I guess maybe, hopefully, we'll get to meet up sometime in the future, when we're making enough money to go visit each other. It just sucks that everyone is splitting up and going their own way after graduation. I wish we had more time together.

Friday was really busy. We had our Media Communication majors senior brunch... the professors made delicious food and we shared our plans for after graduation... and we gave them a video of our 'thank yous'. it was pretty sweet.
Then I went back to my room and found my PARENTS WAITING FOR ME!!!! It was so good to see them again. life comes full circle. They came for my freshman orientation, and now they're here for my senior graduation. FOUR YEARS. it's ridiculous. So we cleaned up my room, donated a bunch more stuff, packed everything I ever owned into two tiny suitcases, closed my bank account, terminated my phone line, and checked out of the dorm. Goodbye Olson Hall, it's been a wonderful three years :)

Then we went to the DC for a final time, for a banquet. They actually had decent food there, which surprised me. Met a couple of my friends' parents, which was interesting. It's funny how kids are so much like their parents. Then we went to the chapel one final time for worship, a senior slideshow, senior testimonies, and one last address. Then I stayed over at sungah's apartment and we had a little ramen/nail painting party.

Saturday was THE DAY. The day we graduate. Felt so surreal. We woke up early, got ready, put our caps and gowns on, and headed to the KSAC fieldhouse for the ceremony. It was a mix of emotions, seeing all my friends in their caps and gowns, taking pictures, getting all excited and yet nostalgic at the same time... we processed into the fieldhouse and walked through the tunnel of professors. it was so cool to see all my professor and hear them say how proud they were of me. The ceremony itself was rather long... we had our senior class president speak, a testimony from a senior, an address by Dr. Habecker, our president, a song by Taylor Sounds, another address by our graduation speaker Gloria Gaither, this famous woman who wrote tons of Christian hymns, and then finally we walked across the stage, shook Dr. Habecker's hand, got our diploma/towel/bible, and it was over. It felt so good to walk across the stage and hear friends cheering for me. My 1 second of fame. haha. And then I saw my professors at the end, as well as my dad, who made me pose for a picture.

After the ceremony, we all headed outside, where it was total chaos. I found some friends and took pictures with them. My parents gave me a bouquet of roses and a little graduation teddy bear, which was cute. I didn't get to see some people because it was so crazy, but oh well. We went over to the MuKappa reception and said goodbye to more people... I almost cried a few times, but I was trying to hold it in because I didn't want to ruin the pictures. haha. Then we went over to sungah's apartment and said more goodbyes. I totally cried buckets when saying bye to sungah. We wept together. haha. I love that girl. I will miss her so much. Said bye to susan campbell and mark, who came over. also to megan, who cried a lot too. her dad kept saying she was having allergies. haha. finally left with my parents to their hotel in Muncie. Was so tired... it was just an overall tiring day of overwhelming emotions.

Last week of college classes

Megan, me, and Ruben. love them both!


Playing foosball in the Sammy basement while waiting for the surprise party to start


Awesome people :)


Salute to nakhoon, the korean guy who's leaving for the military


RUBEN! I'm seriously going to miss this kid SO much. he's pretty much awesome.


At campus safety waiting to go to Flattop. International students run on international time, as usual.


My two asian boys. i will miss them!!!


Seniors at Flattop.


International students at Flattop

This week's been a mixture of excitement, nerves, and nostalgia. I went to all my classes for the last time. The feeling was a little weird, knowing I'll never walk into a class here at Taylor in Upland, Indiana, ever again. There was joy, yes, but also sadness at the thought of leaving all these wonderful people who have been a huge part of my life for the past four years. A few months ago, graduation couldn't come fast enough. Now, it can't come slow enough. It's just hard trying to juggle finals and packing all my stuff and treasuring every waking moment (haven't gotten much sleep) with all the people I love.

Wednesday was my final theme presentation in my Performing Oral Literature class. My theme was Sisterhood, and I did a narration from the movie 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,' the song 'Still on Your Side' by BBMak, and an excerpt from 'Little Women' the play. It went pretty well, I think. By now I have no nerves getting up and performing in front of the class. I know I'm not the best performer, but it's actually kind of fun, this acting stuff.
We went to Indy at night... not the best idea. Ended up sleeping in the car and being super tired the next day.

Thursday I went shopping in Indy with claire... didn't really get much, because I already have WAY too much stuff to bring home. I honestly do not know how I'm going to fit everything I've owned this past four years into two tiny suitcases to bring home. I think there will be a lot of donating going on this coming week. I sold a bunch of clothes to this store called Plato's Closet, and they gave me $55 in return! It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Then AAA (Asian Awareness Association) had our annual spring dinner in Muncie at Red Sun, this Chinese buffet. It wasn't great, but it was better than most disgusting greasy asian buffets here.

Got back to campus late, and was planning to head straight to bed, but then we had not one, but TWO tornado warnings, and so we all had to go out in the hallway and wait for the warning to be over. So annoying. I was awake for the first, so I went out, but the second one was after midnight, so I just ignored it and stayed in my bed, praying that the tornado wouldn't hit us if not I'd probably be dead. So thank God I'm still alive and kicking. During the first warning I had a good heart-to-heart chat with a good friend who's been drifting away from me the past couple weeks. We talked things out, shared our struggles, ended up crying over the phone, and I felt much better about everything. I guess it just took some understanding on both our parts. But I'm glad we were honest... didn't want to leave here without setting things straight between us. I've done so many things this semester I'm not proud of, and they've damaged some of my friendships, so I guess I have less than a week to make things up and get my priorities straight.

Friday was the last day of classes... EVER. Such a weird feeling. Don't know what to think.
It was also ISS (International Students' Society) Senior Night, so we dressed up, piled up into 3 vans, and headed to Flattop Grille in Fort Wayne. It was a good time just being with friends and eating way too much. We took pictures, talked about memories, got gifts (photo album and photo collage) from others, shared our plans for after graduation... good times.

Went back to campus and hung out for a while at a friend's apartment. Almost went to Indy, but glad I didn't, because we went to Sammy, one of the dorms, for a friend's farewell party. One of the korean guys was leaving next year to go to the korean military, so we threw a surprise party for him. We all hid in the game room in the basement and jumped out and shocked him when he came in. He was touched to the point of tears. It made me almost cry too. But it was such a fun time just hanging out, eating cake, playing foosball and frisbee, and talking.

And then we went to another friend's apartment after that and got thoroughly entertained by a bunch of drunk people talking their heads off. It's funny how different people have different reactions to alcohol. Some people cry, some people start sharing their life story, some people fall asleep, some people laugh nonstop, some people get violent, and some people can't stop talking. So fascinating.

Saturday Sungah and I went around campus with a friend and took pictures for memory's sake, because we realized we didn't have many pictures of us around campus. So that was fun. Then I worked on a web design project... I'm actually kind of getting the hang of doing HTML coding on Dreamweaver. Who would've thought?! And then we had a girls' night out to downtown Indy, but ended up at broad ripple, where we found new places to go to. It was fun... got to meet new people and stayed over at a friend's place.

Today we had our last MuKappa event...ever. SO SAD. Went to the Daudts' house for cookies, fellowship, and worship. I'm going to miss these cozy worship sessions at their house. Got to catch up with friends and talk about future plans and summer plans and everything. Good times.

1 month to graduation

EXACTLY. Time really does fly. I can't believe I'm actually graduating from college IN A MONTH! It's ridiculous. I'm kind of but also not really ready to be an independent adult living in the big bad world out there. This semester I've learned that the world is really big. And full of bad things and bad people. Even in a little Christian college like Taylor, sketchy stuff abounds. The things I've seen/heard about Taylor people has made me rather cynical of Christians in general. I guess we really are hypocrites. We go to church on Sunday and pretend to worship God and be holy and everything, and then during the week we get drunk and have free sex and do whatever we want. That's right, I said it. The thing that bugs me now is, doesn't anyone value their virginity anymore???? Seriously. I think there must be something wrong with me. Despite all the partying, I don't struggle with controlling myself when it comes to getting physical with guys. And I feel like everyone else does... except me. Maybe God really wants me to be a nun. Sigh.

Okay anyway, I haven't gotten much sleep since getting back from spring break; having Cartoon around is like a 24/7 party. haha. We went to the Reject Show, a Taylor performance where people can showcase whatever talents they have - dancing, singing, acting, doing lame stuff. It was pretty entertaining, especially watching a bunch of guys in tracksuits dancing to some kid song called 'Yummy in my Tummy.'

Friday we went with a bunch of random guys we just met to this place called Piere's, supposedly the biggest club in the midwest. Scoff, scoff. It was pretty lame. I mean, there were 5 bars/clubs in the place, and there was a stage with live performances and stuff, but if this is the best place, then I think everything in Indiana is truly pathetic. Can't wait to get out. One of the rooms was filled with black people - we went in for 5 seconds and ran out. Too scary. Not that I'm racist or anything, but they were just so aggressive and kinda really scary. I think we were the only 2 asians there. So I guess we kinda accomplished our 'goal' of dancing with Taylor boys, although they can't really be considered 'Taylor boys' since they were pretty corrupt.

So after being out all night, we slept for like 2 hours and then drove 2 hours to Purdue University with friends. We were pretty much dead the entire day. But it was fun, we went bowling, ate japanese food and frozen yogurt, went shopping at the mall, went to Flattop, and admired Purdue's huge campus. WHY DIDN'T I GO THERE?!?! I would have so much more fun. There's actually restaurants and stuff to do on campus. Seeing places like that makes me feel like I seriously wasted 4 years of my life. My prime years too. Should stop thinking about it.

And then Saturday night was awful. Won't elaborate, but it involved friends with benefits, dip, whiskey, and someone's apartment. Sometimes... people are just too crazy.

Sunday we cooked Thai curry and ramen and had a pretty big party. Then we went to Payne's to catch up with a friend we've known since freshmen year. It's weird to think I've known some of my friends for about 4 years now. Doesn't seem that long. Then we had a party/therapy session in the galleria of the library in the wee hours of the morning. I think the people trying to study there must have hated us. We tried to play a prank by moving some of the benches outside into the building, but in the morning someone moved them back. Sad.

Monday we caught up with old friends again, had Greek food at Trejo's Gyros, which was awesome. And I realized how much we've changed. We've all become more... liberal, I guess, is the politically correct term. And I also realized how annoying it is to have to find places to drink in secret in this school.

Thursday (and Sunday) was another random night of drinking. I guess no one here really cares about the covenant we make not to smoke/drink/sin. Some people are seriously HILARIOUS when they get tipsy. And I didn't know the legal age to buy cigarettes was 18! ohhhhh... fun times.

Sunday we went to Ivanhoe's, just the two of us. I was kinda sad Cartoon was leaving. When we said goodbye on Monday we both were secretly pretending to be okay but I was kinda tearing up and later I found out so was she. It's just that normally we say bye and we see each other the next school year. But now it's like... we're going our separate ways after graduation, and I don't know when I'll see her again. In fact, I don't know if I'll ever see some of the people here ever again. Kind of depressing to think about that.

So anyway, I found out this new AWESOME workout called ZUMBA. OMG it's the best workout in the world!!! It's like dancing/aerobics for an hour to awesome hip hop/latin dance music!!! SO. MUCH. FUN. I've been doing it everyday this week. My dance skills will be improved by the end of this semester. haha.

Yesterday we drove to Ball State University to see Youtube star David Choi in action. My first thought? He's SUPER SHORT, even shorter than me, and I'm pretty short. But his performance was solid. Sung ah was pretty starstruck. haha. We had some time to pen questions we had for him, and I asked 'If you could be any Disney princess, which would you be?' I didn't actually think he would pick mine, but he did, and my friends pointed to me when he asked who wrote it, and apparently my face was beet red. hehe. I feel kinda bad we left the concert early, and not only that, we met this cute Caucasian guy who spoke Chinese, and so all 6 of us were crowded around him, with our backs to David Choi. haha. He was probably like, these girls came to see me and now they're flirting with a random guy?!!? And then they leave early??!?! Sorry, David Choi.

Then we went to Walmart and then MT Cup to hang out and play games - typical Taylor fun activity.

Today was MOSAIC NIGHT! International performances and stuff. This year the turnout was awesome. SO many people came, I was shocked. There was an African dance, a Bahamian dance/song, a Chinese song, an Indian song, a Middle Eastern dance, etc. It was pretty cool, but the best part was this guy from Hawaii who did a fire dance. Totally reminded me of how awesome Hawaii is and how I want to go back there again sometime.

In other news, my portfolio's almost done! YES.

Counting down the days

I can't believe graduation is exactly TWO MONTHS AWAY. I've thought about that day ever since I was a measly freshman at Taylor, and now it's actually almost here. Back in 2006, when I just came to the States, 2010 seemed like something in the great distance, something that would never reach me. But here it is, and we're already in March. I seriously don't understand how come time flies by so quickly. How can it be I'm already turning 23 this year? Where did all the time go???

I guess I'm starting to freak out a little, especially hearing other people talk about job offers they have and places they want to live after graduation. It's hard to commiserate with those who don't have jobs as yet, because even if they end up jobless after graduation, they can at least go home and stay with their parents for a while. I, on the other hand, have to find a dang job NOW or else it's goodbye career, hello waitressing (to make ends meet in some city) or hello pizza shop in Perth (and I did not slog four years in college just to end up working at a pizza shop).

In all honesty, I am quite prepared to move to NYC/LA/Chicago/San Diego/San Francisco/Minneapolis/Colorado Springs/Pittsburgh/any major city in the USA and live in a cramped apartment and slave away at some restaurant just to have a shot at chasing my dreams. So many people have told me I should just move out to wherever I want to live, and find a job that puts food on the table first. And then keep looking for jobs I'm actually interested in. Which, I guess, makes sense, because you don't just land that coveted job right out of college. You have to network and climb your way up first. So I really don't mind doing that. Although I think my parents would freak if I moved to NYC and got a job as a shoe salesperson. But... sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Life is all about taking chances, right? We only have one life, we should live it to the fullest.

I guess I'm a little worried about finding a job, getting a place to stay, making enough money to make ends meet, making friends, finding a community, getting plugged into a church, and all that stuff that comes when you move to a new, unfamiliar place. We talked about things that will change once we leave Taylor in class today, and I realize I'm probably never going to experience this sort of tight-knit community on such a large scale ever again (unless I work for some Christian organization). People in the real world aren't as nice, they don't smile at you on the street, they don't offer you a hand when you fall on the stupid ice. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and I'm not sure if Taylor has prepared me for that. I can't help but feel a little overprotected in this tiny bubble of corn.

Today in class we also talked about life to-do lists. And it got me thinking, because I have no idea. I know what I want to do with my life next week, and the week after next, meaning I only have short-term plans. But what about in the next 10 years? What do I want to see myself accomplish by then?

So I thought up a list of to-dos for my life in the next decade:

-Travel the world and (perhaps) write about it
-Move to New York City and work for a major magazine publication
-Make a lasting, positive impact on those around me
-Have fun and go crazy and then finally settle down

I don't know. I just thought of it today, so I'll probably be adding other things to this list. And I don't know if my plans match up with God's plans for my life, but I'm not super attached to any of them, and if He wishes to change them, He's welcome to do so. Right now, my number one priority is just to GET A JOB.

Okay, off to apply for more jobs.