Posted on 1 Comment on Learning and Loving

Learning and Loving

Good evening friends,

To be absolutely frank, I just woke up from a 2-hour nap and that is why this post is going up late. I am literally writing it 55 minutes late when I meant to do it after my 9 a.m. class or after lunch or after my “quick nap”. But that takes me to my point.

Rather than actually focusing on what I needed to do today, I went to class, listened to the Taylor Swift album (which is very good and I am still listening as I am typing right now), and just hung out. Yes, I am 4 hours behind on my reading and yes I do have a research paper due on Tuesday but I didn’t get to any of that. Instead, I layed down on my dorm’s (very comfy) rug and knocked out. I slept. No alarm. Friday afternoon. I slept. Now, I am awake and I am glad I did it no matter all of the crap that “later” entails.

You see, since the quarter has started, I began my own journey of productivity and positivity–you know the gist.

I told myself, “I am going to put myself out there, I am going to seize the day and reach for my ambitions” And I did. I reached far to push by my fears, my anx. I am continuing to challenge myself, academically and personally. Personally, I would like to say I put the carpe in “carpe diem”.

And as exciting as everything is, it has also been equally exhausting.

Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying myself. I am learning a lot, meeting new people, joining clubs. Loads of fun; but I do miss the quietness of a slower lifestyle.

It seems that the hustle culture I am experiencing is moving so fast. So fast that every new “check-off” of my to-do list is 3 more scheduled events or homework assignments. So fast that I am neglecting a lot of myself in order to accomplish what I am expected to accomplish or, at least what I expect myself to accomplish.

For now, it’s a kind of busy that I am still learning to appreciate. Emphasis on “learning”: slowly, we are getting there.

Just in the few weeks that I have been here, the drastic environmental change has, at least for me, undone a lot of the patience I showed myself during the summer. Obviously, there’s more on my plate now but also because of the urgency that being a college student automatically requires.

So that is why I decided to protest it. I needed that nap after late night dance practices and the busyness of too much homeworks. Needed it. To breathe a little. To sit down and do nothing and to say “to hell with all of it”. No more things I have to do. I layed on that rug because I chose to listen to me, my body, and my needs.

I think that as students now a days, we are taught the importance of productivity; and I think it’s important for us, not just as students but as people to take a step back and put ourselves first.

So that is something I have learned recently. This post was, honestly, rushed so expect greater quality from my posts in the future; sincerely I apologize for the sub-par-ness of this first one–I know it is not a good color but again, to hell with it!

So goodbye, I will see you soon and until then, be kind to yourself.

with love,

jaden

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Here Comes the End of Winter!

With the opening of a new round of course registration and the arrival of final exams, I realized that my university life has almost passed two quarters! How time flies! My life at UCI has really made me improve in many aspects, which makes me exciting. One of the aspects is that I gradually start planning for the future, such as the upcoming spring quarter and summer.

One of the most important things in my spring plan is to complete three courses. Then as a result, at the end of the spring semester, I could have the chance to transfer to the department I prefer, which I am very much looking forward to. However, at the same time, I have to say goodbye to the U/U department that be with me for a year, which also makes me sad. Over the past two quarters, the U/U department has been very helpful to my university life, not only for course selection and future planning but also gave me a lot of help in daily life and part-time work. While the grateful thing is that I successfully applied for the discussion leader of the University Study course, my fate with the U/U department does not seem to be completely over! I am so excited to have the opportunity to help as many college freshmen as I’ve had before, which leads to the second thing I will be doing in the spring quarter – training to become a qualified discussion leader. I hope to meet more new friends and exercise my leadership skills through this opportunity. I think my leadership and public speaking skills need to be improved. The third thing is to keep sticking to the Zotblog program. After becoming a zotblogger, I feel like I was less afraid of writing, and writing even become a part of my daily life. Zotblog has become a way of recording my life this year, and it has preserved my wonderful study abroad life very well. Writing on different topics also gave me more observations, and motivate me to move forward, discover and participate in the novel activities. The last thing I plan to do in the spring is the English Conversation Program because I want to develop my speaking skills. The language used in daily life is completely different from the language in books, I want to learn language from English-speakers by communicating with them.

It looks like I will be busy with my spring! I hope I can successfully finish my winter quarter and then complete these plans in my spring quarter!

Finally, I wish you all the best of luck in the upcoming final exams!

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Figure Skating, Yuzuru Hanyu

By chance, I saw a piece of Yuzuru Hanyu’s figure skating performance on the Internet, but it shocked me in just a few minutes. I was very impressed with that performance. His emotional performance and heartwarming smile, as well as the scene where he bowed his head and kissed the ice surface during the performance, were deeply engraved in my mind.

The first Hanyu’s performance I saw

So I started learning about figure skating. I learned later that it wasn’t even a game, but an earthquake condolence show. The difference between figure skating and running or speed skating is that it is more about competing with yourself and about individual performance. I seriously studied the grading scale of figure skating and watched many competitions. I even feel like I’m taking a class seriously!

In the process of learning, I learned that athletes themselves, regardless of nationality or origin, should be recognized for their own efforts and perseverance, while Yuzuru Hanyu is a very respectable athlete in figure skating. Rather than retiring honorably after winning two consecutive Olympics and Grand Slams, he chose to continue to fight in the international arena. Regardless of the pain and public opinion, he continued to struggle with his dreams and hard work, surpassing himself, surpassing his dreams, and moving forward on the road of surpassing the record of mankind. It is gratifying that he successfully broke through himself at the Beijing Winter Olympics and completed the 4A in the world’s first international competition, which is a brand new milestone in the history of human figure skating.

Congenital asthma, earthquake destroyed his home, be given the cold shoulder at the beginning of success… Only Yuzuru knows all the hardships he has suffered, which finally created a unique unparalleled world champion in the history of figure skating. When I feel down and want to give up, I will think of Yuzuru Hanyu who was once abandoned by the world. With his own strength, he won the affirmation of everyone at the end. From the few audiences at the beginning, to the pooh rain and deafening cheers that fill the rink at the end of each performance, Yuzuru Hanyu proves that anything is possible. His perseverance has given countless people the motivation to continue to work hard, and it has also made me take my life and study more seriously and make efforts more proactively than before.

I hope one day I can participate in a performance by Yuzuru. Although we do not know if he will choose to retire after the Beijing Olympics, I still want to see him showing on the ice with his best performance. 

Training before the Winter Olympics in Beijing

4A successfully dropped the ice for the first time at the All-Japan Championship

Note:

Yuzuru Hanyu is the first man in the history of figure skating to win the Junior Division (JWC, JGPF) and Senior Major Grand Slam (SUPER SLAM). It is also after the ISU Judging System replaced the original 6.0 scoring system in 2004, and before the new scoring rules were adopted on July 1, 2018, during this period, the short program, free skating, and total score of the adult group were All world record holders. Hanyu has broken world records for the short program, free skating, and total score 19 times, and is the first player to be certified by ISU to jump out of the 4Lo (quadruple Loop jump) and 4A (quadruple Axel jump).

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New quarter

Happy New Year!!! Last semester was the first semester for me to enter the university life, which ended in the tense and complicated study. The most important thing I learned last semester was not learning a certain course. Although the courses in university were much more difficult than those in high school, I quickly adapted to them. I think the most important thing I learned in school was to get along with people. I’ve lived at home since I went to school, and although I have a lot of friends at school, I’ve never lived with any of them for a long time. However, because my home is far from the school, I choose to live on campus. One of my roommates is my good friend, we hang out together, dance together and go shopping together. But my other two roommates didn’t get along very well with us. Our body clocks were different. My friend roommate and I usually go to bed between 2am and 3am, while my other two roommates go to bed at 10pm. The different living habits caused quite a bit of trouble, because we left the light on when we were awake and they felt it interfered with their sleep.

Winter Quarter is a brand new semester. I hope we can live in peace in our dormitory. Only a peaceful dormitory can bring us warmth like home. In terms of study, I hope I can work harder to improve my GPA. Due to some negligence in last semester, my GPA is not high now. But I believe that through my efforts, I can bring my GPA back to the score I expect. I took 5 classes this semester because I didn’t have AP credits in high school, so I had to catch up by studying a little bit more than the others each quarter.

During the winter break, me and my friends drove to the Palm Springs to relax and soak in the hot springs; I also went to ski in Big Bear Lake with my friends. I thought I would have no chance to ski in California, because I thought it was very hot in California. However, my friend invited us to ski in Big Bear Lake. The next day we drove to Big Bear Lake. I like skiing very much, because I feel I can forget all the troubles when skiing. Winter break is over, which means the new semester has begun. Come on, everyone! Welcome the new quarter.

Posted on 1 Comment on ✨The Last✨

✨The Last✨

This year has gone by so fast that I am amazed that this will be my last blog post. Looking back at my first post as well as a couple of journal entries from the beginning of my first year here at UCI, I definitely can say that I have exceeded my own expectations in many different ways. 

The three main goals I had at the start of my first year were first, to get “good” grades, second, to make time for family and friends, and third, to make the most of my dorming experience. 

You might be wondering, why is good air quoted? Well, everyone’s interpretation of “good grades” is different and so is everyone’s perception of “bad grades.” So what do I mean? To me, good grades are the ones that I know I’ve tried my best on; no matter the grade, as long as I know I’ve done all I could, I am happy with the results. For the past two quarters and hopefully for this quarter too (knock on wood for me please), I have been pleased with my results because I think the grade reflects the amount of effort I put into the class. I don’t put a letter or a numerical percentage as my goal because personally, that stresses me out. To add to this, I’ve also developed ways to study for certain classes that I know will help me with the related courses I need to take in the future.

For example, my physics classes have and are still giving me a hard time. My professor for 7C told us a quote at the beginning of his course from Thomas Edison, and it really stuck with me: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” The brilliance of this quote is very subjective, but the meaning is inspiring. Just because one way didn’t work out doesn’t mean that the entire attempt is a failure; you now know what doesn’t work for you and that’s a step closer to the answer you want versus not knowing what to do at all because you are afraid of failing. 

I always tried to go home whenever I could because being with my family and being at home makes me feel so relaxed. I love my family a lot so I even call at least once a week (or is it once a day?) I prioritized studying and family so much that I did not go out as often as people would expect especially because I am in the dorms. I know a lot of people say that I should go specifically because I am dorming and it’s easier to meet people, and they aren’t wrong. I just think it’s a misconception that I can’t also make friends through online classes. Most of the friends I’ve made this year were from online classes, and even though it’s been one to two quarters where we have completely different classes, we still keep in contact. So I don’t think it has to do with what setting you are in; it has to do with the mindset you have going into that setting. 

Another thing to keep in mind: you are your own friend. What I mean is you should treat yourself the same way you treat your friends (I hope you treat your friends well or else this analogy would not work). If you tell your friends that they need get more sleep, you should also be telling yourself that you should also get some sleep. If you tell your friends that it will all work in the end, remember that for yourself as well. Even though college is an amazing and fun experience, remember to prioritize your physical and mental health. 

Wrapping this all up, I think I made the most of my dorming experience here. I experienced my first job, my first lab job, the cafeteria food (which you can get sick of eventually even though it is pretty good), UTC, and the campus itself. I’m really glad that UCI’s campus is very open and full of nature. Even though I almost got stung a couple of times, I still enjoy taking walks and enjoying the scenery. 

Now, for the last time, take care!🤗