The Stages

As a kid, people always confused me. I didn't understand how the adult world works. I didn't understand the many aspects of being an adult. I did't understand what it takes to be a great human being and how to succeed. Looking back, it's not that I was dumb, it was that I didn't have much confidence in my own ability to think for myself and on my ability to approach different problems and situations.

Then college began. Though I commuted to school, I find it was easier than I thought when it came to easing my way into this world of people who seemed to possess more confidence and who seemed to exactly know where they will be heading in life.  I found part-time jobs as a tutor and worked my way out of college with decent grades and a lot of experience under my belt.  There were boy complications here and there but I thank God that they did not reck me and prevented me from completing my degree within the four year limit.

After undergrad, work took over my life. I remember working overtime because I had nothing better to do. Work was a part of me and it became my identity. The first year was a tough one. I did not enjoy every bit of it, nevertheless I have to admit I learned something along the way ever single day. I learned how to be a great parent by talking to all the coworkers who were mothers and fathers at work--I worked in a job where majority of the employees were at least 40 years older, thus this gave me the opportunity to grow up quicker just by hearing their advice and life stories. They told me the good events in their lives and the bad situations they got themselves into; and so I found myself to become a better person by learning from other people's mistakes.  In addition, I learned how to be a good coworker who brought snacks and food and shared them with other fellow coworkers; I must add that I gained a few pounds from this fun experience and also learned how to be kind to people whom I do not know well.  I learned how to be a great sibling to another person by hearing my coworkers talk about their immediate family.

Don't mistaken, I completed my assigned work every day and the reason why I had time talking to the older coworkers at work was because I became a quick learner and was able to finish my assigned tasks at a quick pace.

Another experience that changed me the most was my volunteer experiences at a hospital called St. Mary Medical Center back in 2013. Here, I met some of the brightest people in the United States. I met resident physicians, attending physicians, nurses, medical students, high school students.  Let's just say they were not your typical average Americans.  These professionals know how to use their brain at a capacity that I rarely saw in a person.  This is a trauma hospital and it's a teaching hospital, therefore the people who receive any form of training here have to be on top of their work or else there would be bad consequences, or worst they lose their jobs.  For instance, the resident physicians have to stay in the hospital and made sure the patients in the Intensive Care Unit are well cared for and little mistakes can endanger a life.

Then I also had the opportunity to meet some of the brightest students in the United States. I met some high school students from magnet schools in Southern California and as I watched them helped the patients and talked to the hospital staffs, I realize that my brain was picking up some skills they had. These kids had great interpersonal skills and they knew how to study well while still putting in some fun time in there.  Another occurrence was my time talking to a medical student from UCLA; she completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and was doing her third year rotation for medical school at St. Mary Medical Center.  I accidentally ran into her while we were watching the resident physicians perform a procedure on a patient in the Intensive Care Unit and we started this one conversation and for some reason, my brain enjoyed the convo deeply; it liked the fact that this girl was right in front of me and showing me what it was like for person like her (coming from top universities in the nation) handle such a stressful environment. If you ask any physicians who have worked in the Intensive Care Unit, they will admit these patients are really sick and they need more care than your average medical surgical patients.  Furthermore she was just like any other classmates I talked to in undergrad, however her confidence made a difference. Her sentence structures and her voice tone showed the confidence that many college students do not have. 

I have moved on from my many experiences as a college students and young adults, professionally or personally, for the past two years and the lessons I learned from those experiences are invaluable for my success in the next step I take in life.  They say it takes a village to raise a child and it felt sometimes that my many jobs and my many volunteer opportunities were the villages that raised me and made me who I am today and who I need to be later on.