I’m starting to love blogging in the morning. While everyone’s asleep, I get a bit of time to organize my thoughts going into the new school quarter. Usually I’m reading at this time [currently starting out Jim Cramers “How to get Rich Carefully” this time around] but my brain just isn’t feeling it. And though I’ve always embraced the concept of doing my agenda list in the order that I “feel”…this new year I’ve decided to just go with the flow – even if it wasn’t on the to-do list. So with school starting in a few hours [winter break just ended!], I want to just write down some honest thoughts and be able to look back at it as the school year progresses!

And the flow has brought me to talk about a little hobby of mine…… travelling! I want to talk about Thailand and my experience there. Maybe venture a bit into the other countries depending how I feel. So, I’ve always thought of it like this. Imagine one day you wake up in a new world: in this world your bank account is multiplied 30 times over[if you dont have enough in the bank for this to be good news…. you better think about that one!!!] – but there’s a catch. Everyone is a lot nicer and as a result everything costs about 5 times more. I mean that’s Thailand. It’s developed from the ground-up as a tourist country so they are extremely receptive to English [much moreso than China/Taiwan/etc]. And so I dwelled a while in Bangkok, really just love taking it slow and reading until noon in the hotel -> walk outside -> meet some locals  + find food -> sightsee one place -> dinner -> massage -> sleep. Repeat, one week. Leave. Also dropped by Pattaya for a nice beach experience, it’s rather undeveloped and gives off an extremely natural vibe. I liked Bangkok a lot more though and probably will return to see the sightseeing parts [Chiang Mai / Phuket]! I’m really a big-city liver though and if you’re into $7 massages, $0.65 coffee [way better than Starbucks], and $3 Pad Thai. Well. Yep. Oh and also $5 Taxis. Yep.

But now that I’m back, I want to re-visit the topic of what university should be like. And that’s getting everything through an easy-mode version of life along with chances to actively mold your untapped potential before picking up extra “cargo” throughout life/career. There’s a relatively simplistic business model with your “connections”, “politics”, and “too invested” concepts but it’s in a world trying to help you out. Well that’s a lie, but chances are your teachers care a lot more for you or at least are much more willing to mentor you over your future boss. The easiest example: when’s the last time you grabbed some coffee with your boss to talk about your future/ask for some advice [not talking about raises/promotions here!]. Yet, that willingness to help somehow seems to push students away. Classes of 300 at my university have maybe 1-2 if at all any students showing up to office hours. And that’s yet another lesson learned. Free just isn’t appreciated. And geez, life is really complex. But hopefully, I’ll map it out and organize my thoughts on this as the quarter goes on. I really want to think about some active steps a student could take to really utilize their status in order to develop a more established presence in “reality”. The first would be to attend conferences that offer student pricing. It’s so hard to explain the tangible effects of the intangible to my a lot of my classmates though. Well, I’ll revisit this topic again.

Last topic. Living in the present. All that matters is now. All these recurring concepts, it’s starting to finally hit home. The fact that I’m too stubborn to listen to my parents, lost so many friends throughout my mood swings, and all my worries about the future. Altucher talks about how each of these occupy a portion of your brain and really take away from your active intelligence. Yep. That’s exactly it. For me, those 3 items listed above. I can’t work and create something genuine with those thoughts. In fact, I can’t even write a blog with those thoughts. But now I found freedom. With this comes acceptance. There’s no going back to the past, how things were, and the “good ole days”. In fact, it doesn’t even matter to the current you. Except that memories are unforgettable and invaluable etc. But it isn’t your LIFE. Life is the current, the happening, there is no bad life[as long as basic human rights aren’t being violated – that’s different], there is no not enough time, and there is no miracle happening. Everyone is different. Everyone is individualistic. And life itself must be re-defined by everyone as they live it. And I wish people [me included] can just start to realize there’s no “correct way” to live, no “destination”, and no “shortcuts”. You learn there’s no looking back. There’s only the you that’s alive and the you that is grateful for everything that you’ve since amassed since you were born. Well, and if there’s nothing – then that’s fine too [it’s never too late to start!]. And that’s that! Now I’m motivated for school! 5 days of 2014 over. Day 6 Beginning. Let’s keep going!