Well, I’ve finally come up with a purpose for my main website at www.kevinleeme.com
I’ll be focusing mainly on finding everyday people with huge passions for the things they do while posting interesting articles every now and then. Hopefully I’ll continue finding people to interview and if you guys know anyone with a passion, please let me know.
I’ve lived with my roommate Khang for the past month or so and I’ve probably learned more in this month than I have my whole life. He sits next to me now typing notes for the finance class we take together, so concentrated in his work that he has no idea I’m writing a post solely dedicated to him.
Khang’s one of the few Vietnamese people I know. He was born in Saigon, Vietnam, almost crippled at birth from polio, but miraculously battled and won his ability to freely use his limbs. He grew up in a tough ghetto neighborhood where Mexicans made fun of him and provoked him into standing up for himself by hitting them with sticks, receiving a scar on his nose in the process. I only know all this because he told me so and I trust his honesty. I suppose it was his independence and ability to take no shit from anyone that shaped him into who he is today.
He is one of the few friends I have who actually values college for its learning. While others sleep in their classes and find ways to take the easiest classes possible, Khang is pushing himself to learn as much as he can because according to him, “knowledge is valuable, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” He receives no money from his parents and takes out loans to pay for what he needs. If he’s not doing work, eating, or working out, he’s out biking somewhere. He rarely has idle moments unlike like the rest of us who lounge around all day, too lazy to go out and do anything.
Everything he eats is handmade and cooked from raw ingredients which he carefully selects at bargain prices and everything he owns has been bought at a discount from E-bay or craigslist. I can only admire his independence and ability to survive on his own with virtually no support from his family.
I assure you all I am straight, but whenever I see him, I can’t help but break out in a smile or laugh. He just has this certain charisma about him that appears so friendly, even though he’s ridiculously buff. I think the reason I laugh is because he has that “engineering clumsiness” apparent in some of the little things he does, such as his bad habits of always leaving things behind. He also laughs a lot at the most ridiculous things. I.E. yesterday we were watching “That 70′s Show,” and the mom in the show was telling her husband that their fish Fluffy died. Khang giggled/laughed and I asked him why that was funny at all. He just said, “cuz they have a fish and they called it fluffy.” I burst out laughing after that because it was dumb and funny.
I know many girls who are independent but I guess I’ve never really met someone like Khang who is charismatic, friendly, and still able to get A+’s in finance classes that don’t even relate to his major. Khang, if you ever read this, no homo.
Simply mad respect.
I watched pursuit of happy-ness yesterday and it made me quite sad. You start off with a happy family: a loving wife (Thandie Newton), husband (Will Smith) and their child (Jaden Smith a.k.a. Will Smith’s real son). After a bad investment in expensive and unnecessary medical technology, Will Smith is stuck as a salesman, while his wife works late night shifts at a factory. They live paycheck to paycheck while repaying debt until one day the wife gets so fed up with their stressful life that she leaves, abandoning her hardworking husband and child.
Of course Will Smith later succeeds in his internship and obtains a high paying finance job but instances with his family occur every day. After watching this movie, how can you not grow fearful of how your life will turn out. I dream of raising a family and being the best father and husband I can be, but sometimes unexpected turns of events can ruin the stability of a family. I wonder if my future wife will stick with me through the good times and the bad times and whether or not I have the capability to stand out and really make a difference.
Also, not everyone has the ability to secure a stable job. In the movie, only one person out of the 20+ internship program received the job. Will Smith got it. So what happened to the others? Did they just melt back into the masses of the middle class, forever destined to run the rat race of life? It is this fear of stability that forces so many of us into secure jobs such as investment bankers, consultants, doctors, etc… Of course there are some people who may love their jobs and others who took jobs to support their families, but to the rest of you who went into your field for the pure sake of financial stability, are you happy? Do you wake up every day screaming, “I LOVE MY LIFE” or do you wash your face, look up in the mirror and ask yourself what you are doing with your life?
My life consists of many people whom I would want to support but at the same time, if I ever do go into a career such as finance, I will be pretty damn sure that I’m having a great time doing it.
The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase, if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.
Growing up, I never thought I would regret being an only child. My parents had always asked me every single year if I wanted a brother or sister, and at my elementary age, I had no thoughts about the benefits of a sibling; I only considered the fact that I would have to share. Naturally, I would yell “NO!!” in a fierce demanding manner and life would go on as the lone child in the family.
Up until the beginning of high school, I had no second doubts about the matter because my friends would always tell me stories about how pissed off they were at their siblings and how much they hated them. I could never understand so I would just sympathize with them. Not all my friends had the same issues though. Some had loving relationships with their siblings and it made me a tad bit jealous seeing brothers and sisters who got along perfectly. I always wonder how much I would have changed if I had grown up with a sibling.
I never had to look out for a younger sibling so I simply channel that into my overprotectiveness of my friends and/or girlfriend. Since I spent the majority of my life alone at home with no one to talk to, I value my close friends. I know that people considered me annoying and over-talkative in school but I try hard not to act that way; I just never talk at home so I take my opportunity outside of the house to interact as much as possible with other people.
I wonder if I will end up with a son or daughter and whether or not he/she will have siblings too. I guess that’s my personal choice since I will be doing the dirty deeds, but who knows, maybe just like my parents, I’ll let my child decide if he wants to take the lonely path.
After reading millions and millions of blog posts from people all over the world, I was inspired to jump on the bandwagon and begin blogging. When I get older and start losing my memory, I can look back to this and remember my childhood as well as laugh at my thoughts in the teen years.
People often say that it’s the most unmemorable parts of your childhood that you remember best, such as eating ice cream with your dad, going to the nearby park to play, etc… I have a pretty detailed memory and every so often, I get flashbacks of events that occurred way back when I was just a baby. The oldest two memories that I can recall go way way back and I can’t figure out which one came first. One of them involved me standing at the top of some tall stairs in my grandma’s house back in Taiwan. I was crying because my dad was leaving but he got me to stop by telling me that he was going to work and would be back later. Then I stood there at the top of the stairs watching him go down and leave and after he closed the door, I cried more and peed my pants. I remember because it was warm and I could see pee traveling down the stairs like a slinkee. He disappeared for several months and my grandparents took care of me for that time. I now know that he was busy making money so that my mom could go to college in Chicago and so we could have a better life in the U.S. Therefore, I forgive him for that little white lie which could have scarred me for life. Maybe it did. who knows.
The second memory is a little dumber and less dramatic. After I was born, I guess I was a shy baby or something because I never said a word. I remember sitting in a “baby seat thingee that you tie babies to in the backseat while you drive” and looking outside at the mountains. I’m pretty sure that although I didn’t talk back then, I was a pretty good listener because I was listening to my parents conversation. My parents were discussing how concerned they were that I never said anything and they thought I was dumb. (not intelligent-wise but speaking-wise) My dad started laughing when my mom suggested that I was dumb and then I got mad so i yelled, “SHUT UP IT’S NOT FUNNY.” And I think those were the first words, or maybe sentence, to come out of my mouth. It’s very strange; I guess I was just a disrespectful little baby but my parents never stop telling me that story because they were so surprised that I understood them, let alone be able to talk.
So, sadly, those two memories are the oldest memories I can recall of my short baby life. Maybe one day, I will suddenly get a flashback of an older memory and if I do, I’ll write about it here. I’m pretty sure I’ll run out of memories pretty quickly and when that happens, I’ll just start writing about random stuff. Aspirations, goals, dreams, and all that nonsense.