1000 Days Later

3 Years - just over 1000 days. It’s amazing how much can change in that relative short eternity. But here I am, at the end of those one thousand days, and I must say, things are coming up Epson!



The last 3 years were spent grinding away trying to acquire some semblance of a skill set to offer the business world. Upon entering my third decade of life, I have achieved a minor but significant victory. A taste of victory, even a minor one, is so sweet relative to the obscurity of the bitter, sour grind. To be fair, I’ve enjoyed the time in the grind, but through it all the sliver of alpha male within me has been at constant conflict with my ability to achieve satisfaction with my last 3 years. It's been a part optimism, a part pessimism, mixed with a possibly unhealthy dose of masculine ego.

I turned 30 this March. Call it coincidence or call it superstition, but my 30th year has turned out to be pretty fantastic. I think this is going to be a great decade. I hope these old bones hold up long enough for me to enjoy all that is coming my way.
I gave some serious thought about what I wanted to write about in this comeback entry. Nothing seemed really appropriate, so I decided to keep it short and give thanks to where it's due. This entry is dedicated to a teacher that started me down the path to where I am today, and where I will be headed in the near and distant future.

Thank you Mrs. Varesco. Your caring guidance led me through that impossible first year in the United States. Armed with barely a grasp of the English alphabet, I was tossed into the wolf’s den of an American 3rd grade classroom. Living up to the Asian stereotype, I excelled at math but struggled with English and all things American. Mrs. Varesco helped me navigate the turbulent waters of that critical transitional year, and she did it with a gentle yet firm touch. She put a preemptive stop to possible bullying. She disciplined me when I got out of line, but never too harshly or without consideration of my fragile transitional state. She helped me enjoy my first Halloween, my first American Valentines, and all manners of other trivial yet critical milestones along my path to becoming an American. She taught me the meaning behind celebrating MLK, a concept that could not have been more foreign to a Taiwanese immigrant.

Thanks to her, I became an American.

The hour grows late and this bear needs his beauty(less) sleep. I will make an honest effort to update regularly, a promise I have made in the past but one that I fully intend to uphold this time around. Goodnight reader(s).

Mr. Burns: I’ll keep it short and sweet — Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.