Missing My Great Grandpa

    Not everyone in the world has experienced a loss of a family member, and not every family has been pulled closer by the aftermath of the death. Our family has gone through both of these experiences, with the passing away of my Great Grandpa at the age of 96.

    Last spring, Great Grandpa caught a common cold. But after a while, the cold didn’t go away, but got worse. After going to the hospital, the doctor reported that Great Grandpa had pneumonia. My whole family was trying to get all sorts of tips and medicines for helping treat pneumonia and even some traditional secret recipes, too. But even with everyone’s effort, the stuff did not help the sickness, and my Great Grandpa was deteriorating, despite all his mental might to survive.

    By now, almost every relative was taking some time off from jobs to see Great Grandpa, and to keep him occupied. My grandpa took fewer business trips in order to care for him more. Uncle was able to get a small portable oxygen tank for him, and brought a small cot to Great Grandpa’s house, so that Uncle could be there to tend to his needs. Every one of the skilled chefs in our family also made their best soups and dishes in an attempt to feed Great Grandpa, who was now losing his appetite.

    My dad flew back to China as much as possible to visit Great Grandpa and give him company. After getting sick, Great Grandpa had become severely confused. Many relatives, like my dad, came and talked to him to help him use his brain more. Mom and I also helped out by Skyping and calling Great Grandpa almost everyday, asking how he was and chatting about the regular day to day gossip.

    Summer vacation came along, and I was able to talk face-to-face with Great Grandpa. He still had his usual slow Mandarin, and still had his big smile, but his physical state had changed. He old yet fit body was gone, replaced by a slouching and sagging posture. His hacking coughs weren’t very pleasing sounds to hear, but overall, I was still happy to see Great Grandpa again.

    After several more weeks of critical sickness and lack of nutrients, Great Grandpa passed away peacefully last December, with almost the whole family crowded around the small white bed containing the even smaller frame of my Great Grandpa. Minutes after the death, right when Mom was picking me up from school, we heard the news.

    I thought that this experience with the passing away of Great Grandpa pulled the family closer by helping us learn how to live with the loss. At first, we all tried to forget the pain, and to push it out of our lives. But then, Mom had the awesome idea of pulling out pictures of Great Grandpa from before, and chatting about the stories behind the pictures. We started reliving happy memories of us with Great Grandpa.

    Mom shared these old picture with some relatives back in China, and from what we heard from Grandma, the pictures have been spreading through our family faster than Great Grandpa used to bike to the bank to check on his money. Back at our home here, Mom and I exchanged fun stories of Great Grandpa on vacation with us in Taiwan, and at one Chinese New Year Party when I was little, in which Great Grandpa had too many drinks, and started dancing crazily with one of my aunts. She was a bit shocked, but danced quite nicely with her 90-year-old partner.

My favorite scene with Great Grandpa that I shared with my mom was once, when Grandpa and I were visiting Great Grandpa last summer, he was justing waking up from a long nap. Great Grandpa was a bit groggy when he answered the door. The moment he laid his eyes on me, he yelled, “There’s a crazy Japanese guy at my door!” But luckily, Grandpa charged in, calmed him down, and told Great Grandpa who I was.

 

    Through the last few months of Great Grandpa’s life, and the years following that, everyone was

 supporting each other. Nothing can bond a family closer than losing a shared loved one. From this

 experience, I learned to never turn your back on the memory of the loss. Instead, bring out the happy

 parts of the memories and keep them forever inside you.

Haste Makes Waste

 

    Most people know of the phrase, “Haste makes waste.” This means whenever you rush to get something done, its very possible that you could waste valuable products and even time. I totally agree with this phrase. Haste almost always produces waste and irritated mood and atmosphere. My proof comes from a very reliable source, my mom.

    A part of Mom’s hastily completed work acceptable, and definitely not perfect. But a much bigger proportion holds not so pretty products.

    One example was when my mom played Online Poker Gambling or Korean drama way past her schedule of cooking at 5:30. Now, with barely ten minutes to cook the dinner steak, she made the tender beef catch on fire, and finished cooking by reducing the steak to hot, dry ashes. This haste not only wasted the steak, but also valuable time to clean up.

    Another example was when my mom rushed out of the house when she suddenly remembered a forgotten appointment scheduled in five minutes time. After hastily rushing out the garage, she had no memory of closing the garage door. So, with Mom uncertain whether the garage door was closed, she had to drive back to check. That wasted expensive gasoline and priceless time that she could never get back.

    With the phrase “Haste Makes Waste” in mind, remember that it is better to work slowly and precisely than do a lightning fast mess up.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

 

    With the phrase: “Two head are better than one," I agree. It is more likely to come up with satisfactory plans or directions than just one head.

    For example, if my boss assigns me with a project, and gave me the choice of working alone or with a partner, I would choose with a partner. With more people to work on the project, the effort can be distributed and allows each other to have less of a workload. To me, taking a partner means that the two heads working on the project can cover more area of information than just one. After the rough draft of the report or slideshow is completed, two heads will also pick up more errors and lack of information in a particular section before it . Two brains can come up with more creative ideas of presenting the information of the work project.

    I have come across an issue that supports my opinion of “Two heads are better than one.” A couple weeks ago, my history teacher set us a project to build a medieval style castle, but with a different theme. After racking my brain, I came up with many ideas, like Star Wars, SpongeBob and Despicable Me. But none of them satisfied me. In the end, I chose to work with a partner. After another couple minutes of painful brainstorming, my partner advised me of the perfect idea: Harry Potter. Both of us absolutely loved the series, and we quickly agreed. Without the second head reaching a wider area of creativity, I would  have been stuck doing a bright yellow Despicable Me castle protected by jelly turrets.

    Although some might say there would be friction between the two heads, I think that’s a minor drawback. With much more creativity and much less work, I think two heads are definitely better than one.

Good Leadership Scouting

 

  

One of the few bright points in my slightly boring summer vacation was scouting. The many activities, like service projects, day hikes, and summer camp planning gave me a feeling of activeness and purpose in my life.

    Although I didn't attend the annual and traditional Boy Scout Summer Camp at Catalina Island with the rest of my troop as I did last year, I was able to find an awesome alternative.

    National Youth Leadership Training held at Camp Trask, Monrovia, was the camp I have been planning to go for a long time. It lasted for a total of five days and four nights.

One of my favorite parts of the camp was the food. I just couldn’t resist the temptation of the scout made meals. For the duration of the course, we were handed raw ingredients for all of the meals, which we used to cook our own food. Although more tiring to cook our own meals, we were able to control the amount and quality of our food. The best part of the morning meal for me was the rows of perfectly white eggs, just sitting there, waiting to jump into my drooling mouth after being tenderly treated in the frying pan by me. But not all the meals were perfect. We had a frozen hotdog dinner one Saturday night, cooked by a smart but not too experienced Scout in our patrol. I also tried lettuce sandwiches after I finished with my patrol leader council - everyone had finished the ham before I could get there. Even then, these experiences did nothing to downgrade my awesome NYLT time.

    On the first day of NYLT, all of the scouts were separated into two troops, Aqua and Magma. I was put into one of the four patrols in the Aqua Troop, The Blue Shark Patrol. Each of the eight patrols had a Troop Guide from the NYLT staff to teach and demonstrate all the different challenging activities ahead.

    Our patrol’s troop guide was a short yet agile Chinese Eagle Scout, Nicholas Chan. Although he loved talking about random Japanese cartoons during our limited free time, our whole patrol was drawn in by his humorous yet informative presentations  and summaries. From just Nicholas, we were able to learn a lot of communication and vision making skills.

    Our leadership techniques were boosted to an even higher level by the Senior Patrol Leaders and Assistant SPLs from the Aqua and Magma Troops. Although all the scouts were very tired, their great speeches, descriptive lectures, and inspiring videos captivated us.

    Two of the things I learned at NYLT that had the most impact to my life were being a servant leader and setting SMART goals. I always had an inkling that a good leader is also a good follower, but I never understood why. Now I know that an effective leader should listen to the people he leads, serve the people he leads, and share the work with the people he leads.

Good communication skills are essential for good leadership . Without being able to communicate, you can’t be a good leader, as I learned during this course. There were also the hand motions to emphasize your speech I had no idea existed until then. All these lessons circled around the two indispensable points of Scouting: the Oath and the Law. With these two guides towards life, they create a moral compass that will always point towards success.

My personal vision has always been to become a medical doctor, but I never had goals of reaching it. Now that I have a series of SMART goals, I will conquer my elephant-sized vision one bite at a time. There are not only personal visions, but group visions, like for a troop, a sports club, and even an entire nation!

If you can see it, you can be it.

 
  

 

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

  

    Not everyone has had first hand experience with the phrase, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” But I have and I totally agree with this saying.

    I believe this phrase is true because it reminds me of an old saying everyone believes: “Failure is the mother of success.” The chance you had for success failed you, and the clouds covered up the sun. But the clouds are bound to move away sometime, and when that happens, failure gives birth to success. So don’t feel hopeless. There are always bright times ahead of you.

    Before I found my talent in swimming, I had been focusing on tennis as my main sport for almost four years. I was pretty good at it too, but after every intense match, I would have a serious ache in my kneecaps. With an X-ray checkup, my doctor told me that the pain was caused by the insufficient ratio of cartilage growth to bone growth, and that rest was the only cure. I had no idea which sport to take on if I quit tennis. My mom finally gave me the idea: swimming. Although the sport was still intense, there was not a lot of pressure on my knees, which helped a lot. After one year of practice with the Claremont Club swim team, not only did swimming improve my knee cartilage in the middle of my growth spurt, but it also gave me a pleasure that tennis could not bring, such as not sweating and getting sticky after working really hard. After a satisfying activity was denied from me, swimming showed up for me and made me a real athlete.

    My mom had a similar experience. When she became pregnant with me, she lost her reporter job because she could not keep up with the workload. But then, a miraculous offer from a small private company arose. It was an office job, without a lot of pressure. There was also a pretty good salary and lots of time to focus on family. All in all, this job was better for the health of both of us. The old door closed and another one opened up to a new opportunities.

   
  

 

Influential Scientific Advance

 

When it comes to which kind of scientific advance that has the greatest influence on mankind, I would answer without hesitation. Electronic devices and Internet connection.

Why did I choose these two types of technologies? Because both depend on each other to be function efficiently. Without Internet connection, electronic devices are unable to download anything or do any kind of research. Without the device, then the Internet connection has no platform to display the information we are searching for.

With the evolving development of both the technologies, it has stronger influence to us than any kind of scientific advance on Earth. The biggest change they give is the capability to access World Wide Web.

On the Web, we can research anything we want. This is helpful for adults and children alike to get answers on various topics. There is always a correct answer in the Web, as long as you know which sources are reliable. Once that skill has been mastered, this research method saves more time than the old fashioned way of filing through hard copies.

The Web also allows us to communicate in so many different ways, like sending voice messages, videos, pictures, and text messages. All the old time telephones and letters and postcards are nothing compared to these communication websites, like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and so much more. This helps us stay connected to our friends and our world much more closely and instantly, unlike the slow mailing  delivery speed, and no vision communication through telephones.

In my opinion, the most exciting influential gadget of the technology is games. Once downloaded, we are able to play it anywhere, anytime. Games are almost always there, ready to accompany us, should we feel lonely or bored. In the old times, when we crave action or racing games, only the occasional visit to the arcade room could quench the thirst. Nowadays, almost everyone owns their mini arcade machines, like PC’s, iPads, and many more. Although gaming occupies lots of time, it does give us a change of lifestyle from the grueling everyday work.

And of course, there are endless numbers of scattered apps, like Youtube, Netflix, and Picture Photoshop that are always ready to give us entertainment and a good laugh.

Electronic devices and their Internet connection has become a skyscraper advance in the scientific field. Not only have their creation made our lives easier and more lively, they have strengthened the thin silken web that has connected mankind for centuries, pulling all of us, alike and different, into a closer bond.

Restaurant/Buttocks Incident

 

    “Yes!!!!!!” yelled Bobo. Big and round, Bobo’s face was shining up with physical light from his happiness. It was finally summer vacation after a grueling nine months at school. Bobo could finally relax from all that homework and after-school activities. But the biggest reason of his happiness was not summer vacation - it was the fact that he would be going to China for two months to visit the many relatives and school friends still living there.

    After three long days of restless waiting and packing, it was finally time to go to the airport.  Although the flight the Chang family was taking would leave at one in the morning, Bobo did not mind one bit; in fact, he preferred the midnight flight. Although he was a pretty smart kid, he hated studying and tried to play his iPad during every possible moment. Bobo was totally addicted to the awesome game, Clash of Clans. Surprisingly, Bella, his sister, loved that game almost as much as Bobo. So during the long hours in the waiting room, Bobo and Bella played Clash of Clans, commenting on each other’s attack strategy and teasing each other about how it was the only game where Bobo was better than his sister. “Oh, Bella, you are such a noob!” Bobo said casually.

    After a very interesting 12-hour plane ride in which Bobo and Bella explored the many entertainment gadgets on the back of the seat, Grandpa Chang was at the airport, all smiles, waiting to hug his grandchildren. After the hellos were said with a lot of hugging, Grandpa Chang revved his car’s engine and raced onto the highway. In less than an hour, Bobo and Bella unpacked their suitcases in their old room they had shared when they were little and lived there. Childhood memories rushed back to both of them.

    The first couple of weeks were 99.999% perfect. The Chang family ate, drank, and played all day everyday. They attended many parties, invited by relatives and friends. Bobo and Bella met up with their old friends from school and had a three-day sleepover at the Chang’s big penthouse apartment. Including Bobo and Bella, there were four boys and six girls. They played video games, Nerf guns, and gossiped. Time passed super quick, and in one supersonic fart, one month had gone by.

    The perfect summer vacation was disrupted during the first week of the second month. It all started when.......

    Bobo and his family were at a Japanese restaurant having fun with two of Bella’s friends.  They had been there for a while now, finishing the delicious appetizer of sashimi salad and miso soup. It was when platters, heaped with sashimi, Bobo’s favorite food by a millimeter, were served that a sticky situation popped up at Bobo.

    A gracefully soaring piece of sushi hit Bobo square in the cheek. For someone as chubby as Bobo, he had excellent reaction time. So while the children and adults were wondering what the heck happened, Bobo was already turning toward the direction of the food missile. Two tables over, Bobo caught the movement of a teenage boy’s head finish its turn back to his own table. Bobo excused himself to go to the restroom to take a closer look at the boy.

    When Bobo saw the boy’s face, his heart almost stopped. This boy was his Chinese Kindergarten school nightmare. This bully, Max, always showed interest in Bella. But Bobo had informed Bella what kind of person Max was, and because of that Max hated Bobo’s guts. His red-rimmed eyes and constant leer always gave Bobo the goosebumps; but now, that expression was a permanent feature on display. Dazed, Bobo continued to the restroom. When he finally exited the restroom, the sight that met him was worse than before. Max had stood up and was now talking to Bella. But everyone at the table seemed uncomfortable and mad because all the adults and children knew the stories of Max’s bullying. Bobo immediately felt lightheaded and swayed a little. But after several deep breaths, Bobo plucked up the courage to have his ultimate revenge.

    Bobo snuck behind Max’s gigantic buttocks like a professional assassin. This side of the restaurant wasn’t crowded at all, so there wasn’t anyone staring at Bobo. While Bobo was stealthily getting ready, he heard Max trying to make himself sound smarter than he really was. “Miz. Chang, I’m pretty sure you know I ain’t a good student at school,” Max told Bobo’s mom in an informal and impolite way. “But I’m actually a kinda genius. Me mom give me some, uh, some PreAlgebra, and I breezed through the whole page in less than two hours!” continued Max, making stuff up as he talked. Just as Bobo was about to move, Bella and one of her friends caught sight of him through Max’s legs. Max saw the stares and followed them. But Bobo thrust his protruding thumbs right at Max’s [buttocks] before Max could move out of the way.

    Max’s scream pierced through the zen of the Japanese restaurant. Bobo quickly sat down  next to his sister and asked innocently, “Did I miss anything? Hmm... I wonder why Max is crying.” Bella had the willpower to squeeze in one last comment before doubling over with laughter, “I have no idea either!” Although inside Bobo was feeling triumphant and laughing like crazy, he just sat there between four laughing people, staring round-eyed at his sister, pretending to be puzzled and innocent.

    The rest of the Chang family’s vacation passed pretty much just like the first month. The only difference was there was way more cracking up, especially at the [buttock] incident. Although Bobo had found himself in a very sticky situation, he handled it perfectly. (A bit too violently, though.)