[Update: Holy crap I didn’t realize I wrote this much. Sorry]

So I must say I was inspired by luckykat and the other bloggers on Grindingforthedream and decided I want to be a part of it. What’s the use of a story if you can’t tell anyone, right? First off, a lot of you would read this post and ask yourself “Who in the world is eokuma?” Well because everyone has kept their real identities behind their aliases I won’t tell you my name but if you facebook eokuma minus the e, I’ll have a couple of mutual friends with you from Diamond Bar. If you’ve figured out already, I’m not from Diamond Bar high. Or southern California. I’m more recently from Fremont, which is in northern California for those of you who don’t know. However, before that, I was born in Rapid City (South Dakota), then my family moved to Santiago (Chile), and finally right before relocating back to the states, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Many of you are probably wondering, why all those places? Well, my family isn’t very well-off. My parents worked diligently to make ends meet and to provide my brother and I the opportunities that they didn’t have growing up so we don’t have to live through so much hardship later in life. We moved all across the world looking for sustainable jobs so that our family can settle down comfortably. In Malaysia, we found that. For 12 years, things were looking more optimistic. We were living a little more comfortably. However, my parents realized that the opportunities for my brother and me in Malaysia were slim because well frankly, it’s not America. Therefore, they decided to make a huge sacrifice and relocate back to the states so that we have the opportunity to attain the best education possible. Life is tough now again, especially for my parents. My father still lives in Malaysia, trying to keep a boiler company, he risked his life for, in business. My mother lives in Fremont working 6 days a week so she can put a roof over our heads, feed us, and help pay for our college tuitions. My parents are not divorced, that’s the depressing part. They have been apart for the past 7 years only because of my brother and me. If you thought maintaining a long-distance relationship was hard, try being 8462 miles apart. I don’t know how my parents do it. I guess true love knows no distance but a lot of the time I wish they didn’t have to live apart. Once I am able to ‘Grind for the dream’, I will make sure they can retire and live together again.

Now, my grindingforthedream story. I an an average student my entire life for the most part. When I put in the effort and try I excel but the majority of the time, I’m lazy. In Malaysia, I took for granted the life I had compared to my parents and was average in school. Back then, all I really cared about were sports and girls (that’s really all I care about now too actually come to think about it). However, after realizing the significance and seriousness of my parent’s sacrifice to relocate to the states, I decided to buckle up and make the most of that opportunity. And that’s what I did in high school. I worked my butt off in school and I was also able to participate in varsity sports, which kept me sane. I tried not to get distracted by girls but gave up my senior year when it didn’t really matter that much anymore. I ended up going from an average student to a straight As student. On top of that, I was able to get admitted into UC Berkeley, which surprised me and made my parents really proud and happy.

However, college was a totally opposite experience. Looking back in retrospect, I regret not taking full advantage of the amazing opportunity I had at hand. I attended one of the most prestigious universities in the world and majored in one of the most prestigious majors offered. Mechanical Engineering. Now I realize that I might have wasted my parents’  time, money, and effort by reverting back to my laziness and bad study habits from before high school. I decided to party (because I didn’t in high school) and chase girls instead of attending lectures and learning as much as I could. I mean, if there were any consolations, I guess I learned a lot about girls and made a lot of good friends but my education was more important. I seriously messed up my freshman year (almost got academic probation) and gave me a big scare. After that I decided to pick up the slack and get my shiznet together only that backfired. Duh. The summer after freshman year, I was hired by the university to be an orientation counselor for the incoming freshmen. It was then I met a certain somebody (yes, one of the incoming freshman and no, not woohoo). Prior to her, i’ve never had a real serious relationship before. So to her credit, I was naive and didn’t have my priorities straight. College once again became girl first and school last. I did a little better in school because honestly, nothing could be worse than my freshman year 😡 but it’s nothing too impressive. It was only when things got a little sour in my relationship that I snapped out of my delusion and realized what a f-up I’ve been in college. So my junior year I picked up the slack and did really well fall semester. Things were looking good for once. I was doing well in school and I managed to fix my relationship.Second semester was going really well too until right before finals week. That certain somebody decided that of all the time in the world, she would break up with me right before finals. Right there and then, my whole world collapsed. I got really sick and had to be hospitalized (this really happened lol) and because I was sick and so heartbroken, I could care less about school. Until this day, I still have no clue how I passed my classes. I could have sworn I flat out failed my finals. Sympathy grades from the university, perhaps? I was so affected though by my ended relationship (2 years) I couldn’t stay in the country. I decided to take up an internship in South America so that I could recover and hopefully rediscover any last trace of diligence and will to succeed left in my depressed body. I eventually did and come fall semester of my senior year I was ready to hit the books. Forget girls, I could live without them for a year. Well, as a very heterosexual guy, that thought didn’t last for very long lol but I managed to keep my priorities straight and for the first time in college, I attained a semester GPA above 3.7. Lol but my last semester I slacked again and did mediocre. I have no idea why I can’t stay focused for longer than a week anymore. Maybe I’m overworked from high school. Or maybe I’m burned out and discouraged by the rigorous curriculum for Mechanical Engineering. Or maybe I’m just plain out lazy and need another epiphany so I can get back on track again. Because of my lackluster performance in college, I’m at a huge disadvantage now job-hunting. Companies are shying away from me because of my lack of resume depth and ugly GPA. If only I could show them what I’m capable of with motivation and determination but life isn’t like that. I can’t get any letters of recommendation because I wasn’t exactly superb in school; plus, i only went to one office hour session my entire college career. Who knew 4 years would become like day and night. Instead of heading into a new direction and possibly making big bucks and name for myself, I’ve reverted to my old self and I’m now literally begging for any company to give me another chance. You only get so many chances in life. I hope I didn’t live out my last one.

List of things I’ve learned from college:

– How to play basketball

– Girls are weird and complex people

– Money goes away really quickly

– Poker sucks

– Not all black people are ballers at basketball

– I’m too nice to girls

– If you kept track of all the money you’ve donated to bums and homeless people, you could have gotten a nice pair of shoes with that money

– College parties are not really that cool. Just a crowded place with shots of rubbing alcohol, jizz in mixed drinks, and slutty girls who have boyfriends but don’t think freaking and kissing on the dance floor is cheating

– Keeping an apartment clean is actually really hard

– It’s not that easy to win an IM sport championship

Notice how none of the things I listed are academic-related. Seriously, now I’m thinking about it, do you really learn anything from college? Also sorry for any grammatical errors or contradictory statements. I just finished writing this post and realized I’m too lazy to proofread. LOL. Hope this was worthwhile to read and not boring.