This has definitely been one of my star years. Studying abroad in Paris and traveling throughout Europe was a dream within a dream. Yes, just like inception, except much more joyful. And fall semester of junior year has been such an adventurous and learning semester, as I have met one of my best friends Leland Char, who has taught me…too much. His loop-hole attitude has rubbed off on me, and I have become one of those monsters, but I enjoy it. Our frequent exchange of knowledge has exponentially improved our  individual value. Though our adventures were not doing wild and “crazy” things, but it feels like it in a professional sense. I got a kick out of winning the KPMG case competition and attending a week of interviews that would translate into second rounds. Whatever future value this means, I know I have definitely felt the present benefit. NPV is positive. I rate this year 9.5/10.

Some of resolutions are bitten off last year’s, but so what? if it’s a good resolution, I should do it every year!

1. Avoid fats on meats

2. Exercise at least once every week

3. Introduce myself to someone in each class

4. Visit Grandparents more often

5. Spend quality time with family and friends

6. Sleep early

7. Wake up earlier

8. Apply to jobs/scholarship/opportunities

9. Land some interviews, land some internships

10. Read the News every week

11. Catch up on different sports

12. Do something interesting, but uncomfortable everyday

13. Compliment someone everyday

14. Play more basketball

15. Meet a lifelong mentor

16. Mentor those who need guidance

17. Be generous with love

18. Start flossing at least once a week

19. Learn more Accounting & Finance

20. Meet more people, meet more girls

21. Join something new

22. Call/Text Mom, Dad, Brother often (even though if dad doesn’t know how to text)

23.  Learn in class for the sake of learning

24. More public speaking

25. Reduce Facebook time to less than 10 minutes a day

26. Learn more technicals

27. Stay organized and document

28. Improve

Ready to accomplish!

Here’s my roommate. Multiply this by 10 and you can imagine him in 5 years.

Professor Bonner has always been the professor I joked around with outside of class and definitely during accounting class. We would email each other back and forth until the thread extended to 8 replies about learning Chinese, her family, Bikram Yoga, and the beauty of mixed children (white/asian). One time she even started with “Yo Wilson.” I would always reply to her class emails with comments either random, witty, or both. During class I would do the same verbally, and she would time and time again tell me to “SHUT UP, WILSON, PAY ATTENTION!” But like the last 10 times, I would treat it like a reflex and habitually ignore every word she uttered. As loud as she was, the words for some reason meant absolutely nothing. Not because I didn’t like her. It was quite the opposite – I liked her too much. In fact, she is my favorite professor at USC yet.  Maybe, I was too comfortable with her…

Few days ago, she formally emailed me to set up a meeting to “talk about a few issues.” She has never been formal with private emails. I was worried, so I agreed and asked for the reason. And she replied, “I was never able to come up with any tactic to get you to stop. I need to have a better understanding of what’s going on with you.” Now, that drew shivers down my spine. I have always thought I was on her good side, and perhaps even her best side.

Come last day of class, Professor Bonner invites me back to her executive office to talk about those “issues.” Still in disbelief, I continue to joke around with her. In the elevator, I told her I was 17, and she believed me for a second, then I said jk, then she said I was a savant. Haha, at this point I knew the whole “issue” was probably going to be a surprise. Perhaps, she was going to reward me with something. Right when we walked into her office, she tells me that she wants to lower my grade. I’m standing here thinking this must be the worst joke. She said it with a straight face, and she meant it. The reason is that I have been unprofessional all semester. More specifically, She says that I have disrespected her. She asked me, “If a CEO was presenting, would you ever interrupt?” Naturally, I replied “Never.” And she said, “Then, why would you do that in my class?” And right then, the atmosphere shifted from laughs and giggles to an earnest one. I relaxed my smile and I tilted my head down. I let her know that she is my favorite professor at USC. And she replied, “Then, why do you disrespect the professor you like the most?” I was without words. I teared up a little, but not enough to be detected.

She proceeded to educate me about the importance of being professional, aware, and tactful of what comes out of my mouth. She complimented my people skills and my ability to network with classmates and recruiters. She even enjoyed my jokes, but she said that there will be times where I will get carried away and end up losing control. My playful approach to flirt with recruiters might have worked in the past, but all it takes is overstepping once with an authority figure who doesn’t appreciate it. And the worst part is that I won’t even realize when that happens, despite seemingly good feedback in body languages and smiles. Apparently, it has happened in her class. But if it happens in corporate world, consequences are not just a reprimand or a letter grade, but instead in terms of dollars or your job. This idea shook me. Ask anyone, in the last few weeks I have been spinning more web than Darwin’s Bark Spider – networking has never been so effortlessly successful. But her words challenged my approach and my strengths. She put me in my place. She humbled me.

She said, I remind her of her son Thomas. We’re both networking monsters, but we don’t know when to stop. We are unable to see the limits, and we constantly cross lines mistakenly. My mom has been telling me I “talk too much.” And both have essentially said the same thing. I guess it takes a nonfamilial individual to knock some sense in me.

These are lessons that are not taught in the classroom, but somewhere in between. I am glad I have met a professor – and a friend – who is critical with caring intentions. I have realized the importance of talking and listening. Silence really is golden. But knowing when to “shut up” is career-saving.

We played around with the slr, and captured some pretty good moments.

I had jury duty for the first time, and I met some really interesting and diverse people. There were CEO’s, poor people, handicapped people, college students, immigrants, cake decorators, lawyers, NFL players, and just people. It was a necessary experience – everyone should at least go through the jury selection process.

Yesterday, when I worked out, my reflexes told me to blend up another shake. It was second nature to do so. And I had to stop myself from doing so, because I noticed that that was the definition of being dependent  or even addicted. The whole point of this program was to gain weight, and now that I am where I want to be, it’s time to realize an end. So, now I’m going to try to stay as natural and healthy as possible, as I maintain.

Though there were many fun moments, I have to say the most memorable one was at the very end of the night. At 2:30am as Daniel, Tim, and I walk back to the car, Daniel tells me that he lost his car keys. Tim and I run back and forth to Tlai’s apartment in hopes of finding them, totaling about a few miles by the end of the night. Frustrated, we get back to the car with bad news. During this whole time, Daniel was sleeping in the passenger side of the car. So, Tim and I decide to scare the shit out of him. Tim situates himself by the window, while I position my camera on the windshield for the ultimate video.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS DOING? STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!” yells a campus police officer. In my left hand was a cup of water, which perfectly added to the already sketchy scene. “I WAS ABOUT TO SHOOT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU GUYS!” he continued to scream at us. We quickly explained the truth, but I almost couldn’t believe what we were saying. And he suspected that “water” cup had other liquids. Surprisingly, he bought our poor explanations and let us go, but we definitely abandoned our original plans, and instead just woke Daniel up like the good friends we are. He had no idea what had happened.

It happened anyway, thanks to Shira! It was great, according to the people that were celebrating with me. The next day, just looking at that nice handle of Belvedere triggered every single gag reflex. But it was great, right? Haha, I love my friends. Interesting thing is the girl version of me, aka my twin drank her first shots with me days before, and that was a great birthday gift.

My brother convinced me that we were going to LA to get mom some really high quality roses, but instead surprised me with the A.P.C. store. He said that I always blabbed about raw selvedge denim, so getting me some for my birthday would shut me up. That was extremely nice of him, and I love him for loving me, even though he doesn’t show much on the surface.

For the last 3 semesters, I have always had a final some time around the last day of finals. But this time was quite the opposite. I was practically finished with finals on the first the day of finals with my Real Estate (with lots of help from Jon Ma’s Dad, Ken Ma) and Linear Algebra out of the way. I found myself with way too much time, so I decided to take advantage of Century’s nice pool.

I underestimated tanning. It created not only a sexy tone for the body, but also opportunities to meet some pretty sexy people around Century. I have to say the sun’s warm radiance  really did find a way to brighten up my day.

But something is wrong – I need to do some soul searching.

This is a reminder to appreciate the beauty of life.