I'm an SJSU alum now

Rainbow Grad was Wednesday, May 23rd.
Sociology Graduation was Thursday, May 24th.
University Commencement was Saturday, May 26th.

Mother and Brother came to the Soci Grad. Brother and his girlfriend, Karina, were supposed to go to the main graduation, but they didn't make it.

I really only wanted to go to Rainbow Grad. I went to the other two because Brother convinced me that my family wanted to attend my graduation. Really, I think he was the only one who wanted to go.

Anyway, the graduations were fun--I was decked out in a lot of rainbow for the main graduation; my queerness could be seen from all corners of Spartan Stadium hahaha. This past week has been fun and exciting, but it's also had its share of anger, pessimism, and tears. It's an interesting start to my post-grad life.

I don't know how I feel. My level of excitement has been fluctuating crazily over the past few weeks. By the time graduation ceremonies started happening, I was neutral. But being surrounded by amazing friends helps alleviate the neutrality and the lows I've been experiencing.

I've been going out pretty much every day, being around many friends and just enjoying myself. I just wanted to chill with my friends before life gets busy for everyone and they all move away or something.

I watched the Avengers last Monday, took my last final last Tuesday night, attended the graduations on Wednesday and Thursday, attended Fanime for the first time on Friday, sat through Commencement on Saturday with Vivi, and cleaned out my room and hung out with my friend, Tina, yesterday.

Now the week of celebrating is over, which is fine. I still don't like going out every day. Though, I do plan to go dancing again this Friday at Fuz with Matt and Vivi. I need more stress relief.

Anyway, yeah, I'm a graduate. It's crazy. I didn't think I was gonna do it. But I did it. My family's proud and happy. So that's good.

I'm continuing my job search. I may consider using a temp agency to find work. It may come to that. That's ok. I'm not that picky. I could do anything now. I don't have a plan. I'm just going where life takes me until I figure out what I want.

I'm taking a lot of time to figure out what I want. Figuring out a lot of things. Who I am. Who I want to be. Where I want to go. How I'm going to get there. Why I'm doing what I do. If I know what I'm doing. Just a lot of things to think about and to do something about. I'm making progress, I think.

I know I'm dependent on people. I don't know how to think for myself. Or I do, but I don't act on it very well. I'm trying to become self-reliant and do things for myself and not just for others. Getting a job would help. But that's just one part of my life.

Socially, I need to buck up and be me. Know who I am when I'm with people because I know I'm different then from who I am when I'm alone. Slowly but surely, these people that I become will be one person. My friends are starting to see me as what I am. I think they are. I'm showing them more. It's terrifying, but I know it will be rewarding. I know I need to talk to them more because talking helps. I'm making progress. Sometimes, I regress, and I don't talk about things I should. Again, I'm working on it.

I've been thinking about careers. But I know I need more time to figure that out. Right now, I'm good with doing any job. I just need something to keep me busy, to give me some sort of direction, even if it's just bagging groceries or stocking shelves.

School used to be an expectation. Now that it's done, and I know I'm not going to grad school, I don't really know what to do. So a job is what I'm thinking about now. Typical.


Blah. I'm done with school. I feel like I'm in limbo -sigh- Things will work themselves out, as long as I don't give up, yeah? Yeah.

Oh yeah, btw, I have a car now. It feels nice to be able to get myself to places. Next couple of steps... get a job so that I can pay for my own gas; save money; move out; live life how I want to live. Sounds good.


My breakdown in high school... They think it was about me not getting a car. Really? I'd think they should know me well enough. That might have sparked some of my anger, but there was so much else going on. Whatever. They don't need to know.


So I just learned that the mother of a recent Independence High School graduate just died last Thursday. I don't know the family, but it's a small (Vietnamese) world. I have friends who knew the student. Is it just me, or am I hearing about a lot of death lately? Been hearing more about the deaths of Vietnamese people in the news. Or maybe it's a dramatization in my brain. Just a lot of death. Anyway, to anyone who's lost a loved one, we'll survive and we'll carry their memories with us. To those who've passed, rest in peace.

Death is inevitable. Do we ignore it? Fight it? Embrace it? What can we do?


Oh, this got depressing really fast. I should stop.

If I Die Young...

Or if I die old too...

I don't want to be buried.

I don't need to be remembered. But if you remember me, that's nice.

I don't want you to grieve. I want you to laugh and smile. We should cherish the moments we share, not mourn the loss of what-if's and could-have-been's. If you cry, you cry. But I'd hope you know that I won't be crying over my death. If anything, I'd be crying because you were crying haha. Cry, laugh, smile, yell, break things. Do what you gotta do. Just know I love you just the same.

I don't want you to wear formal clothing to my funeral. You should wear whatever makes you comfortable in my presence. If I become a spirit, I wanna be among my friends as you are. I don't want you to change yourselves because custom says you're supposed to. I want you to be yourselves like how you always are when you're around me.

I don't want to be dressed up in a nice outfit for everyone to see me as what I am not. I would like to be dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans, a nice T-shirt, and my favorite hoodie. Maybe my Fierce Nice Hat will be buried with me too haha. Nah, I'd hope someone would keep that. A hat is made to be worn.

To be honest, I don't want formalities. If we could get rid of those, that would be great.


I don't really know what I want. I had the words, but now I've lost them -sigh-