Proud

It’s days like today that make me love what I do.

I (along with Randy and Amber) facilitated our second annual training for the Executive Leadership Circle (ELC), which is basically the leaders of all of our students leaders. And I really feel like they understood the gravity and responsibility of being a leader and a role model. We spent the morning at Parnassus Investments, an SF company. A friend of mine from the Chorus hooked us up with a board room that overlooks SF Bay… you can see all the way from Alcatraz to the San Mateo Bridge. It was GORGEOUS. Right before we left the board room, I had the students line up against the window. I told them to look out to a point that they liked, and told them, “Take this moment in. Think 15 years from now… this can be the view from your office.” And I really feel like they believed it, which makes me happy.

Here’s another pic of the whole group, including Jim, who works at Parnassus standing next to me.

I love packing efficiently!

It’s almost 1 am, and I am all packed for my Denver trip. And the best part about it is that I don’t have to check any luggage in. Yippee!

Now I just have to figure out that whole shuttle issue…

Reunion with the ocean

I surfed Pacifica with Eric today. It was weird being there without Jed because that was our surf spot last summer when Jed was still living here. But I managed to surf without my surf mentor.

The conditions were actually quite nice. Beautifully sunny and clear day. Negligible winds. Comfortable waves.

One of my favorite things about surfing is that while I’m on the board, getting pommeled by the waves, I get a lot of time to think… about the next wave and life.

I discussed with Karla my surfism today:

kingisrey: ive been doing thinking too.. on the waves
Babeehug: What happened?
kingisrey: the waves kept on crashing and bashing into me
Babeehug: What was the conclusion?
kingisrey: conclusion was that waves will do that, no matter where u r
Babeehug: I wanted to go into the ocean so bad today
Babeehug: Yup
kingisrey: and its no one’s fault. its just that that’s what waves do,
Babeehug: They sure the hell do
kingisrey: and i chose to be there in the water, crashing right back at them
kingisrey: but i did that because i knew in order to achieve my goal, i would have to go through the waves
Babeehug: Ya
Babeehug: And you can’t always stay in the white water
Babeehug: Eventually, you gotta go out in the greens
kingisrey: so its not h’s fault that i am working on the weekends…
kingisrey: but because im going to denver and went to the east coast, which will help me get to those future goals… this is what i need to do.
Babeehug: Ya

Deep thoughts, catalyzed by the water. The summer at work is always a bit choppy, but I know I will get through the waves eventually.

Fat kid no more

Growing up as a fat kid, I always dreaded the mandatory physical education tests… You remember those don’t you?

The obligatory mile run.
The awkward sit and attempt to reach your toes with that funky box measuring contraption.
The push-ups… oh those horrendous push-ups!
And of course the always distressing pull-ups.

As a reformed fat kid, I work ard to keep myself healthy and in shape. I eat well (overload on the antioxidants probably) and exercise regularly (my new favorite machine is the elliptical because I can work out AND read at the same time, which makes me feel fit AND smart!). And because of this, I’ve overcome the running, the stretching to touch my toes, and the push-ups. I can do those pretty easily. But that damn pull-up has been haunting me ever since fourth grade when I first climbed up to the bar and just hung there, like a lifeless monkey, unable to pull my own body weight up in front of the PE teacher and my classmates. Embarrassing much?

Until today, that is.

Call it a small victory, but it is a victory nonetheless. I did two pull-ups, with no assistance. And the funny thing was that I wasn’t expecting them. I was just stretching on the bar and on the off-chance that I could do it, I tried, and then pulled myself up. And then tried again and did it again.

Small victory. I left the gym smiling tonight.

Back from the east coast, heading to Denver in two weeks

One of my post titles last year after a College Summit workshop went something like “Physically exhausted, but spiritually rejuvenated.” Nothing can better describe how I feel after my 12-days of rap director training.

I feel so good about it that I signed up to do another workshop, this time with only one other rap director. I’ll be flying to Denver on July 17 to co-rap direct the workshop at Regis University.

In between, I will also be going to Tahoe for our BUILD staff retreat from July 10-12.

And on the 13th, my parents are coming to the bay! I can’t wait.

Cross-country flights bite

There’s just no way to get around the sucky-ness factor of a cross-country flight.

Last night I flew a red-eye from SFO to Cleveland, Ohio, and from Cleveland in the morning I flew to Baltimore, Maryland. A couple of months ago, I flew a direct flight from SFO to Washington, DC in the morning, thinking it would be better than a red-eye, but no, it still sucked because I had to get up at 3:30 am to go to the airport for the 6 am flight.

But a red-eye still sucks. Although I slept on both flights, it was that cramped sleep, which I feel like doesn’t technically count as sleep. It’s more like temporary hibernation / cocooning which is intermittently interrupted by flight attendants giving out drinks and peanuts.

When I got to Morgan State University, where our workshop is being held, I was so tired and jetlagged that I could not operate. And to top it all off, I forgot my ipod at home (it’s snuggly charging on my ihome alarm clock). You never know how valuable something is until you are thousands of miles away from it.

Moral of the story: Traveling across the country sucks, and you need to give yourself at least a day to recuperate just from the traveling itself.

For future self-reference: I need to invest in some noise-cancelling earphones and some other travel luxuries because I am traveling way too often to not take care of myself.

Love the little affirmations

I got a sweet note from a co-worker today after our site hosted a group of about 20-30 British women who wanted to learn about BUILD.

I wanted to tell you again how impressed I was with your presentation. I think you are one of the strongest public speakers at BUILD…

…You are really, really compelling when you speak…

I’ll leave it at that, and just give an anonymous thanks.

Representing three families at the airport

Representing three families at the airport, originally uploaded by kingrey.

How Filipino is this?

On the last day of my dad’s sister’s family’s visit to America, the whole entire Faustino Northern California contingent heads to the airport and waits around in the international terminal to say good bye.

That’s love. I love family. It grounds you.

The 3 P’s of Relationships

-Perfection
-Pressure
-Pinsecurity

OK, so maybe that last one wasn’t really a “P”-word.

Anyway, I was talking to my roommate Elizabeth late last night about relationships with people and dating, and in true Dr. Phil fashion, she gave me some helpful insight. She pointed out that there are three big issues that cause major stress when you are dealing with another person in a relationship of some sort (personal, professional, dating, friends): the need for perfection, outside pressures that skew expectations, and insecurities that make you worry unnecessarily.

Which then led me to realize that I tend to make things seem like catastrophes when they really aren’t. For instance, I had a phone interview the other week for College Summit, and Karla asked me how it went. And I said that I felt it was pretty bad, that I didn’t articulate everything that I wanted to say, and that there were so many things I could have done to make it better. I didn’t stop to think that the interview, overall, went very well. I instead focused on the small negatives, and blew them out of proportion, thereby kind of separating/shielding myself from the situation and not really getting anything out of it.

My need for everything to be perfect driven by external pressures (as well as internal) and coupled with personal insecurities, makes me over analyze situations to useless degrees.

Interesting pattern. And I don’t just do it with interviews…

"Would the small boy you once were look up to the man you have become?"

Great quote.