Thursday, January 16, 2014

Friends #2: Laziness is not an excuse

So two years ago, I typed an entry about losing friends and getting new ones. It makes sense that we constantly change friends, whether it's due to living area or life events. No matter what we will face that problem. However, just a few weeks ago, I heard from my sis that her friend understands that idea as well (she doesn't read my blogs though) and that friend ended up not caring about her own friends anymore. She just assumes that she'll get new ones whom she will care for a while and then give up on them because she thinks they'll unfriend her. Now I understand that friends do come and go, and it's inevitable. However, should we just give up on friends that easily?

Friends are people we are fond of hanging out with. We share happy and sad moments. We encourage or discourage each others' acts (depending on the situation). At some times, we seek each other's advice. Friends are people whom we are happy to be with and the only price for friendship is time. If I had to make a scale to display price and the type of relationship it follows, I say material prices such as money, gifts, and deeds, are prices for business partners. As for regular friendship, it will be time because we don't expect too much from friends other than their support and companionship. Now if we do expect gifts and materials from friends, I think we need to get our priorities straight. We are getting off topic here so let's return to the initial question.

Friends come and go, so should we just give up on having friends? It depends on what you desire. If you desire gifts and deeds, then yes, you should give up since you obviously can find other people to do that for you for a temporary amount of time. In other words, you are a sugar baby regardless if that person funding you is your boy/girl friend or just a friend. However, if you desire actual long lasting friendships and support without caring for the gifts that follows, then you shouldn't be giving up so easily. First of all, we know any type of relationship - business, friends, or sexual - takes time to build. How can you keep calling people you hang around as your friends if you keep giving up on the idea of friends?

In my sis's friend's situation, she wants friends. She claims that she is lonely and she doesn't have that much friends. However, when a person asked her to hang out, she will only go out if she is "in the mood." Of course, that makes sense. All of us would only hang out if we have the mood for it. However, should we follow that rule all the time? What if your friend just lost a family member and need someone to talk to, should we put ourselves above your friend's needs? This is where our priorities come into play. It's okay to refuse a talk or hang out but do remember that this shows your friends that you placed your priorities somewhere else. And if your excuse is just your mood and nothing else, it can be really upsetting to your friend, knowing that you placed your comfort over your friend's needs. So exactly what is the problem here? This friend only talks or hang out when she is in the mood. She stated, "if online (instant messenger or Facebook) and I am away or busy, it means I am in no mood to talk." So my sis asked "why not just put it on offline?" That makes sense. We are not always in the mood for attention so what is the reason to notify people you are online but you are in no mood to talk? Why REFUSE the offline option? In the beginning, my sis and I were not exactly sure why she did that and we disregard it as a preference. However, once my sis had a serious personal issue (no, not about gossiping how someone mistreated her. We are talking about SERIOUS issue) and she need a friend to talk, that friend repeated her statement how she is in no mood to talk. And she wonders why she can't get long time friends...

Now tell me. Did I misunderstood something? Friends remain friends because we sacrifice (at least) a small amount of time for them. Does this girl really have an issue? or am I having priority issues? I would love to type more detail about my sis's conversation with her friend. However, not everyone wants a full detail of the story unless interested. So, FRIENDS, what do they mean to you?

Monday, January 13, 2014

Childhood #5: teaching younger relatives

I don't know if you know [assumed] this. I am the oldest grandchild on one side of my family. As expected, if one is the oldest "child," the adults expected one to be the role model for the younger ones. In some cases, they even expect the oldest child to teach the younger ones. However, let's be realistic. Unless the oldest grandchild is at least 10 years older than the younger one or miraculously gifted in teaching, how does one expects that child to know how to teach? The answer: we shouldn't expect that grandchild knows how to teach (at least not properly the first time). Like any skills, teaching requires experience, whether be it through trial and error, or actual teaching courses.

Well, many years ago, my sis and I moved to the US (as you know). Our family had to live with my relatives because our newly-bought home was still in the making. So when you have two grandchildren (my sis and I) living with two younger grandchildren (my younger cousins), we were expected to teach them or at least be role models (and pray they follow). In one family dinner event, the whole family decided to eat at a restaurant and at the entrance was a small fish tank. There was a clear sign on the glass stating "don't tap the glass." One of my cousins keeps tapping the glass. As the oldest, I instructed him to stop the tapping. However, I was only 13 years old (I think?) and my cousin was 3-4 years old. He obviously won't listen to me since I am not an adult no matter how serious my tone was. So my sister, being 11 years old (assuming I was 13), she told the most ridiculous white lie I have ever heard. She told my cousin, "if you keep tapping the glass, the glass will break and the fishes will come out and eat you." That really scared the little boy. He immediately stopped and through the dinner, he occasionally glanced back at the fish tank. I asked my sis if that was okay to lie to a child like that. Obviously it was a ridiculous lie since the fishes in the tank were 2-in gold fishes. As of today, I wonder if my cousin still remembers that lie.

This memory didn't really hit me until my sis told me about her friend's lie to his younger brother about child birth. Now, his story really scares me. My sis's friend wanted to teach his young brother about the birds and the bees, and prevent him from causing teen pregnancy. His story was that when a woman is pregnant, obviously her belly will be enlarged. When it is time for labor, the baby will burst out of the woman's belly. I actually skipped a lot of details. To summarize the details, let's just say the story sounded like it came from a horror alien movie. I heard this when I was around 18, and even I got scared. I'm pretty sure for a young boy, after hearing that story, he won't be getting any girls pregnant for a good while (or at least until temptation gets the best of him).

As you can see, sometimes people make up the weirdest lies to teach young children lessons. I am a full adult now and I still wonder if that is a good way to teach them. Sadly I don't know the answer but restating these memories is quite amusing. I can't help but giggle at the stories behind those lessons. So think about it. How would you teach a very young child about a certain lesson or prevent them from having certain behaviors?

Sunday, January 5, 2014

2014 New Years Resolution

For those of you who read my previous entry, I'm sorry. Rereading the entry, I found it like a rant than an actual formal entry. Also my blog was meant to help remember happy times. We should not focus too much on angry times (as you can tell, it still enrages me). So I'm sorry if my entry brought up any of your unpleasant memories. That's not what I wanted. We should always keep looking forward and only occasionally remember the past for our sanity's sake. That said and now being a new year, it's time to make another New Years resolution. So here are my 2014 News Years resolution.

#1. Bring back my creativity and motivation.
~I realized that during my college years, motivation and creativity had diminished greatly. With many classes involving studying with facts, it was hard to fantasize anything without pushing physics and biology into them. All research done must have credible resources and support. This had a great impact on my creativity. I used to draw and sketch every month. Plus I had a DeviantArt page. I knew many friends who had an dA page but already gave up on them. I still am proud to keep mine but it was neglected for quite some time already. I want to take on that hobby again. Plus I hope this hobby will also bring my motivation and daily mood up.

#2. Maintain relationship with my current friends.
~Another school over. That means there is no real need to meet up with my friends besides the plain desire to hang out. I want to keep my friends and my mistake from high school had hurt me. Now I'm making sure to put some effort because friendship does have a price (even if it's just a little).

#3. Grow out my nails.
~I will admit it. When I was young, I bite my nails regularly. Even if the habit stop, I'm still used to very short nails. My family isn't very happy about my habit. My sis even decided to glue fake nails on my nails just so I could get used to them (and keep a habit of having them longer). Having long nails isn't really a bad thing. It is not killing me. However, right now, they are really inconvenient (even typing this entry took longer than it should). Oh well, it looks more tidy to have longer nails, just maybe not as long as these fake nails I'm wearing. I'll just have to figure out a manageable length. Besides, nail polishes are always cute.

#4. Keeping this blog.
~This is probably the most lenient resolution. I would really like to keep this blog going. However, it will depend greatly on my workload. I already want to revive my dA page. I also want to have a try in writing stories and having Instagram. Plus I don't know how my employment will go. That is a lot of stuff to keep in check. Still it's nice to find ways to keep myself busy. Hopefully I will find a way to manage all of them.

I am not a real fan of resolutions since one must need a lot of motivation to keep up with it. However, my sis gave me a tough line: "There is no such thing as having no time. You make the time." Now sadly, she was commenting on my exercising habits but that advice can actual go with anything. And it makes complete sense. Everything takes [at least some] effort. So don't sacrifice any of your resolutions. Always try your best and make time for it... unless you are working several jobs and making anymore time means sacrificing sleep. No one should ever sacrifice sleep.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Apartment mate #3: The final blow!

It has been a while since I typed up an entry about my apartment mate. The reason: she moved out of our apartment. However, the story that led to that event was interesting. I think interesting enough to at least get an entry. So I hope you enjoy the epic conclusion/summary to my apartment life horror.

The last entry was at October 2012. However the event in that entry occurred in the summer of that year. From September to December 2012, there was quite a few drama. In the beginning of summer, there were three girls in the building: me, Blondie (my sis), and Wavy. There were drama during the summer but there were similar to my previous entries, so we will skip them. By September, a new mate moves in because our building holds four people maximum and it was the beginning of a new academic year. I call this new mate Red. From my perspective, Red is a unique mate. She was majoring in international studies and actually took an interest in the Japanese culture. Now I don't want to name her nationality, but to give a good picture, her nationality and my nationality are very different. Although our cultures have similarities, due to a language barrier, our nationalities [usually] don't get along. So the fact that Red actually majors in international studies, specifically in an Asian culture, I have to give her some credit.

Now Red and Wavy actually are the same nationality, so it was normal that Wavy wanted to bond with her. Blondie and Red also had a good relationship so this new mate is quite a keeper. Now I'll be honest, I'm not close to Red. I probably was the least close to her but we never had any trouble with each other so we were on good terms. A few months into the new academic year, I became distant to my apartment mates because I have more school activities that require attending. However, both Blondie and Red told me there were some issues in the apartment. I don't know when I became the leader/go-to person for this situation. Maybe it was because I was the oldest one (college senior). So a small meeting was made between the three of us and apparently there were issues with Wavy. The main issue was the dirty kitchen. I don't really want to blame Wavy too much for that. Among all of us, I am the only one who actually previously lived in the apartment. Everyone else was new to the independent lifestyle. Because of that, I excused Wavy many times on hygiene. It takes time to learn to do chores as a habit, without force. Besides the cleanliness, (I don't know how we end up like this) there were awkward moments between Wavy and everyone else, especially me. I often disregard it because if the issue was only between Wavy and I, then I should just suck it up and keep the peace in this household. However, now that Red and Blondie confessed to me, I really thought there was an issue. So I tried setting several roommate meetings to address the issue but Wavy's schedule doesn't seem to work out with ours. I just let the situation go. Sadly that didn't help. Tension was building up and I don't know what exactly is the main problem. Is cleanliness really the big deal??

I gave up. I was inexperienced with this and so I emailed my apartment adviser (college student placed in charge of students in certain apartments). I explained the severity of the tension in the household. Thanks to the adviser, she was able to contact each one of us and set up a personal meeting before a general meeting. In Blondie and my personal meeting (we went together), I only mentioned cleanliness and Wavy's slight insecurities. From what I observed, Wavy's dialect often sounds soft and sympathetic. At the same time, she often looks sad, almost victimized (I don't know a better word for it). I just assumed she's sensitive. Wavy and Red each had their own private personal meetings. So the general meeting came. The adviser specifically said she was nothing more than a proctor looking over the meeting. She was not going to speak for any of us and we each need to speak up everything we feel important. So each of us spoke our perspective to the problem. I confessed about the cleanliness and Wavy's sensitivity. Because this event took place one year ago, I can't remember what Blondie and Red said. For Wavy, she said she felt like she was attacked from all three of us. She felt as though the three of us are leaving her out in many events. So we all discussed about this issue. I apologized to Wavy about leaving her but it can't be helped. For me, I had club events and night classes that left my returning to the apartment by 10 pm for majority of the weekdays. So not only was I neglecting Wavy, I'm also neglecting my other mates and I understand that is a problem. The meeting was going smoothly until Wavy stated something I never thought I heard. Wavy stated that she was actually clean and was purposely leaving the kitchen dirty as a retaliation. Yes, you read it correctly. She was PURPOSELY leaving the kitchen dirty. So what was she retaliating? She felt ignored by Blondie and I during the summer. She thought we hated her. When Red arrived, Wavy felt Blondie and I were purposely impressing Red to like us and not Wavy.

WHAT THE F***?!?!?!? Never in my life did I have someone angered me so much. Now I understand what you are thinking. That can't be right. You were exaggerating. You were probably hearing what you wanted to hear for an excuse to hate her. I wish that was true. However, I have three other witnesses in that meeting and trust me, when Wavy made that statement, everyone's eyes were on her... some wide opened. I had so much anger boiling in me, I could have split the table all five of us were sitting at into two... and that is just the first blow of anger. I would MINCE the table into splinters just to rid the rest of the anger. I was actually giving her excuses for her actions. I was supporting her when Red and Blondie confronted me. I was trying to make her look like a good person in front of the other two and now I realized that she was that LOW. Even now, just restating the memory is boiling my heart... But we can't do that... we are all gentle ladies in a very important meeting. We must be in our best behavior (while clenching our fists and hearts and displaying a fake smile). So being a "gentle" lady, I asked Wavy how I made her feel neglected. Wavy stated how when she first moved in, I rarely came out of my room. I barely do any activities with her. She wanted to have dinners together with everyone and always have time to chat...everyday... She wanted me to say hi to her everyday. And if I don't see her and her door is closed, I was to knock and say hi anyways. Because I don't "hang out" with her, she thinks I automatically hate her and that goes the same with Blondie. When Red arrives, Wavy thinks Blondie and I gossip to her so she wouldn't hang out with Wavy.

Man... this girl really has issues. Be aware that this insecurities started in the summer without Red. Well, I didn't say any of the following stuff but now I wish I did. First of all, she automatically thinks I hate her just because I don't hang out with her during the summer. We just moved in together. We barely know each other for a month (2 months if you count the whole summer) and she expects me to hang out with her regularly? Also she comes up to my room and Blondie's room (separate rooms on the third floor, one above hers). It was as though she never noticed both our rooms' doors are closed. Blondie and I rarely hang out together. Only time we hang out was dinner (not lunch!). And every time she opens my door for somethings, she would see me working. With all these incidents, she actually never considered me busy or an introvert? As for eating together, I usually have Blondie cook my dinner because I'm just that lazy (I admit it). However, I'm not picky since beggars can't be choosers. Plus I usually pay for those groceries. Wavy doesn't like eating Blondie's cooking style. As for us, Blondie and I are okay with Wavy's cooking but we don't prefer just that kind of meal everyday (another nationality barrier I guess). And since I didn't pay for Wavy's groceries, it is impolite to constantly eat her food supply. Once or twice is fine but regularly? No. When Red came along, she was very diverse. She was okay with both Blondie's and Wavy's style of cooking. So she actually can eat with either of us... yet Wavy considered it as a way for Blondie and I to take Red away from her?

So here's my concluding opinion: Wavy is a self-centered crying woman. There were other incidents I didn't talk about that support my opinion. Overall, I realized never once did she ever thought about me or my life style. She thinks everyone automatically are friends when living under roof. If a person isn't hanging out with her, probably that person hates her even if there's no reason behind it yet. She thinks that having a person hate her is a good reason to act rudely to that person, even if she didn't find support that the person hates her to begin with. She thinks leaving the kitchen is a good retaliation. The word "introvert" is nonexistent in her vocabulary. And if she cries, she's automatically the victim and should be correct in any manner (by the way, she cried during the whole general meeting).

In the end, the adviser and my mates couldn't find a way to kick her out of the apartment. Instead our pipes started making sounds, disrupting Wavy's sleep. In the winter, the pipes make weird sounds due to their expanding from the hot water running in them. After one winter break (and Wavy's complaint to the adviser about the pipes), the plumbers tried breaking down the walls and replacing the pipe in her room. They completed their jobs and left. However, the sounds were still there (and even louder in my room for odd reasons). So Wavy had enough of it. She complained to the adviser and so the adviser searched for her a new apartment. She moved out at her own will. Let me restate that: she moved out at HER OWN WILL. And thus, peace was brought back (I never knew it left) to the household after March.

And if you think Wavy isn't bad, let me tell you a side story that happen afterwards. Blondie and Red both saw Wavy on campus several times. Suppose those three had a good relationship compare to mine (because apparently Wavy has problems with extreme introverts) yet when Blondie and Red waved hi, (according to those two) Wavy gave a dirty look and ignored them... Yeah... this woman. I don't give props to this woman but I do give props to her boyfriend. He must be really awesome to have to deal with this issue.

So cheers to a new life! Glad that's off my chest!