Welcome to College

Out of all the days in life I will never forget, my first days of college are among those. Why? Well, it was not only a chance for me to reinvent myself, but it was also a new exciting stage in life. It was quite nerve wrecking as I anticipated it. That one first day was going to be important. New people, new environment, new everything. I had so much anxiety that I barely managed to sleep.

Little did I know, my lack of sleep was actually going to help me on those first few days.

How so? Well, you know how college is basically a chance for many of us to make a good first impression? Take that well known fact and combine it with older students who look to give freshmen an unforgettable initiation. That's right, it's a recipe for disaster. And yet, it's also tradition. At least, that's how we did at the good ol' UPR (University of Puerto Rico). Older students would hunt down the new ones and give them an initiation they would never forget.

I'm hunting freshmen!

And now, here's where my lack of sleep kicks in with the story. It was easy to identify the new students because they both looked excited and were possibly wearing new clothes. Me, on the other hand, I looked like crap from lack of sleep. I didn't comb my hair, put on the first shirt I could find, and put on some sandals. So when I went to my first day, I looked like any other college student. I was sleep deprived, didn't bother to prepare for my first day, and looked like I was in a foul mood.

So when I marched in through the main entrance (a big mistake for all freshmen), they gave me one good look and didn't think I was a freshman. And then, I got one of the biggest scares I've ever had. I hear one of the students behind me yell freshman with all his might. My face froze up like a person who just used botox, my whole immune system stopped, and my heart seemed to be waiting for an attack. I pretended not to be bugged by this and just walked into the main building (where all students took class, so I was safer), then proceeded to go into the first bathroom and restore some feeling into my face (by spraying it with cold water, what were you thinking?).

Turns out there was a fellow freshman behind me and the poor sap got initiated.

However, just because I managed to escape once didn't mean I was in the clear. After my first classes, it was time to spend some free time between classes. I would have normally gone to the cafeteria to meet with friends and relax, but I couldn't do that as a freshman. At least, not in the first weeks. I had managed to learn every hallway imaginable so I could avoid the "freshman routes" and manage to survive. So for the first few weeks, I spent my free time reading comics in the library and eating my lunch outside classrooms.

This was my shelter when I started out. And yes, it's an actual picture from the university for once.

Little did I know, but my few survival tips actually made me look more like a college student than I thought. I was blending in, for once. And coming from a high school geek who stood out for being a strange kid, suddenly turning into just another college guy who blended in was a bit of a breath of fresh air.
However, I didn't know that the next months were going to bring about a new layer to my personality that even I didn't know. And to think it all started with a mountain bike...

Bad Luck

All those people who know me well can tell you that out of all my attributes, one of them has to be unlucky. Somewhere along the way, Murphy's Law decided to be my own personal companion and just strikes me whenever it sees fit. And it doesn't matter how, but my string of bad luck continues.

So far, my latest string of bad luck has been in the social world. Trying from all angles but failing to make friends in my area (gave up after 6 months) and not finding a single one. Now, my bad luck branches out to something a bit more trivial, but it's something that still hurts. I wanted to make a trip back home (which I can currently afford) to watch a big soccer game, but the tickets are way more expensive than I thought. Bad luck would have it that they barely had any cheap seats and everything else is nearly from $200 and above. Why is this bad luck for me? Well, I wanted to take someone to the game with me.

And that person seems to be the only other person as unlucky as I am, or just really clumsy. While we did separate last year, Linda and I still keep in touch quite often. And while I wish she were here, it can't happen. And with my trip, I wanted to take her to the game but now it's too expensive. Now I won't be able to. Looks like there can't be too much bad luck concentrated into one place.

And then again, we also developed a theory as to why we have so much bad luck. One of the theories I told her was that in either some alternate universe or alternate future, we have a son with our combined levels of bad luck. And that boy was known across the world as Bad Luck Brian.

That's my boy! Well...could be

With parents this unlucky, it might make some sense. I told Linda this theory and she seems to be on board with that explanation that Brian is our son from an alternate future. His father is constantly taunted by Murphy's Law, while his mother is also shares some of that bad luck and clumsiness. Mix that together and you get the unluckiest character in all the internet.

Then again, perhaps recognizing this theory has brought more bad luck between us and caused Brian's own existence to be prevented. This is why we can't have nice things.

I like nice things.

Heat Wave? What Heat Wave?

During these last few days, I've heard that the east coast has been getting quite the heat wave. Everywhere I go, people are complaining about the massive heat and sweating profusely. However, there's one thing I've noticed.

I haven't felt a damn thing. And that's curious, because I'm surrounded by sweaty people and here I am hardly breaking a sweat. Heck, I don't think even a drop of sweat appeared on my forehead. And that's when I got to thinking. Could I be immune to this heat wave because I'm from a tropical island? I know I'm used to high levels of heat, but they are also combined with high levels of humidity. So dry heat like this doesn't even come close to the sticky inferno of the tropics during a heat wave.

It's just warm outside. I don't know what you're talking about!

And if you haven't been on a tropical island, let me just be the first to say this, you are going to sweat more than an FBI interrogation (not that I would know). So then, it's no wonder that tropical boy (yours truly) isn't feeling a thing. I mean, I can feel the heat yet it doesn't phase me.

And when it comes to days like these, that's when I try to mess with people and psych them out. I can already handle higher levels of heat, so I can go out in a long sleeve shirt and have them wonder why. And to even add to their confusion, I can wear a light jacket in the middle of the day (if it's breezy of course, I'm trying to psych people out and not faint from dehydration) and just watch their eyes pop out in confusion.

Then again, these heat waves are good reminders to how much heat I can tolerate (as long as we take away the humidity). And so far, I'm not feeling a damn thing. Yes, it's hot outside, but not hot enough to make me sweat. So for now, I'm going to enjoy this nice sunny weather and hear people complain about it being too hot.

And come winter time, it's gonna be the complete opposite. And how could it not be? I'm basically an iguana living in a land of polar bears.

Paint me like one of your french girls.

Graduating On The Titanic

Booyah! I made it!

Graduation day finally arrived, and it was quite surreal. Even though I was already awarded my degree in February (since I finished mid-year), I still had to wait until June. Problem was, I already spent all the emotional stuff for when I was awarded my degree that I actually forgot to save some for the actual day.

And yet, I somehow managed to tap into my reserve and find some emotion. I saw the people I traveled with on this academic journey and I actually started to finally feel it. At one point, I still couldn't believe I was about to graduate. I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt invincible.

That is...until the first speaker took the stand. To sum up his speech, he basically told us we are royally screwed. He said we are graduating into a world with no jobs and all that (which is true), but did very little to actually motivate us. The motivational part came from the second speaker, which managed to fix the mood and actually inspire some of us. But then, the band took the stage and played the most ironic song they could ever play at a graduation.

They played the theme from Titanic.

Not the best song for a graduation, right?

I started looking around to see if there was any water nearby, because I felt like this graduation was sinking like the Titanic. Everybody was confused. Why play that song at a graduation? Are we supposed to go look for life boats or something? Do the employed grads get early access to those very life boats? I don't know, but it was strange.
And the graduation carried on, until it was time to pick up diplomas. At last, I was going to get what was mine. All those years of hard work have paid off. I was starting to get real emotional, that is, until I saw how they were handling it. We formed a big line and were handed our "diploma holders" as we passed by, and then we had to return to our seats. So our emotional moment was somehow turned into a line of free samples from Costco. They were handing out the diplomas like the newest experimental blend of iced tea. And we only got the case, especially since our diplomas weren't printed yet. So I have to wait to get my real diploma, but at least I have the nifty holder.

Our line for the diploma felt like waiting for an iPad.

Oh well. I just hope to see my diploma soon.

Vacation Time

While my actual vacation doesn't start until Tuesday, I realized I kinda took an early vacation from my writing (stressful week and actual vacation preparation). So I figured I would take this time to just announce (formally, since I forgot to) that I'm gonna be on vacation for a week. I will be back with a new story once I'm back, but right now I just need to recharge my batteries.

Not only am I exhausted physically, but I'm also just mentally exhausted. That's kind of why I've had a hard time deciding what stories to tell and how to tell them. But a few nights with some old friends, and I'm sure some old stories will come up and smack that writer's block right in the face.

Until then, I face packing, airplane travel (might remind me of another old story from traveling), a graduation, and a lot of other fun things. Don't know if I will have the time to post during the trip (won't be bringing computer anyways), but I will surely post after coming back.

Anger

Almost...

We all have different ways of dealing with anger. Some of us have different ways of coping with it, whether it be yelling in blind rage, punching a wall, holding it in, or taking it out on others. For me, it's still unclear how I'm sometimes able to deal with anger. But yesterday, I found out just how much I had forgotten to deal with it.

To put it lightly, I've had the worst day at work...ever! Now, I'm used to getting complained at all the time. However, yesterday's scoldings were to intense, they shook me to my very core. If I didn't know any better, I thought I was gonna get fired on the spot. That's how bad it seemed. And that's coming from someone who actually likes his job and works more than anybody else there (and sells more too).

So how did this anger come about? Easy. Messy store (as expected coming after a weekend), a lazy coworker who doesn't do a thing to help (can't clean the whole store by myself), me doing a few things with the paperwork that didn't apply to weekends (but still took the extra time to do it), and the same coworker throwing me under the bus and ratting out a joke we had going the previous day. Take all those things, mix them together and you get the ultimate recipe for disaster.

And what a disaster it was.

So of course, after being told I was basically a worthless piece of crap by my boss (general assumption) and punished (I no longer work on Saturdays, my most profitable day) for it, I had all this anger inside and wanted to explode. A little more, and I would have started to turn green and smash stuff. But then again, I didn't want to rip my nice clothes.

Right there I knew I had forgotten how to deal with anger. Unfortunately, I took it out on the poor wall by punching it a few times in my blind rage. Normally, I would punch a wall in anger and then feel the pain while realizing how big a mistake it was to do so, but this time it was different. I didn't flinch. This was some serious Bruce Banner stuff right there.

Despite all that, it was one of the few times my anger was about to take control. Normally, I would have enough patience to run an entire country's energy source that depended on patience itself. However, when push comes to shove, the walls break down. We all have problems with anger, especially when it comes hard. And for me, it broke down the wall with a rocket powered train.

Normally, this is true.

It's alright to feel angry. However, we can't let it control us...even if it kicks us in the balls.

How Am I? Potato!

These last few days, something's been itching away at my curiosity at work. Anybody who has ever gone into a store knows that employees normally start with a friendly greeting and ask how one is doing as a way to just start a conversation. Now, the part that has gotten me to scratch my head is when the customer replies "fine, how are you?" and then turn around and ditch you!

You just can't win there!

Either you care about my day or not, but don't fool me into thinking you might start a conversation! If you don't want to talk to me, just say "I'm fine" and go about your business. But asking me how I'm doing, only to walk away is just plain annoying and rather rude.

But I also thought I would have a little fun with this. So today at work, I devised a little plan. Whenever I greet a customer and was asked how I was doing, I would simply answer their question with a single word.

That's right, I would just reply potato.

I had a list of things I could have said to a customer to check if they were listening:
-Banana
-I would have mumbled random stuff (worked too)
-Speak Spanish
-Bacon
-Honkey Tonk!

And from that whole list, potato seemed like the right fit. So then, I waited until the first customer came in so I could try it. Hours later, I had already counted nearly 17 potato replies to customers. And from all those, only one took the cake as the best one of the day.

Me: How are you doing today?
Customer: Fine, how are you?
Me: Potato
Customer: That's good.

I was so baffled, that I decreed the experiment a success. Barely any customers will listen to what the salesman will say, no matter what. I guess that's just part of retail.