Anyone Selling Time-Management Skills?

So guess what happened today... and I'll admit it.

I cried.

Tonight I was pretty emotionally distraught. Let me explain.

Today was just a series of events that lead to the floodgates being opened. For the most part, the day was great. I worked, had class, a teacher bought me lunch, and did a presentation. It was when 5pm rolled around that things started to really happen. And it wasn't even all that major, but I think combined with just the stress of trying to balance all these things I'm doing in my life right now, was the hair that broke the camel's back.

Tomorrow, Troy Phi's Dance Troupe, a group I'm in, is performing in front of Tommy Trojan. We're doing several cultural dances. At first, I thought I was only doing Sakuting, a dance with sticks that represents a battle. Come Sunday, however, I found out that I was also supposed to do Tinikling, a dance I had learned but never really got down, and Singkil, a dance I had never even learned.

Tonight we had a 2 hour practice in front of Heritage Hall to get ready for tomorrow. I had made arrangements to get there an hour earlier to practice Tinikling, but I was asked to help transport the props which took about half an hour. Then I had to find parking, so by the time I got to Heritage to practice, I was 15 minutes late.

I really needed practice on Tinikling, so that's what I worked on first. I was having a really hard time doing it with the clicking and was screwing up my partner. Now, I'm somewhat a perfectionist, so I was getting VERY frustrated with myself. In addition to that, I'm a people pleaser. I have this thing where I have to make everyone happy, so I'm very sad when I disappoint people. I'm learning to not be at this extreme, but to have some sort of balance.

In addition to all this practice and stress of trying to get Tinikling down and learning the new dance, I had dinner plans with a friend at 7pm. Originally, I was supposed to have breakfast with him on Saturday, but I double booked him on top of the 2007 Friendship Games, an event that Troy Phi was competing in at Cal State Fullerton. So I rescheduled for tonight at 7. I really needed the practice though, so I called him again tonight to move it to 8. I didn't get done learning Singkil until 7:50. I realized then what time it was and left to meet my friend in Pasadena (a good 30 minutes away) for dinner. He called me up wondering where I was and I told him I was just leaving campus, so he knew it would be about 8:35 until I got there. I felt terrible.

On the way over, I got lost finding the freeway, and when I did find it, a truck in front of me blocked my view of the freeway signs, so I missed an exit and ended up going south on the freeway instead of north. It was there that I lost it and just started crying. I was so emotionally and physically drained at this point that I just couldn't keep it in.

I called up a couple friends and my mom to just vent and they gave me comfort. They also advised me that I should probably cut back on some stuff. I think after this Sunday, I'll really have to do that. It's just starting to be way too much.

Luckily, my friend was very understanding and we had some great food! I'm just really trying to figure out the best way to manage my time and use it effectively to accomplish the things I want and to also have a good time while I'm here. *sigh*... it's tough sometimes.

Cy

It's about time, right?

So here it is, a blog entry.

The last couple months have been quite eventful for me. Let me give you a rundown of all that's been happening in my life.

I. Accepted!
If you don't know already, I'm currently a student at USC. I should mention that this is the real USC, not the university with that ridiculous mascot, the Gamecock.

The process of getting accepted to USC was a really difficult one for me. I didn't know that I wanted to go to USC until mid-way through the Fall of 2006 while at Antelope Valley College. When it came time around for advising for the Spring semester, I was ready to take all the classes necessary to get as much of the pre-reqs and transferable GEs that I possibly could out of the way. That made for a very difficult Spring semester at AVC. All the classes I took that semester were intensely academic. I was striving very hard to get solid A's in all my classes that way I would be a shoe-in to 'SC. Unfortunately, I walked away with 3 B's that semester and that put some doubt into my mind whether or not I would get in.

I sent in my application to transfer to USC on June 1st and thus began the waiting game. I was told that I would receiver my answer by the end of June and as the weeks passed, I grew more and more anxious. Come to the end of June, I was almost depressed because I had not yet heard any word at all. It wasn't until the third week in July when I found out I would be starting school at USC in August.

I was in Washington D.C. for HOBY when I found out from my cousin that I got accepted to the University of Southern California. It was crazy. I was with the team of students that I was leading for the conference when I got that phone call. My cousin started reading the letter to me, "Dear Cyril, we are pleased to tell you --" and that's where I cut him off with a very enthusiastic, "ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!" I was out of my seat and jumping up and down. Everyone in the room new what was going on and they were excited to celebrate with me. It was awesome to share that moment with them.

II. Movin' Out
Fast forward to mid-August. I have moved out of my parents' house in Lancaster, California and have accepted my new role in life as a college student in the big city of Los Angeles. So far it's been really great. My roommates aren't that bad, though I've had to really learn how to adjust to this new environment.

I guess I can elaborate on the roommate situation. I current reside in this really fancy apartment complex called Tuscany. It's really nice, but when I first moved in, my apartment was in shambles. Apparently the guys who resided in the unit the year before were quite the partiers. The entire balcony of our apartment was filled with empty beer bottles and cans. Also, half the guys who were moving out left their stuff in the apartment over the summer and it took a long time for them to get it out of the apartment. Meanwhile, the new roommates were moving in their stuff as well, so at one time we had like a total of 11 guys' stuff in an apartment meant to house 8.

Oh yeah, about that. I live in a 4 bedroom/4 bath double, meaning we have 2 guys to each room. There's eight of us total. Crazy, eh? So as you can imagine, with eight dudes, the apartment seems to stay in a continual state of disarray. I really had a problem with this for the first couple weeks. I was always cleaning up after people, cleaning the fridge, vacuuming, trying to rearrange furniture (there were two long table in the middle of the living room just for beer pong). I've loosened up a bit now.

I really never knew that I was a neat-freak or that clean of a person until I moved out on my own. I think I always just had my mom to take care of messes, so it never really occurred to me that I prefered things to be neat and in order. I'm over it now, although the ever-increasing pile of dishes in the sink still bothers me at times. Sometimes it starts to smell pretty bad.

Apart from all that, being away from the Antelope Valley has been incredible. I'm so glad I'm out of the desert. Don't get me wrong, I love the place and was glad to have grown up there, but it's good to be out. Also, I think it was time that I moved out from under my parents' roof. It was definitely time for a change. It was a little rough though the first weeks of school because my mom would literally call me every day. I felt really bad because I knew she really missed me. I could actually picture her crying because of my absence and that made me really sad. She's okay now. We do still talk at least once a week, but I think she's gotten used to having me out of the house now.

I'm just really excited to have started this new chapter in my life.

III. "I'm not the smartest kid anymore!"
Okay, don't get the wrong idea from the title. I was never the smartest kid in High School or anything like that, but I was always able to stay on top of my studies and do fairly well. I excelled in group projects and could always contribute to a discussion. I was always told from an early age that I was very smart and even wise. Going to AVC really helped reinforce all of this. Most of my classmates at that community college were really not the student type and were just there to please their parents.

Coming to USC, I was taken back a little bit because I felt like everyone was really smart, really talented, really funny, really nice, really outgoing, really friendly, and really really good looking. Haha. For a little bit, I felt very intimidated because I felt that most of the people I was meeting were "more of something" than I was. I think I've learned not to compare myself to others in this way, but to see that everyone has their different strengths and stuff.

Besides the students, the classes have been pretty tough! Currently I'm taking BUAD307 - Fundamentals of Marketing, BUAD250A - Core Concepts of Accounting I, MATH218 - Probability for Business, LING275 - Language and Mind (GE), and EDCO30 - a peer counseling class to be an RA next year... It's all been pretty challenging. It seems like I'm in a continual state of midterms. All of my classes except EDCO30, have two midterms and a final, but all the midterms are positioned in a way that I have one almost every week. It's crazy.

I definitely feel challenged, though, and that's a really cool thing.

IV. Cy, the Social Butterfly.
So if you know me well, you know I'm the type of person to commit to a whole bunch of stuff, join a bunch of organizations, and make a bunch of new acquaintances and friends. Well, I've stayed true to that, and I've really immersed myself into the whole college experience here at USC.

I've joined Troy Philippines, the Filipino organization here at USC. It's been so awesome to meet so many other Filipinos my age. Growing up, I never had any friends who were Filipino. It's been really cool to hang with these guys. They're all amazing!

I also joined the Leadership Funding Board which is part of the Undergraduate Student Government. This is a great opportunity for me to find out about a lot of the Student Orgs on campus and what they're all about. I also plan on running for office in the Spring.

I'm part of my church's campus ministry on campus which has been really fantastic. We've really been focusing on reaching out to others and sharing Christ with them. It's been great. So far, two people have decided to give their lives to Christ, live as Christians, and get baptized! It's been awesome. Right now we're also studying with several people teaching them Christianity as well. It's really been a faith builder!

In addition to all these things and taking 18 units of classes, I also work part time on campus at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. It's a really chill job and my bosses really like me a lot. I plan on making Entrepreneurship my senior concentration, so I think I'm getting a step ahead by working with and meeting all the professors who teach those classes. I actually just found out last week that I'm getting a raise! After only a month and a half of working for them! My boss Claudia said that they really appreciate the work I've been doing for them.

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So I hope that was a good enough recap for all two of you. I really do miss blogging and want to get back into it for sure. I plan on keeping it up. That's it for now. I'm spent.

Cy