10 Characteristics About Me

10 Characteristics About Me

1. I usually am too ambitious. There are many dreams, goals, ambitions that I would like to accomplish in my lifetime and in near future. Each year, I try to set a plethora of goals and ambitions for me to accomplish. However, time is a very limiting factor that prevents me from accomplishing all these ambitions. From learning the violin, improving three point shooting, learning kung fu, shooting for A’s in classes, along with other short and long term goals, I find myself prioritizing goals that I really need to focus on and eliminating many other ambitions, due to time constraints. Being too ambitious can sometimes have a negative effect and requires one to review each goal and prioritize.

2. Patience is a virtue, which sometimes I lack. However, I believe patience can be attained through practice and learning from past experiences. My impatience creates a conflict with my first characteristic of being ambitious. From the outset, I often see myself full of potential with a positive outlook. If, however, not much improvement or progress has been accomplished overtime, I may get impatient and discouraged from continuing in achieving my ambitious goals such as learning kung fu or violin. However, I believe the virtue of patience can be attained through reflecting in past behaviors and outcomes such as winning a tough tennis match after losing the first 2 out of 5 sets. Often, I remind myself to keep calm, collected, and wait for the opportunity when the time is right.

3. Maintaining good health is one of the top priorities in my life. I try to undergo some form of exercise at least once a week. Whether playing basketball with friends, swimming, running, or just simple pushups, I try to integrate diverse array of fun physical activities into my busy college schedule. Besides just exercising, I try to maintain a healthy diet full of vegetables and fruits. Often, I find myself buying bananas and frozen berries at the grocery store. Hopefully this healthy behavior will lead me to a long and prosperous life with the absence of any major health problems.

4. Although still a college student, I am an early bird, who wakes up usually around 7 A.M. Unlike other fellow college friends and classmates, who prefer to study through all-nighters, I prefer to wake up early to study in the early mornings, when my mind is fresh out of sleeping. I tend to lose focus especially on the details of the content, when studying in the long hours into the night.

5. I like to strategize and play chess. Unlike the music industry, who knew about the threat of innovative technologies such as sound recorders, disc burners, p2p software and did not try to improve or adapt to the changing music market environment until too late, I like to strategize and always try to have a backup plan. Like the music companies who now try to promote such concepts as itunes or unlimited downloads with monthly fees to save the music industry, I also try to strategize on how to be successful in life and avoid complete failure. I am a pre-dental student and am currently applying to dental school this year or cycle. However, I will try to be prepared with a list of possible options such as working for a corporate company in the field of marketing to pursuing a master’s degree in a science field, in the event that I get rejected from all the dental schools that I have applied to.

6. I can’t tolerate alcohol very well. I turn red very fast, even after a little sip of alcohol. A friend, who is attending medical school, told me that I lack a certain enzyme in my body that breaks down the alcohol. This genetic anomaly is usually common in Asians and is usually given a nickname called the “Asian Flush.” Unlike many other people who can drink a good amount of alcohol without completely feeling dizzy, I usually tend to feel the effects of alcohol along with the surge of blood toward my head in an instant after drinking a little alcohol.

7. I like action/adventure and comedy movies. Thus, Jackie Chan movies usually fall under my favorites because his movies are filled with action and comic relief. My favorite summer movies of this year were “District 9” and “Inglourious Basterds.” I feel that America is known quite well in the world through its entertainment industry. As many intellectual or technical jobs such as engineering or technical support are outsourced to such affordable areas as India, companies are now focusing in on creativity and innovation as main driving force in America and its economy. In a sense, America’s entertainment industry signifies this power of creativity and imagination that I respect. I usually watch a lot of movies at my home movie theater during my summer vacations.

8. I am apart of the Texas Dragon/Lion Dance Team. This team usually performs the cultural art of lion dancing at various cultural events, especially during the Chinese New Year. Essentially, lion dancing is usually when two people dress up as a lion and perform a series of tricks, stunts, and jumps that imitate the behavior or a playful lion to a drum beat with gongs and cymbals. This cultural performance is said to bring good luck to everyone it performs to; thus, many stores welcome a lion dance performance to bring good luck during Chinese New Years. Being involved in this organization has given me great insight to my own native culture, along with a strong sense of community service achievement.

9. I like to keep things simple as much as possible. Simple and straightforward things can be conveyed with clarity and ease. I do not take much pleasure in reading textbooks that filled with examples and long drawn out explanations such as my Genetics textbook. I usually learn well with through simple explanations and concise but visual examples such as a simple drawing of a cell structure or DNA with bulleted points on functionality. Much like the designer Dieter Rams, who promoted simplistic design, I also prefer simplicity to saturated functionality or design. In example, my wardrobe of clothes is filled with mainly simple designed clothing that lacks big graphic pictures or blotches of random colors here and there.

10. I love to eat plain white rice with my meals over noodles or any other form of carbohydrates. Many people usually question what is the point of eating white rice that has very little flavor. To me, white rice is not really about the flavor, unless it is being cooked with an added ingredient or distilled to make sake. The various textures of the rice from rough to sticky to fluffy along with the ease of eating the rice are what make me enjoy eating rice with my meals. Thus, when many people are focused on the flavor, they overlook the other details that reside in a larger context. In parallel, customer insights and understanding involve the unapparent discovery through new point of views. However, white rice does tend to absorb the vitamin A and can subtly damage the eyes over time, as I learned in biology class. This is a dilemma that many other people, who enjoy white rice, must face.