April 20, 2007

• If Someone Wrote A Book About Your Life…Would Anyone Want To Read It?

  

  I often ask myself this question all the time…”if someone wrote a book about my life would anyone want to read it?”  In light of Junshien’s recent post about “Who would of thunk it?“    It got me thinking again about the course of my life until this point.  Like many others who graduate they aspire to do something with their life or with the degree they get.  That just simply isn’t the truth and in fact most people don’t do anything related to what they major in in college.  I spent my first year of college probably having too much fun with absolutely no direction as where my life was going.  What does a 18 year old really know?  For me, not much.  A year later I transferred to UC Davis and spent the rest of my colleaugic years there.  Along the way I was a engineer but found out I sucked at thermo dynamics and that hardcore mathimatian stuff, yah I said stuff because I don’t even know what its about, hah.  Eventually I became a bio major, particularly clinical nutrition.  I studied that partly because I had a passion for a healthy life style and eating right only to find that bio just wasn’t cutting it for me.  I made it through all my chem classes, ochem classes, bio classes and a number of other sciences classes only to find myself on Academic Probation.  Yah I said the AP!  Not Advanced Placement, O no no!  Academic Probation.  I was not happy with anything I was learning.  Being young and naive I had been drilled with the preconceived notion that the only way to make money, a living or be successful was to become a lawyer, doctor, engineer or whatever people thought was prestigious!  I spent 4 years of my college years still looking for answers, still searching for a bit of happiness other than what the world told me or what people told me only to find myself trapped in the corner with a hopeless feeling that I would never graduate from college and I would look like an idiot. 

  Until one day I met a gentleman who challenged the status quo and aspired more out of life than it had to offer.  As a transfer student he immediately immersed himself in Intervarsity Christian Fellowship where we first connected.  ”hey whats up, my names Steve.”  Reply: Junshien.  Junshien?  Now theres a name I know no other man has (well probably not but I don’t know too many Junshien’s, do you?)  My first impression of the guy was his hair and boy o boy you should of seen his hair back in the day!  Its classic I tell you and I have pictures but for his sake I wont post them haha! Eventually in our last year of college we lived together along with some crazy ass guys but boy were they all a blessing to my life in more ways than I can say!  I remember staying up late having conversations about girls but most of the time about the future and what it held for us. Don’t worry I’m going somewhere with all this. =)  Little did I know God would use Junshien’s life to speak numbers into my life.  I had been on a road that seemed like it was taking me to a dead end and as long  as I was in college and not in the real world I was ok.  I figured it was hopeless until I changed my major in my 4th year of college! To most people thats crazy but people like Junshien who made bold moves of faith to doing things he loved I saw something for once in college I had not seen in most students.  And that was pursuing something they BY CHOICE really wanted to major in.  Slowly the light at the end of the tunnel seemed a lot closer than it had before.  So my 4th year of college I became a Economics major and to be honest with you it wasn’t all that easy but I enjoyed it far more than anything else I had studied in school.  Some like to address me as the campus wore (pardon my language) since I was in majors all over the board!  It wasn’t until 2005 did things really start to unfold for me.  I had more solid grades, I actually enjoyed what I was learning; I simply had a change of perspective but it was influenced by one person.  Only one person.  God speaks numbers to use through others.  It doesn’t end there either.  I remember always having conversations about the future with Junshien about jobs and boy do I remember all the long sighs of boy do most peoples life seem to suck after college!  And boy does getting a job and working for the rest of your life look dreadful!  O how I agonized at the thought of working the same old job because everyone says a “job is a job” and you just have to face reality.  We’ll throw a few more sighs in there while were at it.  The thought of what people tell me just seems life sucking and discovering a passion just didn’t seem to make itself apparent until I picked up a camera, a Canon DSLR to be exact! Using a point and shoot, Junshien had me help critique images he had taken while we were both poor college students.  At that point I never thought much of it and to be honest I hardly picked up my Minolta G500 point and shoot, haha! 

  So I continued with school, Junshien graduated and moved back home and things begin to unfold for Junshien as I continued in my last couple quarters to graduate.  As a new chapter of life approached I was convinced that whelp, I better start looking for a job(which I still am) and boy there doesn’t seem much more to that.  I always kept tabs on good old Jeeves777  and slowly I began to see though his life testimony as it was unfolding before my very eyes.  It’s like someone snapped me out of it.  I remember telling Junshien of all the jobs and things I was looking to do and I remember him always shaking his head and trying to knock some sense into me but I just couldn’t see at the time still.  However, his testimony never seem to give up on me.  After countless months went by something was definitely changing for my buddy Junshien and it hasn’t been until recent months have I been able to see and been exposed to so much more potential that this life has to offer.  I had attended Scott Robert’s photoshop and mentor workshops and for the first time something different sparked in me.  Something snapped, I don’t know what it was?  Prior to the workshop Junshien and I were always advide about talking about photography but at that point I still couldn’t see any potential in myself to do things great myself.  Junshien, handed me a audio after a conversation we had the night before the wedding of a close friend of ours and little did I know a series of events would change the course and perspective of my life.  For the first time in life I felt like I had direction, I could set goals, I could be inspired, I could be changed and I could also help others to see.  Once I was blind, but now I see!
  

  God is simply amazing!  I go from one point in my life to not knowing where I would be going with my life, to meeting a person that would influence my life, to becoming inspired to seek the things you love in life and do something with it.  So whats my college degree good for so far?  Well, thats remained to be seen.  Maybe it will come into affect at one point in time but for all I know, my degree is starting to collect dust and I want to be a wedding photographer, hahahah! When I was 5 I told my mom I wanted to be a artist, nows my chance.  So why not give it a shot?   Now thats a story to tell and well the story doesn’t end here my friend.  Not for me, not of Junshien and not for anyone who aspires more than this life has to offer.  But nothing is worth a penny or of any value if it’s not centered to glorify God!  If someone were to write a story about your life, would anyone want to read it? 

  Until next time, thanks for reading.

  Steve

  • 7:20 am
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