the life of kevin: November 2011

Hellooo

To start things off on a positive note, Thanksgiving was awesome. I got to stuff my face, rest my head, and have great times with old friends. It's good to relive those youthful moments even though we're all growing older. I bought a single sweater which was my weakest Black Friday shopping ever. But what was surprising was that this year, people spent the most on BF ever, topping $11.4 billion. Sad thing is, I did not even see things worth buying! Either that or I learned how to save money by not spending it (pfft).

Baylor beat Tech, even though they took out RG3 with a concussion (and Ganaway who later came back, beast mode, ripping up anything in his way [it must have been all the food he ate over Thanksgiving]). Nice team play by the Bears, I like it, and I am certain we can handle Texas by their horns.

If you love good news then you should stop reading here and enjoy the rest of your beautiful day. I will let you take a break and gather some popcorn and soda pop.

Okay well Welcome back. You had your chance!

People say to live life to the fullest, or to life everyday like it's your last. But how do you live your life to the fullest if it is not as full as it can potentially be? How can you live it like it's your last if it ain't your last day to live? You can't repeatedly top off your life meter towards the "full" side, that takes tremendous effort, and you do not know what it feels like to live the last day of your life. Try filling up your gas tank to the fullest.. Good luck with that bro, cause it is a continuous function that will eventually have to dip beyond its highest point. Oh, and if this was my last day on earth, I would just take a nap, because nothing else matters after you are gone. History tells me that George Washington is United States first president. Cool story bro, tell me another. That's how life is, we just make a mark in time, and try our best to impact or make a change in this world. Some do it hungryly, others do it humbly, while some don't do anything at all. For me though, I am just doing the best I can. Period. I know that is subjective and vague, because who can calculate it's effort and efficiency? Certainly not my Physics professor, nor can you Google that my friend. There is no formula for life, just freedom to live it (here at least).

Let's just say this semester, life has hit me hard... repetitively, just like... well I would rather not say. It wants me to quit auto-piloting and to take charge of it myself. I have been getting by on a day to day basis for the longest time, living only one dimension of it (wait there are three!!?). I thought life was good, and good it was, up until it decided to be not so good to me. BAM, a new dimension, life sucks sometimes too. There was a stark contrast in my first uneventful mishap, because I was so happy. I was cheering my team spirit out as Baylor was beating Missouri at our homecoming game. I had a wonderful day -- it was picture perfect. I was so happy, it was the best and worst day of my life at that point (in awhile). Reality hit me hard though when I lost my wallet at the game though, aka my identity. It felt so weird, I had to cancel everything. Now I know how it is like to be erased from life (in a sense, not literally). And it was a pain to recollect everything I lost... but I am glad that issue got taken care of completely and was not too big of a hassle. I continued living life with my head held high. That is a tease of what was yet to happen.

Now I think I got everything under control again. I have my ID back and I am officially Kevin Truong once again and I can prove it with a flash (of my wallet that is). I was biking to an 8 AM class one day, (about 3 weeks ago) and I was dismounting from my bike. Well, I do this move sometimes, I bike and hop up the bars that hold your tires in place, then hop off my bike. I guess I had poor judgment that morning (oh yeah, sober semester btw so I was NOT under the influence) and the next thing I know is that I am on my back, and my left foot is in intense pain (a lot worse than fighting in tents, believe me). I had never broken bones before so I didn't know how that feels like. I quickly got up as if nothing happened and hear some popping and crackling, as if I had popped my knuckles, but instead, I had popped my metatarsal! Kids, please do not try that at home. I thought it was the same feeling, but I had to limp to class.. so up the stairs I limped. 20 minutes later, I was limping down stairs since the pain was too over bearing and I could not concentrate on the lecture. Then I hopped back onto my bike and biked to the clinic, who could not service me until perhaps 5 hours later. No big deal, this big life saver named Scott saved my big life. He found me crutches, and well that is all I shall say to save his reputation. He is mine and ... ok I am stopping there on that subject matter. So I see the doc and get an Xray and found out that I officially broke my metatarsal. If you eat chicken wings, it is like breaking the wing in half, then trying to put it back together as if it were a 2 piece jigsaw puzzle. That is how defined the break in the xray was. My second appointment went like this, Doc: Hello Kevin come right in. Let me see your foot. [looks at foot, touches it, squeezes it, holds it] ok come back in 2 weeks. Me: No cast doc? Doc: Be a man (well he basically said it wont help). Hopefully I will get some protection from him during my appointment tomorrow! So from 3 weeks ago I have been getting around on crutches, and another dimension of life opened up. I cant live it alone. I need friends, family, and faith. I knew I needed them in my life, but didn't know how helpful they really would be, and how they would always lend a helping hand (strangers too). They are reliable and are always there to help. I thought I could live crippled alone, to prove a pointless point which is what I think led me to the next mishap. At this point, I was living life with both my head and my left foot held high.

So today was my last appointment with stufu alumni for the semester. I had to go by myself for rare reasons, and I had to borrow a friends car, which he gladly lent to me. I was going with my still broken foot, determined and excited all at the same time, to meet up with these great folks in Houston. I drove to/from houston/waco over dozens of times with NO problems, and did it 3 times with my broken foot, no issues, so I felt confident that this trip would work out fine. It's 5 o'clock in the morning, conversation got boring (with myself) so I turned on the music. I sang. If a tree falls in an empty forest and if no one is around, does it make a sound? Nope! So I thought to myself, no one will ever hear me sing. I took advantage of that. Now, if you drive at 70 mph and hit a deer, does that make a sound? I will let you figure that one out, but I can tell you that it makes a huge dent, a dent bigger than my body (my body is big). It was dark, I was on cruise control, singing some chill songs that I had synced with Spotify the previous night.. man I was so ready, but I was not so ready for this deer to pop up in my face. It happened in a blink of an eye, like a camera flash. You can't avoid it. I blinked once, saw the look on its petrified face, and that's all I ever saw of it. If you don't look at the flash and you turn your head away, the picture will look very ugly. I am glad I did not turn my head away (or swerve the car) or else I could have flipped into the ditch.... which is very ugly as well. I could have broken my other foot for crying out loud (well at that point no one would have heard me) or broken something bigger. I hop out the car, and hop in front of what was left of the car, and hoped for the best.. but the whole front was pretty much beat up and the right headlight was completely gone. Luck had reserved me a sparing ounce of itself, and I was able to drive back up until about 3 miles from Waco. That is when the engine blew up. JUST kidding. That is when I was smart enough to stop so that the engine would NOT blow up.. since all of the coolant had leaked out. I called the wonderful director of stufu and she guided me back to campus. Luckily I was able to go to class which I have an exam for on Thursday...... at least I salvaged something out of this. My friend was ... well I know he is angry but I also know that he knows it is an accident. Why would I go kill deer with his car? I would borrow a shotgun for that! But I do know that my fresh wallet is now going to have a hole burning out of it. The price I pay for these mistakes... sometimes I wish I paid with life experience, which I guess I ran out of funds of! I had just gone through a tough situation just to land in another tough situation... but it is okay, I know next time not to push the limits. I was breaking every rule out there... So at this point, I am living with my head, leg, and hobo sign held high. Just kidding.. . (I just needed a transition that's all)

Well this semester is quickly winding down, and so am I. I am tired, down, but not out. I can honestly say now, that life is not too good, but it is still manageable. I rather live through the hard times and experience those times rather than living the one dimensional life that I was accustomed to. I want the whole experience. It is like watching a 3-D movie with out 3-D glasses (well you get no dimensions from that right?) I am just being exposed to new things at a rapid rate. It is like my transition from high school to college, or learning about new cultures. Unique experiences, life changing, impacting. Life is the most challenging it has ever been for me, and all I know is that it is giving me a wake up call, a wake up call my alarm clock can not quite give me (or my momma).

I am thankful for all of my friends. I cant thank yall enough. I learned a lot from yall, and from myself as well. There isn't too much to say, as actions speak louder than words, and words can only go so far. Just wait till you see my smile next time I see you. Until then!

-KT

the life of kevin

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

i am a black cat that walks under ladders to shatter mirrors into 13 perfectly cut pieces

Thursday, November 10, 2011

updates! 11/10