So my first week of work is done at the Health Museum. I’d say it was a pretty successful week and things went quite well. First day of work was very disorganized, never been so bored in my life at times but at least I learned something about my supervisor, who told me a brief anecdote of his life and how he bounced around everywhere in his career. He started off working at burger king flipping burgers at 16 and then got fired from that (wow didn’t think that was possible and apparently neither did he). That motivated him to do well in school and he went on to college majoring in biology. He then became a biomedical researcher, leading him to working on the human genome project back in the 90s and from there ultimately becoming the director of operations at the health museum. His reason for keeping the job for the past 16 years? Well first of all he enjoys it, but mostly what because of the simple fact that he has control over everything. He is basically the boss and no ones b*tch (please excuse the language). It got me thinking that in the future, the single most important thing is to get a job you like, and like him, I hate getting bossed around by people. I respect the dude because it seems that even though he is the boss, he tries not to be a hypocrite and preside too much control over me and the other staff members. Now this leads to the first topic of the week. Control. One of my pet peeves are control freaks/people who overreact. They are the worst. Why not live life without worrying too much and stressing out over little things or making a big deal out of simple situations. People who are successful in life are usually the ones who handle chaotic situations or unfavorable circumstances very well. It would be quite reasonable to plan a big vacation or trip a month or so ahead, but going overboard would be like planning out a month long study schedule( I know of someone who does that, he/she does not do well in school) or fussing over one point on an exam . Though there are basically no parallels over the things I just compared, the point I am trying to make is that no one can keep control of life and to attempt to control every single aspect or every single thing in life is setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. I also hate being controlled or putting control over others, after all we weren’t born to follow (Bon Jovi Song et al). It’s the worst. I was tired in high school of being controlled at times by my Asian parents. I mean I can think back to one week in sophomore year at BHS when I was coming home late a lot from swim meet after events or studying for my first AP test (whist) at a friends house in Missouri City and parents would question me if I were doing drugs or other ridiculous stuff like that…I mean really? And from then on I knew it could only get worse if I don't do something. So over time, I changed them gradually into becoming more lax. It was a tough long process but whatever, one has to work hard for everything. Basically I just talked my way through arguments and confused them so much for the past few years that I guess they gave up arguing with me or questioning me (conditional learning +bsing= more chill parents). However, there are days for the past couple of years and now when I’m thinking it’s time to move out, but it’s impossible and foolish at this point cuz im pretty much a broke college student, and it will take at least a couple more years to be absolutely independent since they have me by the balls by paying almost all of my tuition. Besides my mom’s cooking is quite delicious sometimes and housing this summer is still free, (no one is charging me to live in my own room), and still getta see my lil sister. Being back in town is also a big plus because I get to hangout with my homies(literally and figuratively). You guys know who you are. I’ll never take for granted any time spent this summer in Houston, because it could be very well maybe, possibly my last summer back home. (Btw todays day at the beach was pretty awesomely fun, the last time I was at the beach was exactly a year ago, forgot how nice the coast was).
Anyways so going back to the first week of work, Tuesday through Thursday I got to teach some 20 Boy Scouts of America (which I will now refer to as BSA) probably because they believed I was a perfect fit for their age group and wanted me to bro it out with these loquacious and rambuctious young men (courtesy of Ms. Miles, the worst sub I’ve had and will ever have in my life). Not gonna lie, it was a pretty good experience teaching stuff to kids these days. So first thing I did was spot out the troublemaker and the smartass of the class. Found both instantly after the first day of teaching. The troublemaker was a young athlete who probably has ADD and never took his daily pills cuz he just could not sit still in the chair for more than a couple of minutes and messed around a lot behind my back thinking I didn’t notice for example shooting paper footballs at people or doing the old-fashioned texting under the desk move by playing games on his iphone (yeh that’s right, 11-14 year old kids these days already have iphones WITH data plans). The smartass was a kid who was quite sagacious (Ms. Miles et al) and knew almost everything, but just loved to talk back and argue with me, trying to draw attention to himself. Got to teach citizenship in the community, citizenship in the nation, communications, and first aid to all of the kids. One thing I noticed about boy scouts is that they have these troop numbers which divides them into groups based on their location/community. So troop 212 would be the kids from pearland, and troop 213 would be kids from sugarland etc. This however basically sepearates them into cliques, which happens in every social setting. Another thing I noticed is that the whole BSA education curriculum is basically training the kids to either be a lawyer or a doctor, two of the highest paid positions in society. So basically this whole program itself is dominated by kids from wealthy/well-off families. I mean to have your child stay in this program, the family has to have money to blow. Basically one course like the one im teaching is 300 bucks for one week (that’s like the rate of college tuition these days!) and they have to take at least 20 of them to get their badges and become eagle scouts. In addition to that, they all have to wear the cute boy scouts uniform which probably costs a lot, and since they are growing kids, probably need a new one every year. So when in happy years to come I’ll sport my children three (DKE inside joke) and I’m most likely sending my son to boy scouts. It teaches kids how to be real men, how to be more outgoing/social, how to succeed in life/be competitive, and keeps them busy over the summer, and they get opportunities to make friends from their community by going on big trips that I am jealous of( Ex. getting to go to different states in the U.S. or camping in a national park etc.) Anyways so yeah I tried to bro it out with these kids this week and all in all, it was pretty good, a majority respected me. The whole process made sure that they understood that everything in life is achieved based on merit, and to earn a badge collection and become an Eagle Scout (the ultimate and final achievement and goal of a boy scout), one must put effort into everything by doing the work required and prove that they deserve it or are worthy of becoming one. And as for the troublemaker and smartass in the class I mentioned earlier? Both didn’t wake up to come to school on the last day, the day they get their requirements signed so both didn’t earn their badges and are one step farther away from becoming an eagle scout. Funny how karma works, bet their mommas weren’t happy they wasted 300 bucks, not that it’s much money to them anyways. So this week I’ve learned that the boy scouts make the members(kids) feel like they belong in an exclusive group, they have social events (though they are run by soccer moms), they have to do community service, and participation in competitive situations is pretty much required. In fact the whole boy scout thing to me is like the pledge process to become an Eagle Scout (boy scouts=pledges, eagle scouts=brothers of a fraternity). Ultimately, the whole Boy Scouts of America thing to me is designed just like a college fraternity, or vice versa. Just some food for thought.
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