My senior year of high school was by far the most interesting. Some would say I peaked in February, winning Winter Formal King, but it was the events that happened afterwards that would forever change my life.
This year, I experienced my first relationship, and it all began when I saw her in the Environmental Club at lunch. I messaged her on Myspace, and after a few convesations online and a volunteer project together, she told me she liked me and we got together. At that moment, I was ecstatic! However, it turned out to be a superficial high school relationship, lacking depth or meaningful experiences. We never went on dates but rather spent time together during lunch and sometimes after school, where I’d watch her play tennis. Prom night was memorable, but not for the right reasons—she got upset with me for not dancing with her, and to add to the misfortune, I lost my camera, erasing all our photos.
It didn’t take long to realize that we had little to talk about, and a relationship built solely on looks was not fulfilling for me. As a result, when she eventually broke up with me, I wasn’t deeply hurt. The breakup was triggered by a chain of events, where my friend Kevin Kim’s lateness caused me to miss her choir solo at a concert, leading to her ending it on the phone hours later. By that point, my feelings for her had already diminished, so I moved on within a week, making the experience a valuable learning opportunity. Perhaps it was the reality that I knew I wasn’t staying in Orange County that made me okay with it. Coinciding with the course of the entire relationship was Taylor Swift’s most popular song that launched her into prosperity, “Love Story”, and my favorite album of hers – Fearless.
I got rejected from UCLA this year, my dream school. I think it was primarily due to my low grades in math, as well as low SAT scores. As a result, I opted to go to the “UCLA-reject school”, known as UC San Diego. Little did I know, this decision would set me forever on the path to meet my future wife, Katherine. More details to come in future blog posts.
Graduation was the culmination of all my experiences in high school, and it was a fantastic experience saying goodbye to Rancho Alamitos. Though I hated the school in the moment, a few years removed and I am grateful for all the experiences, growth, and memories. The teachers were more memorable in middle school, but truly the events from grades 9-12 were life changing.
