"I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing; kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles."- Audrey Hepburn

Aug 21, 2012

Be a dream catcher.



At some point along the way of classes, organizations and ten million other things in mind, I has forgotten how to dream.

Truth is, I have been slapped in the face so many time by reality and I have been looking up to so many people that are better than me, that I forgot about myself and my own ability. I forgot that it didn't matter if people who were better than me could not make it very far in life. I forgot that it didn't matter what you were born with, it is what you really work for that counts. I have been trying hard to accomplish lots of things, but they are all because "If others can do it, so do it." It is not because, "I want to do i, because I can."

I have been shadowing other people's dreams.

Thus, for the next two years, my most critical point of my career, I will try harder and harder, to find out about myself and what I really want to do and to show people what I can really do.

My dream: John Hopkins University. I will make it there somehow.
It will happen.

Aug 19, 2012

For the strangers of my life.

When you're young, you tend to exaggerate everything. Everything is either forever, or never.

When you find a girl friend that you can hang out with, go shopping with, study with, and talk about guys with, you call her your best friend, forever. When you enter college and pick a major, you sincerely believe that that will be your career for the rest of your life. And when you meet a guy and start liking him, you think that that happiness will last, for a very long time.

After a while, your "bff" finds a new group of friends, and you two start drifting apart. Or she will move to another city and you will cry and miss her, and text her like crazy for about a month, then you two move on with life. You find out that after all you don't like any of the classes in your major, and you pick up another field and start over. The guy you like no longer reciprocates your feelings. You start to have fights and eventually, you hardly talk to each other.

And before you move on to another chapter in your life, you feel the pain, and shed the tears. You are scared. You are afraid of the unknown. What if you can no longer go back to the stage where you were before? What if the future is even more painful than what you have to go through right now? However, whether you want to or not, life will push you through.

Sometimes, when you think about it, things are not everlasting. Moving on shouldn't be such a scary feeling. It should be like, hunger. When you are hungry, it is uncomfortable and irritating. You find your favorite food to eat and you feel happy. You feel like that amazing feeling will last forever. Obviously, it won't. And you will be hungry again, you will have to go and put some efforts into finding food again, and you will be forever searching for something new to spice up your appetite. It is a never ending cycle. Yet, no one complains about having to feed themselves. They are more than happy to work to satisfy their hunger.

Then, what is the difference between food, and relationships? We should come into a relationship knowing that eventually, things will go away, and we will have to work hard to find something that will make us happy again. If that is the case, people wouldn't be afraid of letting go. People will not need to try to hang on to each other. They will not be afraid of having to expedite time and efforts into a new relationship. They will not be scared because they should know that no matter what, they will find something, or someone, to make them happy again.

I have been through many of these "hungry" moments. I am scared of letting go because I don't like the feeling of being left with nothing. Yet, I realize that as much as it takes to move on, it is also quite a good feeling when I find something new. That newly generated source of happiness, the tingling of feeling of being cared for, and being the sole attention of someone. To be loved.

I think I need to teach myself to be more brave and courageous, and teach myself to believe that after all, "tomorrow is another day."

I do not know how long this happiness will last nor whether I will have to go through all the sadness again. But I believe that whatever I go through, the memories are worth cherishing.

Thank you for coming into my life when I thought I could not be stronger. Thank you for letting me finding the strength, and letting me believe in myself again. Thank you for making me happy. Thank you for allowing me to believe that there will always be something better for me out there.

It is because of you that I can always let go and keep moving forward.



Aug 8, 2012

"We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything. In his eyes, there was no trace of what had happened between us earlier and I could feel something inside me break.

So that was that. We were finally, finally over.

I looked at him, and I felt so sad, because this thought occurred to me: 'I will never look at you the same way again. I'll never be that girl again. The girl who comes running back every time you push her away, the girl who loves you anyway.'

I couldn’t even be mad at him, because this was who he was. This was who he’d
always been. He’d never lied about that. He gave and then he took away. I felt it in the pit of my stomach, the familiar ache, that lost, regretful feeling only he could give me. I never wanted to feel it again. Never, ever.

Maybe this was why I came, so I could really know. So I could say good-bye.
I looked at him, and I thought, 'If I was very brave or very honest, I would tell him.'
I would say it, so he would know it and I would know it, and I could never take it back. But I wasn’t that brave or honest, so all I did was look at him. And I think he knew anyway.

'I release you. I evict you from my heart. Because if I don't do it now, I never will.'
I was the one to look away first.” 

― Jenny HanIt's Not Summer Without You

Aug 3, 2012

Daily note.

I still laugh at this note every time I read it. Such a cute gesture from the guy. I still remembered how much it made my day to wake up to this, even though it confused me quite a bit at first.

You were such a sweetheart (maybe not anymore). Still, thanks for all the memories :)

Workers Compensation

by Viet Pdf Nguyen on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 7:49am 
Although workers compensation law must provide a balance, it should never
form a loophole for those employers who want to price out risks that are going to 
cause injury. A "true intent" interpretation of the exclusivity exception will give you
such a loophole. This is because when an employer as immunity for culpability up
to pure intent, any risk that was taken for a legitimate business purpose will never
qualify for an exception. However, courts using a relaxed view of intent are going to
prevent such pricing out of workplace injuries. Only a relaxed standard will let you 
bring a tort claim for a substantially certain risk of injury - effectively tearing down
the financial incentive by increasing cost. Thus the proper standard is never going 
to be true intent when the goal is increasing workplace safety. But, it is critical to
remember that workers compensation represents a quid-pro-quo and we can't run
the risk of upsetting the balance. Using an intent standard somewhere around
"substantially certainty" would continue to provide immunity for safe employers and 
only increase the liability exposure for this employers whose actions would desert
the standard of "accident" under tort. Therefore, when defining exclusivity, if you
lose time from work, accidents in which the employee loses time, they carry
on.