Writing royal.

After reading Jason's blog, and his entry displaying his "Coord Advice," I feel compelled to do the same. I suppose this is just the same as when he read my own entry displaying my "Coord Pearls of Wisdom" before SPOP had even started.

Dear Coordinators of future times, 

I want to truly congratulate you all. Whether you have been part of this program for years, or beginning a completely new experience with SPOP, you all are in for an incredible journey with one another. I hold the most upmost confidence in all of you, especially since you all have been selected with such great purpose by mike Knox and Jill Halvaks. From many past/ potentially future staffers, you may hear that SPOP is a life-changing program. Little do people know, it is so much more coming from the work and perspective of a coordinator. You all are about to embark on a long and amazing experience, and trust me it is quite long. Despite all of this, just as in anything else you may do, don’t set too many expectations for yourself and how you may change. You will definitely learn more about yourself, but your core character will never truly change. That is why you all have been chosen, to bring your own perspectives, values, and character to influence the program. 

As coordinators, you all embody the force that really drives SPOP to be what it is. Soon enough, you will be finding yourselves working every day together, and devoting tremendous amounts of time to this one program; together. Always remember that you five will have each other to fall back on when times get rough. It has been expressed that SPOP is a program that develops an immense support system. However, as coordinators, you are each other’s largest support. You are the rock and anchor for one another. This factor greatly contributes to the cohesiveness in your team. When working together, it is important to not overstep each other. When making decisions, be conscious of whether everyone is for something or not. If not, it is immensely valuable to take the time to discuss more within your team to clarify reason and intention. With this, you learn to be patient, and this is actually quite the understatement. If you already thought of yourself as a patient person, you will learn to become even more so. In the end, it really comes down to just trusting one another, and sticking together. I cannot stress enough how significant it is to not only show cohesiveness within the coordinators to staff, but actually be a cohesive team as well. During the school year, you all will probably be incredibly busy with all your other involvements and jobs, along with SPOP. Just remember to at least try and schedule some time together outside of work. It will benefit everyone greatly. 

Going through this experience, you may have doubts about yourself, the staff, or the program itself, especially if you have never been involved with SPOP before. However, don’t be afraid to express this to one another. As a coordinator who had never been a staffer, I truly valued the insight of the coordinators who had staffed in past years. If anything, they added onto the ambition for me to continue. They reminded me why I and the other four were coordinators for this program. Those doubts you may have will soon fade away as long as you stay strong to your values. 

I am extremely excited for you five this coming year, and I hope for only the best. I know me and the other coordinators are already proud to have you all continue progressing this program to be incredible, as well as truly showing SPOP for what it is.

Best Regards,
Brandon Kwong

It's interesting to see how my advice has been so directed in a certain way, that it really relates to one of my five strengths; harmony. I believe this was a strength that played a major role within our group of coordinators. However, I believe my other strengths I utilized the best I could with the staff and program; developer, individualization, empathy, and responsibility. It seems that so many of my academically involved peers are so familiar with StrengthsFinder, knowing and utilizing their top five strengths. It wasn't until a few months ago I actually took this test. It's nothing I was really surprised about, but it was quite interesting in seeing how much of it I actually applied to this program and everything else I do.

In submitting my Coord Advice to our Royal Year Binder, it truly signifies the closing for us as coordinators. I remember Jill Halvaks making her final words during the SPOP Closing lunch, and how her tearing up began to choke myself up as well. She said that without us coordinators, this program would not be here, nor would there be the staff that had sat before us. It works in other ways as well. Without the staff, there would be no program to be run. Only by working together, do we create such an incredible program for UC Irvine's incoming students and parents. It is true though, that without us coordinators, we would not have been able to pick such a wonderful and lovely staff.

I wouldn't have worked with any other 134 beautiful people.

Designing royal.

I never really talked about why I designed the SPOP staff shirt the way I did. I briefly touched on it within a SPOP sweatshirt forum discussion. I thought I'd share a small excerpt from my post:

When I designed the SPOP staff shirts, there were a lot of subtlety I tried to convey through it. For instance, the lion is usually a symbol seen in royalty, but not a lot of people see that because it's not portrayed as that "traditional" medieval lion that is often seen. Progression is always a good thing, and sometimes unconventionality is something that needs to be conveyed. Another example of subtlety in design, is the upside down crown that is on the front of the SPOP staff shirt. I purposely made the crown upside down, because although we are "royal" year, we have to remember that we are human, and we are not always on top/ above others. Remember when we staff, the incoming students/ your spoppers are your peers as well.

Sunset, sunrise. Set me ablaze.

The past few days have felt like a gripping journey through a fluctuating, bone-sheathed spiral. Does that make sense? More than likely not. It's about time I get a sketchbook to illustrate all of these feelings, but this is not the time to digress so quickly.

I decided to work from home beginning Wednesday morning. All that had to be done for SPOP was write my "Coord Advice" for next year's coordinators. The whole time I was writing this letter, it gave a real nostalgic feeling. It made me really miss the early times I had with my other coordinators, yet I was so excited for all of us to move on and to see what future coordinators may come. I really meant what I had said at the end of our SPOP closing, that our team of five coordinators had been the most cohesive group I had ever worked with. I am truly grateful for these four other people. I cannot possibly imagine my SPOP experience without them.

The day continued to be a wonderful one, spending time with SPOP people I hadn't seen in a long while. Went swimming, ate all you can eat sushi at You & I, and just generally hung out. It was around 1:00am when people wanted to go on a night beach adventure. I had to pass. I began to feel really tired, and my left tonsil sore. I immediately passed out at home, where the night really began. I couldn't tell if I had a fever, or if I was was just having feverish dreams. I also kept on periodically waking up, or what I thought to be waking up. Regardless, I "woke up" with now both of my tonsils feeling sore, having it hard to swallow. My body covered in sweat, my head slightly hurting, I closed back my weary eyes. I opened them again to see the time on my phone; 3:36am. I slowly drifted my eyes toward the window, noticing my room was being filled with flashes of green light. Still drowning in hot sweat, I became utterly terrified. However, I did not have the energy or the slightest notion of what to do but close my eyes once again. I later "woke up" with the room completely dark this time, yet still feeling a small sense of unknown, sweltering fear. Again, not knowing what to do, I turned my head and closed my eyes. I finally opened my eyes to see the sun, and sat up on my bed. After waking up this time, I could not tell if I had actually woken up the times before. Had they been just feverish nightmares? I do not know.

Thursday and Friday were supposed to be days for me to go into the Cross-Cultural Center to finally wrap up some unfinished work. Unfortunately, my sickness set me back. Sorry Floyd Lai, but this design and publicity intern folder will definitely be finished by early next week. At least I got the REACH workshop request form working, thanks to mike knox's knowledge of Mr. Tajiri's changes. Instead of really working, I spent the majority of Thursday in bed, sweating like my body had been in drought for years. It never occurred to me what it was like being sick during the summer. Well, let me tell you. It's pretty awful. My room is hot as it is, with it being in the front of our apartment with two windows facing the sun. It also doesn't help that Montag's heat lamp emits another sun within my room. Just right now, it says it is 85.1 degrees. Imagine it during the day. Anyway, it was nice that Kevin and Ken brought me over DayQuil. Massive amounts of orange juice, DayQuil, and raw will to get better before this weekend has gotten me through the past 48 hours pretty well.

Waking up Friday, it wasn't too bad. My throat still a bit sore, but with the determination to get better, I continued to down orange juice and DayQuil. I was told that dressing like you're not sick tricks your body into thinking it's actually not sick. Thinking about the past, the times I've decided to just get up and go out while sick made me feel a lot better. I had planned a lunch/ dinner date with a couple of friends for Friday, both I had been already pushing far enough. I had lunch with my friend Christine, who I hadn't seen in oh, so long. We ate at Ruby's Diner, and watched Up at the dollar theater. It was quite nice. I later had dinner with Candice at Kaju Soft Tofu. My brother and I used to dine here so frequently. The waitresses, who we basically viewed as our Korean aunts, would always welcome us so warmly and referred to us as "the brothers." I'm surprised the waitress still remembers me. I hadn't been there in the longest time, but it was really touching to know I was seen as a familiar face.

At the end of the night, I found myself looking through old Facebook photos of myself. It seemed like I was turning through pages of historical documents. It's incredible to think how much I have actually accomplished at UC Irvine to get where I am today. It's pretty crazy how many hairstyles and weight changes I've been through as well. Despite finally realizing the need to get back into shape, I also realized this coming weekend will be nearing the completion of a lot of cycles for me. Saturday, I will be attending the first annual APSA Alumni Potluck at Ron Wilson's house. I have not yet met Ron Wilson, but he is supposedly a former significant advisor to APSA way back in the day. I cannot wait to see some new and familiar faces, as APSA has given so much to me to give back to the world these past two years. Saturday night is also supposed to be the SPOP Alumni Party. I do not really know what to expect from this, but it shall be interesting nonetheless. Sunday, I plan to attend the North American Reptile Breeders Conference at the Anaheim Convention Center. This is where I got Montag at 7 weeks old, exactly a year ago. I love seeing all the different exotic breeds of reptiles and amphibians. It takes me back to when I was a kid, when my father used to bring me to reptile shops in Concord and Berkeley.

This weekend brings a lot of excitement, yet there is still a lot of work ahead. I was planning on flying up North sometime next week, but we'll see about that. I haven't been home in exactly nine months now.

Wants:

- a sketchbook

- to start reading "A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America"

- to start reading "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

- the Fall/ Winter to cast over

- to be set ablaze with love

- a job

PS, these guys have got it going on. However, there's just something that's not quite right.