How I Transformed My Life in 5 Steps - Part 1

In keeping with my new blog focus in and personal fascination with personal development, I want to share a story about embracing change. This is not just any story, it’s my story – of my own struggles to understand, acknowledge, and embrace the changes, failures, and successes in my own life.

To mark this new direction for BeyondBehaviors.Com, I’m going to share about my own life and transformation through a 5-part series of articles.

Part 1 – From High School to College
Part 2 – From College to Being a Waiter
Part 3 – From Being a Waiter to a Law School Student
Part 4 – From a Law School Student to the “Light Bulb” Moment
Part 5 – “Light Bulb” Moment and Beyond

Part 1 – From High School to College

I am a product of a truly transformative change – the “light bulb moment in life” kind. I was your typical high school kid except that others thought that I was smart because I wore glasses and was Asian. It was a stereotype that I seemed to fit. Not to discount my own achievements (but therapists sometimes are rather quick to point out), I graduated 11th out of 500+ students. Looking back it wasn’t a difficult feat since I only took classes and had no social life even though I really wanted one.

Almost instantly, I felt as if I was a tumbleweed tossed about by the winds of the western Texas plains. Whichever way the winds blew, I tumbled. My mom told me to go to Baylor University because my older sister was already there. Not having a plan or vision for my own life I went there by default. As an Asian-American, especially a Vietnamese-American, the bar is set pretty high. There was seldom praise for work well-done, but rather expectations that each step up the ladder of success/life would be achieved and achieved well. When I got to Baylor, the expectation was for me to be a Pre-Med major and eventually attend medical school. No one asked me what I wanted and there (at least in my mind) was not an option to say no or maybe, like a checkbox saying “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know.”

I floundered through my Baylor years with highlights of a party here and there and freedom to eat and watch TV whenever I wanted. I felt lost and yet somehow protected and sheltered from the “real world” because I was a college student. Man, how quickly the four years passed by. I had taken and failed a few classes (Organic Chemistry and Calculus were two). By the time my junior year (3rd year) rolled around I realized that I struggled and hated science and math so much that there was no way I would enjoy, let alone succeed in medical school.

Gripped with fear, I cancelled the Organic Chemistry tutor who was to help me “relearn” Organic Chem. Argh! I can still recall my phone conversation with her, “Thank you so much for your help but I don’t want to go to medical school because I don’t want to be a doctor.” And with those words out in the open, a long sigh of relief came over me.

I still remember the disappointment on my parents’ faces as I broke the news to them.

“What will you do instead?” my parents asked.

“I’ll teach Philosophy. I want to be a Philosophy professor,” I told them.

“Part 2 – From College to Being a Waiter“