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My Beautiful Birth
It was probably beautiful. -
Autonomy Vs. Shame & Doubt: Hawaii & Singapore
My parents weren't the kind of people to coddle me and show me exactly how to do everything; they just kind of threw me into things or let me learn by myself, so this super early trip let me experience so many different people and things to do, like how to build a sand castle in Hawaii or attempting to climb a tree in Singapore. -
Autonomy Vs. Shame & Doubt: Potty Training
I don't remember this, but there was most likely a lot of doubt. -
Trust vs. Mistrust: My Family Left Me
I remember when my family left me at my grandmother's house for a long time, and I had no idea why or when they were coming back. I just remember waiting for them, and when they did come back, I remember mistrusting my parents because they left me without warning. They were on vacation apparently. -
Initiative Vs. Guilt: When I met my best friend, Rebecca Scharhag
When I was 5 years old, I became friends with Rebecca because she's my next door neighbor and our parents "forced" us to be friends. There had to have been some initiative there to be friends, or else I would've just stayed home that day. I was a pretty independant child so, I'm sure I was feeling a little guilty for not wanting to hangout with Rebecca. It's a good thing I had the initiative though. -
Initiative Vs. Guilt: When I met my other best friend, Emily McCord
I'm really lucky that I met my two best friends so early in life, and that they're both my neighbors- it's funny how life works. Anyways, I had more initiative to be friends with Emily, maybe because I wasn't feeling guilty about being independent anymore since Rebecca and I were inseperable and I was more confident in having friends. -
Identity Vs. Role Confusion:Australia
I look at every trip as an adventure, instead of a vacation. I know this stage is supposed to occur later, but my parents made me grow up quickly in many different ways, travelling being a big part of it, so I'd say that it helped me discover who I was for the first time. The experiences of a completely different country helped me grow and learn; But of course, I was mainly experiencing role confusion because I wasn't really looking to identify myself quite yet. I was just enjoying the ride. -
Identity Vs. Role Confusion:China
Again, I was able to visit China and experience so much culture, and visit extrodinary places like the Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, etc. I was starting to find more of myself among my cultural background, but I still wasn't trying to really piece out who I was identity wise. -
Competence Vs. Inferiority: I won the D.A.R.E. Essay competition
Due to my once strict and overbearing asian parents, I was always pressured into having perfect grades, even in elementary school, so I was fairly confident about everything, but in a non-arrogant way. That said, we had to write an essay for the DARE program, and I loved writing and knew that if I applied myself, I would win. I won. -
Competence Vs. Inferiority: First day of Bridges
As you know before, I was pressured into having good grades and was fairly confident that I was a smart kid. My only goal in elementary school was to be in Bridges, because I thought that once you were in Bridges, you were a genius and you were better than everyone else. In the back of my mind, no matter how many good grades I recieved, I always felt inferior to the "Bridge's kids", that is until I finally got in during my 6th grade year. I was ecstatic. -
Identitiy Vs. Role Confusion:Calvin leaves home for the airforce
A few months before my parents divorce, my brother joined the U.S. Airforce and left home for bootcamp. Soon after bootcamp, he left for Turkey for 2 whole years. I look up to my brother Calvin, and he is almost always the only person I care about. I try to be like him sometimes, so having my role model leave me had to have left me in role confusion. -
Identity Vs. Role Confusion: Parent's Divorce
I always thought that people whose parents divorced didn't have it so bad because they're still clothed, fed and healthy, right? At the time of my parent's divorce, I was exploring my self identity at school and wasn't really paying attention. I began to pay attention after they officially seperated and I could feel myself breaking. My family was gone. What made this all worse, was that my dad was abusive,to mainly my brothers, so there was actually a good reason for this, but I still felt sick. -
Identity Vs. Role Confusion: Guatemala & Belize
This was the most life changing adventure I think I'll ever have in my lifetime. I found myself during this trip. I got to zipline through the jungle, go spelunking with crazy german guys, visit Mayan ruins, stay in random hostels on random islands and really connect with nature in such a spiritual way. I knew who I was the moment I got off that airplane to drive home. -
Identity Vs. Role Confusion:London, Paris & Rome
This trip actually felt like a vacation this time. I feel like all of the previous trips before were only adventures because I was finding myself, so since I already found most of myself back in 2010, it was time to just have a vacation. Of course, I still found some of myself in Europe, visiting the most popular places really taught me a lot about life and how small the world is. -
Intimacy Vs. Isolation: Marriage or Work/Lonliness?
I don't even want to get into how I feel about love and relationships. Let's just say that I've never been in one because they're pointless, especially right now, and I don't want to get hurt. EVER. I'm also really picky and very awkward, which doesn't help. That said, I'm giving myself till the age of 25 to either have a great enough relationship with someone to get married, OR not even be in a relationship and isolate myself to work. I think I have enough close relationships with my friends. -
Generativity Vs. Stagnation: Adoption and Work
I plan on adopting one or two children by the age of 30. If not, I'll be a workaholic, which I'm okay with because I will hopefully be in a job I love and I like making money. If I could do both, then generativity will be completely fulfilled and I won't hate my life at 60. -
Integrity Vs. Despair:Reflection
At this point, I hope I'm doing this reflection business in the Maldives because that would be the cherry on top. I'm 17 at the moment and I am trying to set myself up to where I change a few peoples lives, create some unforgettable things, and do what I want beause it makes me happy,so I hope that by the time 60 rolls around,I'll have gone to all 7 continents like I wanted too and my bucket list is mostly complete. I think I'll be happy though,no matter what because I've experienced enough now. -
Integrity Vs. Despair: My Beautiful Death
I think about death all the time, which is probably very unhealthy. I believe that I would be 88 years old here, right before my 89th birthday, and I want to die by falling asleep on the beach. Maybe it was too cold, or maybe the shore came in way too far, but that's how I want to go. Then, get cremated with my stuffed turtle, Tammy, because she's the only form of innocence that I can hold.
