Mid Point

It is over.

Eating at odd hours, often at fast food joints; sleeping at the crack of dawn, only to wake up a few hours later; writing and rewriting, always dissatisfied with my efforts; breathing to survive, rather than to enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed. The shining sun never seemed more gloomy than those days, holed up in a room of like-minded peers with the ferocious click-clacks of keyboards drowning out the laughs and shouts of frolickers on campus. But it was what it was. And it is now finished.

Nuclear proliferation. North Korea. WMD threats. Insurgency. Counterinsurgency. Al Qaeda. Iraq. Taliban. Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Egypt. Xinjiang. Uyghur extremists. Human trafficking. Multivariate regression analysis. Statistics. All interesting topics, some more than others. But I'm ready to move on.

President Obama's inauguration. John Kim-Dave Lee joint-bachelors party in the Poconos. US-Asia Institute Lunar New Year Reception. Paul & Gina's reception in Chicago via Ann Arbor. Spring Break to New York. US-Asia Institute's 30th Anniversary Gala at the United Nations. North Korean Freedom Week. Moses & Julie's wedding in Michigan along with Class of 2009 commencement. An eventful semester outside of school. I'm looking forward to more fun times in the future.

It's scary to think that it was only nine months ago when I was packing the last eight years of my life into my car and driving back to the east coast. Nothing could have prepared me for all the various experiences of the past year: all the struggles, all the crises, all the drama, all the joys, all the fun, all the times spent dreaming, all the steps taken towards making those dreams realities. I would have it no other way. I'm grateful.

Here's to the beginning of my final year in school. Surely there will be more challenges. But as the sun fights through the clouds to shine its light ever so brightly, I know I will need to fight through whatever obstacles lie in the future to do what God has called me to do. It's only the beginning of good things all around, and I'm excited.