WOW!
Between eating somewhat-overly-spicy Mexican food, intimately dancing all over a very attractive female stranger, and nearly getting into confrontations with both the police and a group of highly-intoxicated high school seniors (at a certain restaurant who’s mascot precariously pops his head out of a Box at unsuspecting children), this has most definitely been one of THE most exiting nights of my life… and that’s really saying something, especially to those of you that may have read, heard, or otherwise been informed about many of my life’s other stories that, for social and legal reasons, I have never bothered to post on this currently minuscule blog.
Sitting here in front of my desk, two minutes before the second hour of this misty morning, I still bear very concentrated, convoluted, and mixed up feelings about how things went down. In a very short period of time, I have constructed new relationships, tightened up many of the bonds holding together previous relationships, and truly gained an insight into my life, the lives of others, and the Future - both that of myself and, as I believe, that of mankind. Now, please do understand that I am making no attempt here to simply find unnecessary literary jargon to spice up my post. Whether I’m seeing things the way they are, making illogical assumptions that themselves coincide with human nature, or writing in such an elighted state of mind, driven primary by testosterone, adrenaline, and seratonin, that fiction and theory become difficult to discern from hardcore reality, these words truly are coming directly from deep within my heart, only escaping because of the immense emotional pressure leaving them no choice but to do so. I just needed to bring this point across to all my readers before I began.
Well, to give you a little bit of background information, here is a chronological list of events, as they happened, on Saturday night:
Saturday, March 8, 2008
- 5:05pm: I’m still debating in my mind whether or not to attend the upcoming BBYO dance that night. The dance was supposed to be ’semi-formal’, though I seemed to possess little clothing of that nature, which pushed back my decision even farther.
- 5:27pm: A friend of mine calls me up and asks if I still plan to attend the dance. He addresses my primary concern and lets me know that he would have no problem lending me a pair of slacks if the need be. I finally agree to go and then proceed to take one of the quickest showers of my life (~ 9 minutes, 20 seconds)
- 5:48pm: I quickly jump in the car, and my grandmother chauffeurs me over to my friend’s house, where he throws a pair of long beige pants into my hands before I even step through the threshold of his front door.
- 6:09pm: We finally arrive at B.D., dancing to a ridiculous ringtone, preinstalled on my cell phone, that didn’t seem too inappropriate for the circumstances. There we meet everybody else in MOAD, and head on to Chipotle for some Spicy Chicken Burritos (Ay, caliente!)
- 6:45pm: At Chipotle, there were several good-looking girls that exchanged a few subtle glances with me… and a few not-so-subtle ones, if I dare say so myself. Apparently, that extra 30 seconds spent on blow-drying my hair has paid off - either that, or I had an extremely conspicuous guacamole stain on my shirt.
- 7:30pm: Shortly after leaving Chipotle, we are lost beyond recognition, somewhere near 84 and 101… all attempts to call for help and/or directions from either the advisers or other members, fail miserably. Hopefully, we’ll reach our destination by tomorrow morning.
- 8:35pm: After some intense emotions in the car, and nearly-impossible navigation, with the aid of my GPS-capable cell phone, all the way from Saratoga to Fremont, we have finally reached our destination. Though, thinking back to our getting out of the car immediately preceding our entrance, I couldn’t help but feel eerie chills running up and down my spine at the thought of what might possibly occur if one was caught in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in an area like this…
- 9:39pm: Most of the night thus far has been relatively uneventful, so I was pleasantly surprised to run into an old friend of mine from back in the day (Middle School, that is), who recognized me immediately as “Keltner,” which, in addition to being my last name, was essentially my nickname to numerous friends and acquaintances throughout my first two years before high school.
- 9:51pm: This friend introduces me to a female friend of his, with whom I more than willingly oblige to dance with. Yes, things do get a little more fun than that, but I’d rather not “freak-and-tell.”
- 11:58pm: Now, this is where things start to get really interesting. After the dance, myself and three friends get a ride with another MOAD member back to home sweet home, “Nitty Gritty San Jo City,” if you will. We decide to stop at Jack-in-the-Box for a bite to eat, and figure we might as well have a little bit of fun while we’re at it. The initial plan was to order food through the drive-thru by walking instead of driving….. WHAT could possibly go wrong with that, you might wonder. (And, at the time, I was wondering something along the lines of “Why do we need to walk through a drive-thru when we’re already in a car? Take a deep breath, all your questions will be answered shortly.
- Well, anyway, as it turned out, before we were even able to completely exit the vehicle, a group of seemingly-rough upperclassmen attempted to start a conversation with us from their car across the parking lot. One, however, was completely intoxicated and began to pick a fight with the guy who was driving our vehicle. Luckily, at least a few of the people in that dark-gray SUV still had some sense in them, so they restrained their more-than-slightly-off buddy from attempting (futily, of course, but nonetheless) to cause physical harm to any of us. They all left shortly thereafter, the back tires of their car screeching down Prospect Road as they did so.
- Now, most normal human beings, at this point, would call it a night and proceed to get back home as soon as possible. I mean, none of us were actually hungry in the first place. But we, of course, had to be special. Instead of retreating, we continued with the initial ploy to invade the JitB drive-thru. “Screech. Honk! Eeeeek,” went our hypothetical car. “Damn, it’s hot in here, could you roll down the windows or something before we all suffocate to death,” I said in the 55 degree breeze as we continued to drive our ‘car’ through Jack’s drive-thru.
- Well, apparently, some people were not so easily fooled. “Ay, qual es estos sonidos? Los muchachos son exteriores acosando nuestro menú.” “Si,” said the other drive-thru technician, “Llamar los policia!” I’m sure you pretty much got the context of that conversation from the last word, right?? Low and behold, before we could scurry, hide, or run, four blue SJPD cars appeared, completely surrounding us in the small parking lot. Just one sentence was muttered by the officer cautiously clutching his night stick: “You guys need to get the fuck out of here, now!” Well, officer, you certainly didn’t mince words there. Now, I’d like to say that we decided to stick around even in their presence, but a) you’d have to be brain-dead to do that, and b) I’m sure I’ve sufficiently mocked my intelligence, both directly and indirectly, though the course of this blog, that doing so any further would be pretty much be overdoing it…
Well, that pretty much sums up the various events that took place during my adventurous night.
On another note, I’ve done quite a lot of thinking in the past 24 hours, both at the dance and for the past 11 hours that I’ve been up writing this… The last song played at the dance was “Stairway to Heaven,” and after later listening to this song and shedding a lone tear, both in sorrow and regret, and joy and happiness, I allowed myself to become immersed in its deep meaning. Carefully examining Stairway’s substance, I felt that one key note was undoubtedly directed towards me:
“Yes there are two paths you can go by.
But in the long run.
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.”
And, at that moment, I knew that there might actually be hope for my seemingly desperate situation. Now, for those of you that are unaware of my current scenario, I used to lead a luxurious life in which I truly was the star, as pompous as I may seem for saying so… Back then, I could get virtually anything I desired, money was rarely an obstacle, I lived in a 3-story ‘mansion’ of sorts in South San Jose, and my family traveled, on quite a regular basis, to places exotic and afar.
Though, now that I look back at it, material possessions were never really that important - as should be true in life as a general rule. Two years ago, however, I was also relatively successful as a person, as a student, and as a son… Family relationships were never that great, but, in retrospect, they may have been at their best then. I was also an over-achieving straight-A student at Union Middle School, which I attended after 6 years of private schooling, earning a plethora of recognition and awards too numerous to sum up. Back then, I still had a light shining inside me, to guide me in the right direction, and to help lead me away from making choices that would negatively impact me later. This light, a fire burning within my soul, was the key to the spirit, motivation, and drive that I possessed all throughout my early years and up until Middle School. From my scholastic achievements, to securing an Internship with IBM at 14, to creating several of my own profitable businesses before even reaching puberty, I was very much on top of the world.
Now, a quick fast-forward to my present day life reveals a child (which I regret to say that I still am), often struggling to get by in life, doing just about anything for a “quick buck,” currently pulling less than a 3.0 GPA, and on the verge of failing several classes. Aside from school, my social life is most certainly in need of improvement, as well. But, tonight, I learned something so important that it goes beyond our simple and vague definitions of happiness and success, and truly emphasizes the most positive, and the most negative, aspects of human nature. I learned that there is no point in simply moving passively through life, vacillating on decisions, important or otherwise, to the point of complete and utter failure - failure caused, of course, much more by the lack of decision making than by the substance of the decisions themselves. If one never properly addresses and acts upon the circumstances that possess them, their uncertainty will never get them anywhere in life. These decisions, hopefully manifested more as positive actions than as negative actions, should be carefully assessed at every corner, so as to make life itself worth living, and NOT just a foolish waste of time. As Lincoln so cunningly remarked, “…in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Of course, you may think I’m suggesting that getting out of the house, meeting all sorts of people, and potentially getting into lots of trouble with them would be what I’m referring to as a negative aspect of my life, or possibly even an example of poor decision making on my part. I can assure you, however, that this COULDN’T BE FARTHER from the truth. By at least making an attempt to go out into this world, explore it, and harvest, for myself, all of its beauty and wonder, I believe that I am truly starting to LIVE my LIFE.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”
- Charles Dickens
Oh and, by the way, this is what the back of the business card that I asked a certain “Aleph” to deliver, was supposed to look like:
