Two years ago when I was about to graduate, UCLA had a very public ordeal with their College of Letters and Science commencement speaker. Sure it probably was nowhere near as big of a deal as the year before mine when Bill Clinton was slated to speak at the L&S graduation. His being the speaker caused mass scalping of graduation tickets throughout the student body then immense disappointment when he pulled out as a move of solidarity and support of the UC union workers (something like that...) who had sent him a letter asking him to pull out as a speaker since they were getting paid so low and treated badly. Yeah that was pretty bad.

But the class of 2009 had its own drama when James Franco was originally set as our graduation speaker which led to outcry among students since he technically was graduating with us and because... how would he know what its like to be a graduate? What kind of advice would this guy be able to give us? Anyway among all the hating James Franco pulled out as our speaker, most likely because everyone didn't want him to be it in the first place, and because he had to go off and film a movie on site... I think it was 127 Hours. As a result Robby and I forever hate that guy and UCLA scrambled for a new speaker. Conan O'Brien had just moved to LA to start doing the Tonight Show and despite all our best efforts he eventually responded to UCLA by saying that he couldn't be our speaker since he didn't have enough time to prepare. In the end we had Brad Delson from Linkin Park as our commencement speaker who is actually a UCLA alumni, gives back to the school a lot, and was actually really entertaining so it didn't end too shabby for us...

BUT what if Conan HAD spoken at our graduation. 

Well this year Conan did a commencement speech at Dartmouth and after initially avoiding the video due to jealous resentment and thinking "that should've been us!" I finally watched it... and IT'S AMAZING! When I watched it though I just pretended that he WAS talking to our graduating class... minus all the Dartmouth pandering.

Quotes! (disjointed quotes in no particular order):

Disappointment stings and, for driven, successful people like yourselves it is disorienting.  What Nietzsche should have said is  “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you watch a lot of Cartoon Network and drink mid-price Chardonnay at 11 in the morning. "

It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.  It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can be a catalyst for profound re-invention.

 No specific job or career goal defines me and it should not define you.  In 2000, I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that.  But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come.  The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality.

... there is no greater cliché in a commencement address than “follow your dream.” Well I am here to tell you that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change.  And that’s okay.  Four years ago, many of you had a specific vision of what your college experience was going to be and who you were going to become.  And I bet, today, most of you would admit that your time here was very different from what you imagined.  Your roommates changed, your major changed, for some of you your sexual orientation changed.   I bet some of you have changed your sexual orientation since I began this speech.  I know I have.  But through the good and especially the bad, the person you are now is someone you could never have conjured in the fall of 2007. (When listening to this I pretended he said Fall of 2005)

Aaahh! So perfect! Especially for the way the economy is now! Such good advice! Oh Conan you are the best!

I guess it's alright that he didn't speak at UCLA back in 2009. His speech would've been completely different than this one. Back then he was JUST about to start the Tonight Show and hadn't been dealt his huge disappointment. Our speech would've probably been to work hard and your dreams will come true which is fine... I guess.. but this is way better!

I never know what to say when I randomly decide to start blogging again... Its like awkwardly talking to a friend you haven't seen in a while or something; don't quite know where to start. How bout this..?

I'm half done with graduate school! Aww yeah! Half way to getting my Masters in Public Health, Epidemiology!

I'm sure the question is being begged to be asked: "How's grad school? ls it hard?" Answer: No.

I'm pretty glad its not like a UCLA part II but there have been many times where I feel like its been a little bit of a joke, to be honest. I'm not too sure what's causing this ease. It could be any one of the following:

1. UCLA kicked the crap out of me and now nothing is as hard in comparison.

2. Graduate school is naturally not meant to be as hard as undergrad. Professors aren't trying to screw you over.

3. State school vs UC. From publicly perceived (and now personally confirmed) difficulty level discrepancies to going from a fast paced quarter system to an easy going semester system.

4. Not living in a dorm / an apartment floor filled with friends to tempt me away from studying. Better add "not playing beer pong every other day" to this one.

5. Difference in major from Biochemistry to Epidemiology.

6. Finding my calling in life and actually having full interest in what I'm studying.

I'm sure its not just one but more of a combination of all these factors. Either way I'll just be happy with my 4.0 and HOPE that it stays that way. I'm not too sure if the second year is supposed to be easier or harder but from what it seems from doing my Plan of Study and talking to my advisor, it doesn't seem like it will be harder. I've already taken care of a bunch of units since I took as many classes as possible so the next year shouldn't be too stressful, however, my advisor did stress that since I'm not applying for medical school or a doctoral program right after graduating I should be looking at taking classes that would be giving me useful knowledge and skills that would make me more of a desirable hire. On a side note though Dr Brodine told me I'd be a strong candidate for med school or a doctoral program and I nearly died of pride. Dr Brodine seriously has my dream life! Runs HIV/AIDS research clinics in South Africa but lives in San Diego working as a professor and doing research locally but flying out to Africa every couple weeks. So fun!

Future planning aside, this past year of grad school has been great. Lots more chill than undergrad. I'm getting to know a bunch of people in my cohort and we hang out every once in a while. Some of them constantly have the same classes with me and Mike and I specifically are in all the same classes as well as have the same internship location at the county health department so I see that guy all the time. Although we both work in immunizations he works with the Vaccines for Children state program and I work in the immunizations epidemiology department... I suppose that's what it would be called. We're working on two projects funded by the CDC that have to do with testing out evidence based practices that have been shown to improve immunization rates. Its pretty awesome since I've been involved on all levels of these projects from survey taking to data entry and now data analysis so I know it pretty well... well enough to hopefully write a good thesis!

The year was also filled with lots of visits from Christian and multiple trips home to norcal as well as LA to keep in touch with my UCLA buddies. Hmmm... looking back its been a pretty good year.

Now that summer is in full swing, much much earlier than I'm used to might I add, I'm looking forward to working full time (... I guess) at County where I'll be putting in a bunch of work into data analysis of what is essentially my thesis data, doing the literature review for my thesis (I'm going to be an immunization rate and flu vaccine master!), training for the SF Marathon and Nike Womens Marathon, lots of visits home and to LA, and most of all... HAWAII!

My facebook statuses are definitely the best way of chronicling my year.

- Figure out + make everyone's Christmas presents

- Buy something for white elephant (by Thursday)

- Schedule an X-Ray for my back

- Go to the dentist (Wednesday)

- Schedule a hair appointment to use my pac promo

- Take car to the Honda dealership to take care of the recall order on it

- Decide on and buy tickets to wherever I'm going for New Year's Eve

- Go snowboarding (maybe)

- Use my Groupon for unlimited Bikram yoga classes for a month

- Christmas in the Park (Wednesday)

- Ice skating at Vallco (next Tuesday)

- Send in my potential class schedule next semester to my internship

- Take Jojo to the vet

- BLOG!

I think there're two types of people in the world: ones that clean the lint trap after they're done using the drier and those that leave it for someone else.

This is only applicable for those who have to use communal washer/driers. For everyone else it's the Britney Spears definition; ones that entertain and ones that observe.