13. Bake a Tasty Dessert

Complete: 01/05/2013

Ingredients provided by Reid

For my 24th birthday, my friends Reid and Tracyn planned a day around the theme of my bucket list. Tracyn, in all her crafty skills, made me a bucket with clothespins that she clipped to the rim of the bucket, with one bucket list item glued to each clothespin. The idea was, with each bucket list item that I completed, I could clip together any memorabilia and document the date I completed the bucket list item as well as who I completed it with. Reid chose this bucket list item as the theme for his gift to me, and bought me all the ingredients to make brownies. On my birthday card, he wrote the recipe as well as told me that I had no excuse not to complete this bucket list item. Thanks to that, I made some delicious brownies to continue my bucket list quest in the new year.

 

 Birthday card with recipe

Before I go into my baking experience, I'd like to go back to the origins of this bucket list item. When my sister and I were little, we attempted baking once just to try it out. The recipe was from a children's book (I recall cartoon pictures of domesticated mice in aprons) titled "A Very Easy Chocolate Cake." Since our family isn't really into baking, my sister and I had to go out and buy a lot of these ingredients since they weren't ingredients my dad typically used in his cooking. We had to buy a baking pan, measuring spoons, baking powder, among other things. We then got to mixing the ingredients together. After following the recipe and sticking it in the oven to bake, we waited in anticipation of our final product since it was quite a lot of work for us two. When it came out, we were met with much disappointment; the cake did not rise, the batter was uneven since I remember there being patches of white (flour not mixed very well?) among the chocolate, and it was hard as a rock. Talk about failure, especially considering how we managed to mess up a recipe that is apparently so easy, they made a point to include it in the title of the cake. That day, I concluded that whatever the equivalent of having a green thumb is for baking/cooking was exactly what I was not.

Finished product

But, as I'm sure everyone has heard at some point in life, "If at first you don't succeed, try again." Well, this was one things I was willing to try my hand at again to see if I could indeed do better. So with all the dry ingredients conveniently purchased and given to me, I went to the store to purchase the remaining wet ingredients I needed to make brownies during the first weekend of the new year.

That afternoon, I followed the recipe on the birthday card. Despite making some beginner baker mistakes (which didn't impact the end product too much), I was able to successfully make brownies! Now that faith has been restored in my baking abilities, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at another recipe, particularly lemon bars. Let's see if I get to it this year.

Update: I've since tried my hand a variety of other desserts, including vegan butter mocha, vegan lemon cheesecake bars, and chia seed pudding, among other treats. Sorry I don't have any pictures, but I'm glad I did live up to the concluding statement of this post to attempt other dessert concoctions.

12. Build a Snowman

Complete: 12/30/2012

Winter Wonderland (courtesy of Cyndi)

Snow, what a fascinating phenomenon to someone who's lived her entire life in Hawaii. As much as I love the paradise I live in, I longed to experience a white winter just once in my lifetime. Local weather in Hawaii rarely dips under the 60s, and humidity remains at a consistent high. With family up in Canada, there was perfect opportunity to head up north for the holidays and experience a true winter.

To take advantage of this snow experience, I figured I should come up with a list of must-do's. Two made it to my bucket list, the first being to try a snow sport, and the title of this post. Additionally, I sort of had a snowball fight, made a snow angel, and went sledding to get my fix of fun in the snow.

 

Snow angel

Now back to building a snowman. A few days prior, I had sprained my wrist while snowboarding, so it wasn't exactly the easiest to try to build a snowman on my own. And seeing as how it's more enjoyable to accomplish this in the company of others, my cousin Jeanne kindly decided to help me out. Even though she hates winter and was also feeling under the weather, she was awesome enough to agree to help me out when none of my other available family members that evening wanted to, so she is a cool cat in my book. Dave was also interested in helping me build a snowman, but the conditions of the snow on the day we went snowboarding when we first tried it out weren't ideal, and so we had to forgo it at that time. Just thought it was worth mentioning since I like to give acknowledgement where acknowledgement is due.

 

Final product

Before embarking on the snowman adventure, I envisioned creating a life-size snowman. But as reality sunk in, my ambitions were downsized. For the base, we basically dug up surrounding snow and patted it into a ball-like shape. We then thought we could do the same for the second layer, but soon discovered that it doesn't really work that way. We somehow found a way to make it manage though. For the head, there was no getting around it, so we had to resort to rolling a snowball. Now the act of rolling a snowball is nowhere near as easy as it looks in movies. The snowfall that we had to work with was of a powdery consistency, which is not the ideal form of snow to build a snowman. It needed to be more icy in order to be packed more densely and have snow stick as it got rolled into a bigger snowball, so we had to create such conditions by adding water. Jeanne was in charge of packing the snow and attempting to roll it, while I summoned bowls of water from my sister in the house to add to the snowball to increase its volume. When we felt it was substantial enough, I had the honor of carrying the snowball head and affixing it atop the snowman. 

Afterwards, we headed into the house to find stuff to give our snowman a face and some limbs. The ingenious Jeanne found some cherry tomatoes that we used for the eyes, a small piece of basil stem to use as the mouth, and branches from the backyard to use for the limbs. Marc also helped by giving us a candy cane to use for the nose. After finishing our masterpiece, we had to name the guy. We somehow decided on Quan (our eldest cousin).

 

Sledding with Raynor

In assessing the winter experience, I'd say that I'm glad I experienced it once in my  life. While I did satisfy my excitement to see snow and play in it, the novelty of winter wore off much quicker than I thought it would. Everyone who has been in it kept telling me that snow is not as grand and exciting as I think it will be, but of course, I dismissed those comments until I finally experienced the snow myself and found their statements to be accurate. I can definitely understand why people don't like living through winters, since it is very inconvenient, cold, and makes you so lazy and idle for months on end. But, nothing beats having the family come together for the holidays, which we were able to do for the first time when both my sister and I and our cousin Cyndi from California went up. On top of that, our other cousin Marc, whose been teaching in Korea, made a surprise appearance (the adults didn't know that he was coming home for winter), and we were there for the birth of our baby cousin Chloe! 

Births of babies are always exciting!

11. Read an Inspirational Biography

Complete: 12/27/2012

Courtesy of The Last Lecture

For this bucket list item, I was looking for a way to feel inspired about living life. In my search, I came across the title The Last Lecture. The concept refers to the talk a professor would give, pondering on what matters most to them and what wisdom s/he would like to impart on the world, if it were his/her last. For this book's author and professor at Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Randy Pausch, his last lecture would indeed turn out to be his last, having learned he had pancreatic cancer and with a short time left on this Earth. How he chose to live out his last days and the messages he wanted to pass on as his legacy intrigued me, and so I chose to read the book.

After reading about a dying man who has come to terms with his impending death and who can still stay positive and live life to the fullest, it's hard not to reassess my own life and put it into perspective.

I found it ironic that he chose as the focus of his lecture his childhood dreams (seeing as how my motivation to read this book was related to achieving a goal). When I think back to mine's, I really wanted teacher when I grew up. In fact, when I played by myself, I would teach my school of stuffed animals and I even went as far as to replicate report cards for my imaginary students. Fast forward to the present day, I wouldn't say I ended up achieving my dream per se, but I did land myself in a job where I get to interact with students and so I guess I can say that I sort of stuck on that track. But there's always opportunity in the future to realize my childhood dream...we'll see.

Dr. Randy Pausch, courtesy of Randy Pausch's Home Page

Highlights from the book that resonated or stood out to me include:

1) Randy's parents' sacrifice and humility. What I really admire and respect about his parents are the morals and values that they passed on to Randy. This they not only expressed verbally, but demonstrated through action. They did a lot of volunteer work, which my parents continually encourage for me. For me, I find that volunteering often renews my hope in humanity to see the goodness in people. So often, we are caught up in our own lives and little things in life that we don't take the time to step back and appreciate the greater things of the world. I'll admit that I don't do this as often as I used to, but it's good to use your time to help others every once in a while.

2) Complaining doesn't work as a strategy. It is so easy to complain just about anything (I am well aware of this first-hand, having failed to fulfill one of my bucket list goals to go without complaining for 21 days a few months ago. I'm hoping to save it for a later date when I feel more prepared to complete it). In Randy's eyes, we have limited time and energy and so why not be more productive and try to solve our problems at hand than waste them whining? It certainly doesn't help us achieve our goals nor make us any happier after having complained. Such sound advice, yet still working on figuring out how to implement it more often in my life because I can sometimes act like a spoiled brat.

3) Ignore everything people say and only pay attention to what they do. In other words, actions speak louder than words. This advice is pretty much valid in any context, but especially important in searching for a life partner. In fact, my mother has driven this into my head as well. And this statement is quite true. People find it much easier to look up to and heed someone who walks the walk than to listen to someone who mostly talks the talk.

4) Dance with the one who brings you, namely showing loyalty and appreciation. We get through life by the help of others. I've found it easy to take for granted what people have done for me, so I want to make a more conscious effort to be grateful for the outcomes that have happened in my life. They are what make me who I am and I know that I've lived a better and easier life than most. I consider myself quite loyal, but I could always be more conscious of how others have helped me and express gratitude in ways that demonstrate my appreciation for what others have done for me.

5) Proper apologies comprise of three parts: what I did was wrong, I feel badly that I hurt you, and how do I make this better? Pride is a shortcoming of many, myself included. Unfortunately, the majority of my apologies are said in haste, meaning my apologies are often not heartfelt or genuine. As a result, more often than not, I do not consciously remember what I did wrong. I tend to commit the same mistake again. This, I shall admit, is definitely an area of improvement for me.

6) No job is beneath you. I don't think this has been an issue for me; when I was younger I worked as a classroom cleaner and did some dirty or laborious manual labor. I've actually been grateful for having such experiences under my belt, because it has made me more cognizant of what some people go through daily on their job and I'll do my part to make it as easy as possible for them. It's disappointing to hear stories of how inconsiderate people can be (do you really miss the toilet that badly in the restroom or does it really take you that much effort to try to throw something away properly in a trashcan?). To today, even though I will never want to go back to doing such work as a job, I am grateful to people in those type of positions and for what they do. I can certainly appreciate someone willing to do such work to earn a living and be a decent member of society much more than a person who takes advantage of charity or government assistance and sits on their butt all day.

Also along with this is how people nowadays feel a greater sense of self-entitlement but fail to emphasize the responsibility that comes with rights and freedom. Oh how much I agree with this, unfortunately. Our society is suffering more because of the increasing prevalence of these two ideas. I feel like today's youth is so spoiled, it being so easy for them to get what they want, and therefore they don't really understand the concept of hard work. Again, I am grateful for the upbringing I had, where I engaged in hard manual labor and thus helped me to understand the value of a strong work ethic.

Randy with his three children, courtesy of  The Last Lecture

Having read The Last Lecture, I've been inspired to have a more positive outlook on my life because it is indeed short and it's better to spend my days happier and in good spirits. In thinking about what messages from my own life experience that I'd like to pass on, I think of character. I feel like good character is not easy to come by these days. Skills and knowledge are the core of American education, but learning how to be a good person provides a basic foundation to be successful in life. At this point in my life, here are the top five things that I put into practice in my life that I find worthy:

1) Work hard. Not everyone has the good fortune to ride on by without having to work hard. But those who do more often than not reap benefits. Being productive and getting things done gives you a greater sense of fulfillment and useful place in this society than to be lazy. And the younger you are when you start, the earlier you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your life in old age.

2) Give back. It's unavoidable to be completely self-reliant, whether it be by a helping hand or of all the hands things go through before it reaches us for consumption. Seeing as how everyone is interconnected, our responsibility to the rest of the world is to do our part to contribute to society. This we accomplish by first doing our best at whatever our role in society is (eg. at our job, in our family, etc). Just as important is to also engage in community service or charity when the opportunities arise. It's the best way to show appreciation for what people have done for us and to pass on our good fortune to other people so that they too may remember the same message and do the same for someone else. The concept of paying it forward really works.

3) Respect others. The golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated is a no-brainer. It's such a basic concept, but it is worth repeating because people need reminding. No one is so on top of the world and better than everyone else that they can treat others badly. No one.

4) Don't waste. Resources on this planet are limited and we're running out of space in landfills. There's no reason for us to use things in excess and throw away without a second thought. Food especially. Recycle and conserve wherever possible. Reusable items can be donated to a goodwill store.

5) Stop to smell the roses. Kids are growing up much faster and people are getting so much more caught up in technology that simple, good things in life are being missed. I don't have anything against technology and can appreciate what advances it has made in society, but just don't let it consume your life. Go out and soak in the beauty of nature, or take the time to sit down with family and friends and enjoy their company. Don't take the things that are surrounding you for granted!

10. Try a Snow Sport

Complete: 12/26/2012

Final group picture (Dave, Cyndi, me, Stacy) after a day's worth of snowboarding

Christmas this year was particularly special for our family since both my sister and I as well as our cousin in California were able to make our way up to Canada to spend the holidays with the rest of our extended family. While the main purpose of the trip was to spend time with the family, we were pretty stoked to get to try a winter sport. After deliberation, my sister and I decided that snowboarding would be a good one to try. Luckily, our cousin Dave had both the time and research skills/motivation to find a great hill for us to do some snowboarding. After taking in the location, difficulty, and cost into consideration, he decided that Mt. St. Louis in Barre would the choice location for us beginners to attempt the sport. He even found some YouTube videos for us to watch to learn a bit about what to expect.

Snowboarding action

First thing on our quest to snowboarding, we needed to make sure we had the gear. The day we landed in Canada, we went shopping for some snowboarding jackets and pants. Hard to beat Walmart prices of $30 for a waterproof snow jacket and snow pants. Yay for being able to fit kids clothing and saving some money. 

Since we went on a Canadian holiday (Boxing Day), we were greeted by some pretty empty hills. That's a good thing since that meant less obstacles and therefore less chances of crashing into people. After we reached the destination, which happened to be the first time I witnessed a substantial amount of snow, I couldn't help myself and made a little snowball to throw at Dave. So technically, I had a snowball fight when Dave returned the favor, which was one of the things on my mental "to-do snow things" list.

We paid for gear rental (boots, board), group lessons, and access to the beginner hill for a grand total of about $150.00 per person. Before our group lesson started, we decided to try the magic carpet (minimal incline). The first time down, not so bad. The second time, I couldn't stop properly and had my first hard fall. The picture above is me sliding the hill and the one below is after I ate it really bad trying to avoid hitting Stacy at the bottom of the hill. Shooting pangs through my tailbone and I think my brain hit the side of my head. That smile in the picture below is not an accurate reflection of what I'm feeling. 

 

Snowboarding fall/fail

Then we headed over to the meet-up spot for our group lesson, led by Julia and Bethany. I really liked Julia as an instructor because she seemed down to earth and not as judgmental about our lack of skills. Just the kind of person a beginner with no background skills whatsoever needs to start off. The lesson began with some snowboarding terminology, followed by a few basic movements up and down a tiny slope. By the way, walking up any incline with a snowboard is harder than it looks. You're expected to basically carry the board attached to one foot (and since the foot is strapped to the left/right side of the board and not the center, it requires more energy to lift the entire thing. Also wanted to point out that rental snowboards are often heavier than regular snowboards to maintain greater durability from usage by multiple people.). We then learned to ride the lift, which is one of the more fearful parts of the whole experience since no one wants to be that person that fails to get on and has to have the entire lift stopped.

Now that we were at the top of the beginner hill, we started to learn how to navigate down. It's a pretty substantial hill considering our lack of skills and my poor sense of coordination when it comes to any type of physical activity (that's why I like hiking because it's not necessary to have such precise and quick reactionary body adjustments to do it). I quickly learned that although I deemed myself goofy-footed based on the tutorial YouTube videos we were watching prior to our snowboard outing, I was in fact regular. I can fly down the hill in small bouts, but not very good with steering and the brakes. Cyndi can attest to how I whiz by and fly into fences. Everything was fine and dandy (and by that I mean lots of spills, but which I could handle) until the end the lesson when I fell awkwardly and sprained my wrist. It hurt. A lot.

 

Riding the lift all alone because I couldn't keep up with the pack...boo

After the lesson, we had some lunch. I tried being optimistic that my wrist wasn't sprained and that the pain would go away with a little rest, but when my wrist still hurt like a mofo after the meal, I was pretty sure it was sprained.

Now, having paid $150.00 and driven 1.5 hours to try this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to snowboard, I didn't want to just sit it out for the rest of the day. So, I decided to go up for at least one run down the beginner hill. The picture above of me in my own lift is because I failed to move fast enough to ride with the rest of the gang and got denied by the automatic gate that times your entry to the lift and so I just had to wait for the next one. Stacy (with Dave and Cyndi beside her) turned around in her lift to take a picture of me all by myself. 

Anyway, the trip down the mountain was all right, though my wrist was killing me. I had to snowboard facing the mountain the entire time, thereby allowing me to throw my body across the floor as my brakes instead of using my wrists (which also gave my tailbone a break because I fell on my butt a lot. And while you'd think snow is soft and snowboarding gear is thick, it provides no cushion whatsoever against the snow that gets packed down with people continually riding over it). It was an ordeal to make it down the mountain, but I did and after that I called it a day.

 Cyndi and me at the bottom of the hill. And I just noticed I'm sporting a double chin.

Man, the after effects of all the falling were brutal. While we were tired and sore for the remainder of the day, the following day was filled with immense pain. Every (no exaggeration on the every) single muscle from my neck all the way to my knees hurt so bad. I didn't even realize how many muscles existed in my body until that day. Any movement brought major discomfort (I had to use my hands to help shift my head during my sleep because my neck muscles were aching so much). I've learned to appreciate what my muscles do for me every day. Experiencing how much it takes to snowboard makes me quite proud of this accomplishment.

9. Make a Gingerbread House

Complete: 12/05/2012

 Posing with my gingerbread crew (Team 3)

The holiday season -- my favorite time of the year. People are in a better mood, it's around the time of my birthday, and the opportunity to fulfill yet another item on my bucket list certainly helped. My workplace has yet again had an inadvertent hand in my being able to check another thing on my list. Every semester, I am tasked with organizing an appreciation dinner that usually combines a meal with some bonding activity for our student ambassadors, who volunteer their time and leadership to promote our academic programs and co-curricular activities. This semester, I decided on dinner and a gingerbread house-making competition to fit the holiday theme.

While a bunch of items on my bucket list may seem random, it's awesome when I can add a meaningful twist behind accomplishing something on my list. Well, this time was a perfect opportunity with the annual Gingerbread Festival fundraiser coordinated by Easter Seals Hawaii. They help individuals with disabilities and special needs and their families live better lives. I've volunteered at the event held at the Blaisdell several times in the past, and always found it charming that families actually come together to build their gingerbread houses. I also read somewhere that all the proceeds collected from this fundraiser go directly towards the organization, so that's a plus. Luckily they have to-go kits available for purchase, and so I went ahead and bought 4 for our group's dinner.

Volunteering at the 2010 Gingerbread Festival

At the appreciation dinner a few days later, the students were split into four teams. The staff served as judges and based their decision for overall winner based on the following factors: maximum 10 points for creativity; maximum 10 points for presentation; 5 points for using at least 80% of each type of ingredient used, 2 bonus points if all ingredients are used; and one point for each CTAHR undergraduate major incorporated in the gingerbread structure.

  

Hard at work

Creative juices flowing, each team came up with awesome ideas for the gingerbread house. I must say I was part of a team who not only had previous experience building gingerbread houses, but who also knew their stuff about our college's majors and were especially original with their ideas to use up the ingredients. A more detailed explanation of what we built:

 

Inside the structure

We first started with the structure, which we decided would be a classroom. The students are intently listening to a lecture about baby/infant development (FAMR). If you look closely, you'll see a red gummy bear baby at the front of the classroom, which is what the students are studying. He's in a diaper, and a designer one at that (APDM).

View of one side

Perched by the windows are two gummy bear designers, who are intently sewing the decorative drapes. Along the edge of the roof are gears that create natural energy to power the classroom (BE). The bottom left is a soil garden (12 types of soil, to be exact) that gummy bear soil scientists are examining (TPSS).

View of other side

Alongside the walls are marred and injured animals (some with broken limbs), all waiting in line for the veterinarian to operate on them (ANSC). This side also has a clear view of the genetically modified palm tree where the coconuts grow atop, as opposed to under the leaves, of the tree (PEB). The bottom right is a vegetable garden with a gummy bear food inspector testing the nutritional value of the food being grown (FSHN). Kind of bummed that there's no clear shot of it, but in the food garden is a horsefly (creatively done by cutting the front legs off one animal cracker and attaching it upside down to the back of a horse animal cracker to serve as its wings from the front view), which is the invasive pest that we're trying to protect the food against (PEPS).

 

Back view of classroom

 
Then on the roof are gummy bears installing solar panels to draw power from a renewable energy source (NREM). Fantastic work, teammates.

So after 50 minutes of building, teams presented their prized, final masterpieces. Props to everyone who participated because each structure came out excellent. Here's how the other teams fared:

 

 Team 1

Creative manger style display and also liked the flower

 

Team 2

 

Loved how sustainable their structure was (see their sunroof?)

 
Team 4

Favorite part was the car (which runs on biofuels) that was charging in the garage

After deliberation, who did the judges choose as the winners of the contest? Team 3! Go teammates!

8. Eat 50 Flavors of Onopops

Complete: 10/31/2012

Courtesy of OnoPops

This bucket list item evolved from my original intention to select one bakery/ice cream parlor/Cheesecake Factory and try every flavor or dessert they offered. But after giving some thought to the cost and feasibility of accomplishing such a feat (I wanted to pick someplace that had a significant variety of desserts/flavors to make this attempt worthwhile), I finally settled on Onopops. I first read about in Honolulu Magazine and subsequently found at various farmers markets and outdoor events around the island.

You may be wondering what made me pick this of all possible food businesses on this island. Well, as meaningless as it is to try all the offerings of a particular food place for fun, I tried to add to the significance of this achievement by making a conscious choice on the kind of place I would be giving my business to. In addition to the criteria of offering a multitude of flavors (the owners are quite creative in the kitchen and have come up with lots of unique flavor combinations), what appealed to me about OnoPops is that they promote sustainability in Hawaii by using local or organic ingredients in their naturally-flavored pops. Their vision, taken from the company website, sums it up quite nicely: "OnoPops envisions a self-sustaining Hawaii, where people value local goods and the people that produce them. We will showcase this in flavor after flavor, in new and exciting ways, bringing awareness of endless sustainable, local possibilities for Hawaiian tastebuds."

 Free cooler when I officially decided to pursue this quest. I think it was a sign :)

My first taste of OnoPops (the lilikoi cheesecake flavor) happened at the first Eat the Street event in Kakaako that I ever attended. Accomplishing this goal would span the next few months, since flavors are contingent on availability of the ingredients in season, so I had to wait a while to come across new flavors that I hadn't tried. One inadvertent outcome of this task was my being introduced me to the world of farmers markets. I've been to several different ones now, including in Kailua, at Kapiolani Community College, and Blaisdell. While I get my fix of pops, I've gotten to try other delectable food concoctions, and support other local businesses through my  patronage as a result. Win!

Savoring the 50th OnoPop (hopefully not my last)

Flavors tried: azuki green, blue cheese double star (aka blue cheese and starfruit jam), butter mochi, cacao nib crunch, caramel shoyu, cherimoya crema, chocolate apple banana*, chocolate peanut butter fantasy, crackseed lemon peel, cucumber yogurt shiso, dark chocolate Chinese five spice, dragonfruit chamomile, ginga-tanical orange, ginga-tanical yellow, guava tamarind, honeydew mint, honeyed tropical apricot, horchata, jaboticaba lemonade, kabocha pumpkin brown Betty, kalamansi coriander, kona latte, kooky azooky (aka rocky road to Tokyo)*, Kula strawberry Maui goat cheese, lilikoi 50/50, lilikoi cheesecake, lime soda, lychee, mac nut brittle, mango habanero lime, mango honey cream*, mango magma, mango strawberry, Maunakea green tea, Mexican chocolate, mountain apple rose, pickled green mango, pineapple li hing, pineapple rhubarb, pineapple vanilla, pink lemon cream, plantation iced tea, salted watermelon cream, starfruit lemongrass**, strawberry beet lavender, Surinam cherry clove, tropical sundae, ume Thai basil**, varietal mango blend, virgin Bloody Mary, Waialua estate mocha, watermelon feta pepper**, and watermelon hibiscus.
* = personal favorites; ** = especially ono (delicious)

7. Carve a Pumpkin

Complete: 10/28/2012

Pumpkin Patch

If you know me, you'd be familiar with my childhood and how it lacked many of the typical American traditions that pretty much all youth born here have experienced. I lost out on a lot of things that other kids had, like decorating a Christmas tree (yeah, still haven't done that in my 24 years of existence thus far), hiding a tooth for the tooth fairy, watching Disney classics (still haven't had the chance to watch The Little Mermaid), or having bedtime stories read to me to lull me to sleep. There was something about moving to warmer weather here in Hawaii that transformed my parents; they underwent a major lifestyle change from one filled with lavish and conspicuous consumption that entailed a lot of socializing and parties, to one of parsimony and pragmatism, mostly revolving around work (and volunteering upon retiring from their lunch wagon business).

Pumpkin's "before" picture

When it came to holidays, my parents didn't really feel the need to be festive and partake in such celebration. When I think about it, I guess it turned out for the better since I feel like I wasn't spoiled because of that. For example, to my parents, birthdays were meant for children to show gratitude to their parent for all the sacrifices they made that helped their child reach another year, which is very much the opposite of the sentiment here where the child is the center of the celebration for reaching another year. The basic conclusion I'm intending  to get is that I missed out on many American traditions as a child, some of which became items on my bucket list so that I could say I experienced them in my life. 

 

Scooping out the guts

I wasn't initially planning on completing this pumpkin thing this year, but a good friend who knew about my bucket list had kindly purchased a carving kit for me and given it to me a few weeks ago (thank you!). There's no better motivation to get something done than to have the encouragement of others. Since it felt like someone was investing in my pumpkin experience, how could I not do it?

 

Outline to be cut away

So the next step in my quest to carve a pumpkin led me to my first trip to a pumpkin patch. It was quite nice to roam around a field full of orange pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. The anal person that I am, of course, had to look at every single pumpkin before being satisfied with my selection. After settling on one, I took it home.

 

 

Sister beginning the carving, Dad holding the pumpkin and posing 

Now, if I was going to make this a bucket list item, I couldn't pick just any 'ole design. After searching through sites of templates, I finally settled on an owl (hoo-hoo!) By the way, people are pretty creative and talented with their pumpkin carvings as I was researching various ideas. Google it and you'll see what I mean. My favorites are the hamburger (and TMNT from watermelon).
 

 Look of determination as I carve a narrow section

Setting up for pumpkin carving is quite more work than I anticipated. First, I cut the top off at an angle so it could serve as a "lid" for the pumpkin. Pumpkins pack quite some stringy threads inside. Then my sister and I drew the owl free-hand (she did a good job with the face, I did a not-so-good job with the wings, body, and feet). Then came the carving. I don't know about the rest of pumpkin carvers, but it was some pretty serious business. It's not that easy to cut through the thick pumpkin skin, and with precision nonetheless (hence, the jagged edges). I think our design almost collapsed on the left side, but luckily it held.

 
The Pumpkin's "after" picture

 After finishing the final product, we put a candle inside and lit it. Not too shabby.

 

6. Try Harder to be Nicer to a Certain Someone

Completed: 10/16/2012

Courtesy of Website

Oh how powerful the mind can be. Before I decided to put this item on my bucket list, I seriously dreaded making any conversation with this person. What happened was, I had to ask for this person's assistance on something I had to take care of on a regular basis, but we would clash and so the outcome of our interactions often left each other in an unpleasant mood. Being an avoider of conflict, my method of dealing with such a situation left me frustrated, which I did not communicate so instead led to pent-up negativity. It came to a point where I would avoid any communication with this person at all costs, except for pleasantries and what was necessary to complete tasks that needed to be done.

For a while, I noticed that I would make conversations with everyone else around me and that I specifically avoided her. There were instances where she would try to strike up a conversation with me, but I would not give in and would instead respond with one-word conversation killers. I think it got to a point where she became conscious of my exclusion of her from personal conversations, but she didn't say anything about it.

It would have been fine to continue this kind of relationship with this person, but as I came up with my list of bucket items, I got to thinking about some personal improvement-focused goals. This almost instantly came to my mind. My awareness of this issue and choice to continue to allow it to continue in this unhealthy manner was pressing on my conscious. I mean, how long could I hold a grudge? And seriously, it was over something that isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. Sure it's not easy to be treated with hostility, but if I tried to be the bigger person and more understanding in her shoes, I would realize that the attacks were on the situation and not me. If I could just remember to see it that way, then it would be a totally cinch to let it go and get over it.

So after this was written on my list, I decided it would be on the first ones that I would complete. The growing internal frustration that took about a year to accumulate from every negative encounter sort of rolled off my shoulders when I decided to not let this passively control me in a way I had allowed it to all this time and do something about it.

It started with a small compliment here and there, where what she did didn't go unnoticed. Then a conversation grew out of one of those compliments, and it was satisfying to see how animated she could be getting off on a subject that's related to one of her passions. Sometimes she'd generate the small talk so that was definitely a sign of improvement.

But came the real test. Every now and then, we did have to get to talking about those dreaded tasks that we butted heads on. Before, I would always come into the conversation with trepidation, preparing to get upset by conversation's end. Recently though, I've been proven wrong on several occasions, a pattern that I realize in hindsight that I overlooked since it kind of started on this path of improvement before I made this bucket list decision. This then got me thinking about why I kept assuming that things would stay bad when it really wasn't as horrible as I made it out to be for myself? Silly me and my mindset.

Today, I decided that I could officially cross this off my list because she came to me, trying to make conversation. I greeted the opportunity with enthusiasm, carrying out our conversation for quite a while (even picking up after a potential conversation-ending interruption). We laughed out loud (literally), which isn't common for just her and me. It's a much nicer feeling to be on better terms with someone who you would previously thought you could never get along with. Not like we're buddy-buddy like the panda picture above, but certainly on better ground than a few month's back.

 

In sum, here are a few key lessons I learned from this experience:

-The mind is quite a mighty tool. It has the ability to allow us to accomplish incredible things, and, yet just as easily, set us back from all the incredible things we are capable of achieving.

-Putting yourself in someone else's shoes shows a totally new perspective. Too often we choose to live in our egocentric point of view and don't make the effort to try and see through someone else's eyes. If we just invested a little effort to do that every so often, we would be more open-minded and not let things get to us as easily as they do when we think of just ourselves.

-In the end, the golden rule always wins. If I kept acting the way I did, assuming the worst and thus behaving accordingly, then I would miss out on the opportunity to make my life experiences more positive and probably have us both reverting back to the negativity we had in the past. And when you think about it, the reciprocation of someone treating you nicely certainly beats the reciprocation of hostility and avoidance in an environment where you need to work together on a regular basis. I guess "Treat others the way you want to be treated" doesn't earn the title of "golden rule" for nothing.

When I read these lessons, they all seem so obvious and have been told over and over again by others. But it's just so much more comprehensible when you experience it yourself. You should try it sometime.

 

08/06/14 update: There have been instances where we have both reverted back to the unpleasant relationship we had (me closing off to her or anticipating a stressful conversation when asking about a task or she expressing displeasure through body language or indirect comments), but I think this is a continual work in progress that we both have been working on. The important thing is that we both are trying harder to be better about communication than before. I do have to remind myself every now and then about how not to hold grudges and be more selfless, but it's something I will always need to keep working on in improving myself.

5. Bike Down Haleakala

Complete: 09/30/2012

 

Just before sunrise

  
As mentioned in my previous post, I was on Maui for a work-related trip. Here's the post on the second item from my bucket list I completed during that weekend. On the second morning of the trip, our group got up in the wee hours of the morning (2am) to get ready for our sunrise tour to the dormant volcano Haleakala, Hawaiian for "House of the Rising Sun."

 

Bikes loaded on the roof, ready to go

 

We arrived at Maui Sunriders at 3-something, sleepy-eyed yet excited for what was to come. (By the way, I highly recommend them if you're looking to do a tour up Haleakala. They provided prompt and excellent service from inquiry to day of tour.) After getting a safety debriefing and selecting our gear, we got into the vans to begin our adventure.

The two tour guides who brought us up were Remy and Joe, who provided  history of the local area and personal anecdotes on the trek up the world's third highest peak. For 3am, they were quite chipper. Also, lucky for us, it was a full moon out, so seeing it reflected against the water was a beautiful sight I was glad I got to see.

 Full moon on the other side of where the sun was coming up from

 

The windy road up (which has the Guinness World Record for steepest paved road in the world) brought us to the top of the mountain. We arrived just as the sun was starting to peek out. Stepping out of the van into the cold totally woke us all up. Having never experienced extreme cold weather, I felt like I freezing! It probably wasn't that cold to other non-Hawaii visitors.

Happy students at the Visitor Center

After thawing ourselves out for a bit in the visitor center, a small group of us went outside and climbed to a higher area. As more light came out, we were greeted with a view of clouds spilling into the crater. There is just something powerful about being isolated in nature.

 Sun rising above the thick layer of clouds
 

After soaking in the most surreal sunrise I've seen in my life thus far, our tour guide took us down to about 7,000 feet above sea level to set us up on our bikes for our cruise down the mountain. The 28-mile ride (98% downhill, with one short, sort of steep hill nicknamed "Agony Hill") brings you down Kula, through the paniolo ("cowboy") town of Makawao, and back to the bike shop in Paia. Didn't really make any stops along the way, so the bike ride took about an hour to an hour and a half. Our group was all down by about 8:30am. It was a pretty relaxing experience, and not as scary as I anticipated.

 Group picture before heading down the mountain

 

Tips/information you should know if you want to partake in this experience:

~The road up is really windy. It wasn't a problem for me, but if you get carsick, this might not be a suitable ride for you.
~Wear warm clothing in layers. The bike company provides a windbreaker jacket (very useful) and pants (didn't use but would probably be much appreciated if it rained), backpack for carrying your items, and gloves (much needed!). Also, bring food because you will get hungry.
~The bike itself is nothing special. The gear made it difficult to do any real pedaling (the highest gear felt like a 2 on a regular bike), and the cushion on the seat did nothing to protect my flat booty. My butt was sore for a day or two afterwards because of the (nonexistent) cushioning.

4. Milk an Animal

Complete: 09/29/2012

Is that cute, or is that cute?
Photo courtesy of Michelle Chen

I had the privilege to go to Maui during the last weekend of September as part of my job, where I take a group of students for a two-day excursion to a neighbor island. The purpose of these annual trips to a different island in our archipelago, is to expose our students to local career opportunities in agriculture through hands-on experiences.

I was fortunate enough to be able to complete two items off my bucket list. (People have asked if I put things on my bucket list that I know I will be able to complete just so I can check them off and the answer is "no." If I'm going to Maui anyway and can fit these bucket list items on the itinerary, why not? That's called being efficient and working smart. But I digress.)

Group picture at entrance of farm

On the morning of September 29, our group made our way to the Surfing Goat Dairy, located in Kula. This goat farm is owned and operated by a couple in Germany who fell in love with Maui and moved here to retire. The man of the couple loved his cheese, so he and his wife decided to start this goat farm despite lacking any background in cheese-making. They did pretty well for themselves though, producing all kinds of world-renown, award-winning cheeses. They offer a grand dairy tour every Saturday, in which you learn about the entire process of cheese-making from raising the goats, feeding, milking, herding, to finally turning the milk into cheese.

Photo Courtesy of Michelle Chen

I was pretty excited to get to milk the goat. The goat's udder felt surprisingly warm to my inexperienced hands (I guess it makes sense logically when I think about it, but still wasn't expected). "Clamp and squeeze" we were instructed, and though I felt it would be painful for the goat, she stayed calm. Got a few squirts out, "milk an animal" complete.

Milking it