There are only about four more weeks of classes. The final stretch! But it's always at the most critical periods that I start falling off as stress accumulates. But this time I'm determined to not let that happen.
Spring has been the most gracious source of motivation during this difficult time. Even though I have been lacking in sleep and abundant in school work (an ever-increasing disparity), somehow Spring lets me know that everything is going to be okay. The sun dances around me, telling me that I'm awesome (imagine a yellow comic book interjection bubble). Birds sing from the branches. The breeze weaves through the clear sky and ushers me towards the pursuit of achievement and productivity. Cherry blossoms cheer me on from the sidelines as they bloom like cheerleaders shaking their pompoms.
I have no idea how I managed to fill up this weekend with events without having a mental breakdown about all the school work I still have left to do. A year ago I would never have agreed to do anything over a busy weekend like this, but I got an epiphany about a month ago when Jolie visited me.
She was telling me how she has huge tests every week and so every weekend is a busy one for her, don't even mention the weekdays. If she put everything [fun] off until she was less busy, she'd never go out, because the work never ends. So despite the work, she always finds time to go out.
My epiphany is this: You have time. You just gotta spend it. And anyways, you can't take it with you. If I didn't go to Sakura Sunday today, I would have just slept the morning away and Tumbled the rest of it.
Georgina, Victoria, Grace, and I left campus on the 8:50AM SEPTA train to catch the 10:00AM taiko and dance performances by Tamagawa University, which was easily my favorite part of the whole festival. I was super bummed out about missing them when they were at Swarthmore, but this definitely made up for it. Bless the stranger who recorded it all and uploaded it onto YouTube.
Another favorite of the day was Hideking Project, a J-pop band, particularly their vocalist Wi!‿!iam (William, but that's how he signs his autograph hehe). Other than those two performances, the cherry blossom festival was...alright. The comedian MC-ing the main stage made some really uncomfortable *racist* jokes and was self-depreciating in a bitter way. There was a random fashion show that displayed not-Japanese fashion for a not-Japanese designer/brand, and all the models were white. Besides the performances on the main stage, there were other activities going on too, but we missed many of them while watching performances. I mean, there were seats, could you blame us?
Cosplayers roamed the festival, making me wish I watched more anime so that I could recognize and identify the characters. There was even a cosplay fashion show, which we unfortunately missed while watching Hideking Project. We also missed the food. I know. *GASP* How could we miss the food?? Well, most of the food wasn't Japanese food, and I'm not a fan of long lines, so we decided to eat lunch at Chinatown after the festival. Probably a good choice for my wallet. There was a sushi judging station somewhere, but we didn't get to taste any of it; votes were cast based on appearance. Lame.
(We somehow ended up staying in Chinatown for three hours and didn't get back home until 8:30PM. Our lunch--or was it dinner?--consisted of two cups of Kung Fu Tea and lots of dim sum. RIP HW.)
I was torn between whether or not to write about the not-so-great parts of the cherry blossom festival. I had really been looking forward to it, but to be honest, it was a letdown. There was literally only one pink tree. We spent a lot of time around that one tree taking pictures. From all the pictures of the pink tree I have, you wouldn't be able to tell what a fail the "cherry blossom" aspect of the festival was.
I don't mean that I was going to lie about my experience to impress my readers or something. I'd never do that, because I blog as much for me as I blog for you guys, so lying to you would be lying to myself ...although a literary embellishment never hurt anyone haha :P But in all seriousness, what I mean is that I toyed with the idea of taking advantage of the fact that you only see a snippet of my life through my blog. It's often said about Instagram, but it's also very true for v/blogging. I could have easily spent a whole post gushing about the highlights of Sakura Sunday. But part of the truth is not the truth.
There's a difference between cutting out the negative parts of your life and deciding to focus on the positive parts of your life. It's impossible for me to tell you everything I see, think, and feel. In fact, it's impossible for me to even keep track of it for myself. And of what I do remember, why would I want to dwell on the not-so-great parts? Life's too short for dissatisfaction. But everything you experience makes you who you are, and accepting both the good and bad parts makes you stronger. Sure, the festival itself wasn't what I expected, but I had so much fun with my three friends, and now we have more memories to share and stories to tell. The best stories come from deep within us and are of us.
