January
The first month of every semester is always the most packed. You have rush season, 30 million clubs trying to recruit you, and syllabus week. You try to take advantage of your time since you know you won't get that opportunity come later in the year, and that's exactly what I did. I started the year off right by popping some cold ones with the boys in big bear. Shortly after that, I went to Vegas for a short time with two guys from that group. Alas, there were only so many subpar comedy acts that three 20 year olds can watch in Vegas before getting bored. The next couples weeks was dedicated to connecting with friends from organizations - old and new. In the middle picture, you can see me in my Michael Phelps form, where I won a shit ton of beer pong games back to back with my signature butterfly move. In the rarest of instances, I also hung out with my Troy Phi line (Aesthetic) at the Grove. I tried Umami burger for the first time and found out that this one dude has ties to the Russian government and is working towards commercializing marijuana in the Philippines. Still not sure if he's actually a real person. I might update yall on next year's edition. In the third picture, I drove up to Utah with the Wrestling team to wrestle in the middle of nowhere. The tournament itself was handled really badly so I don 't remember much from trip except freezing in the back of Coach's pickup truck for the six or so hour drive back to LA and cramping in my matches #stayHydrated2018. Later that month, I also ended up rushing a frat - DOZ, which turned out to be really fun.
February
February was the start of DOZ interviews, the cornerstone of the organization. This is where you get to spend an hour with the 50+ actives and do something cool with them like jammin out, trying bougie restaurants, and even getting to explore rooftops around LA. I got to know myself really well through these conversations and also develop professionally. Meanwhile, I got to bond with my class through different challenges the Pledgemaster set up for us that kind of forced us to bond, but definitely killed my sleeping schedule.
I also led my first TP hike to the Wisdom Tree and I even brought along the homedawg EeeeEEEEeeeEEeEeeEitan. I also got to catch up with Paul from the Philippines. Took him out for ramen and ice cream out in the OC. But unfortunately all the food I ate caught up to me when I concluded the wrestling season at the Western Conference Tournament. :(
My girlfriend and I also celebrated our one year anniversary together on Valentine's Day. We started the night off at Franco's on Melrose, a restaurant whose bathroom was literally too small to fit me. It was fun being surrounded by 50 year old couples and other random young people trying to be bougie for V Day. After that, we hit up LACMA and the Pink Wall for some pictures and drove up to our secret view spot which was, unfortunately, gated off. :( Still, we climbed under a fence and looked pensively out into the city while a group of very high teens smoked next to us. #Romance. We ended the night by grabbing some boba at Urth Caffe... and guess who we kidnapped on the way!! ... EeeeEEEEeeeEEeEeeEitan!!!!!!
I also led my first TP hike to the Wisdom Tree and I even brought along the homedawg EeeeEEEEeeeEEeEeeEitan. I also got to catch up with Paul from the Philippines. Took him out for ramen and ice cream out in the OC. But unfortunately all the food I ate caught up to me when I concluded the wrestling season at the Western Conference Tournament. :(
My girlfriend and I also celebrated our one year anniversary together on Valentine's Day. We started the night off at Franco's on Melrose, a restaurant whose bathroom was literally too small to fit me. It was fun being surrounded by 50 year old couples and other random young people trying to be bougie for V Day. After that, we hit up LACMA and the Pink Wall for some pictures and drove up to our secret view spot which was, unfortunately, gated off. :( Still, we climbed under a fence and looked pensively out into the city while a group of very high teens smoked next to us. #Romance. We ended the night by grabbing some boba at Urth Caffe... and guess who we kidnapped on the way!! ... EeeeEEEEeeeEEeEeeEitan!!!!!!
March
March was one of the more fun months out of the school year. It started off with getting a big in my fraternity, who gave me a large golden egg full of candy inside, only to be stolen later the night by a 40 year old Persian dude in an Egyptian-themed frat party. Nothing too interesting happened after that since I’m pretty sure I had midterms that time. I did happen to volunteer at a food bank, where I just shot a bunch of bread into corresponding boxes. It was basically like playing bread basketball and it was (not) surprisingly very fun.
When Spring Break came around, I went with my girlfriend to visit her sister in Seattle. That itself was exciting enough since her parents had no idea I was coming along (oh and fyi, her parents didn’t know I was dating her back then). And while we had to constantly make sure her parents had no idea with what was going on, we managed to have a great time. The first few days, we visited Snowqualmie falls and ate some good food around Capitol Hill. We stayed at an Airbnb in the area that was incredibly nice. Townhouse goals af. Our host was even a Mathematician. Swag goals af. The next day, we took a day trip to Portland. We went on a muddy hike, where my girlfriend and her sister cried for slipping all over the place and where I'm pretty sure I saw Jacob and Edward hashing it out; We visited Powell's bookstore where I found hentai books on linear algebra; and we toured the food truck scene around Downtown, Portland which was actually really impressive. We spend the last couple of days just general sightseeing in Seattle - the Public Market, 1st starbucks, "the troll," and etc.
I managed to sneak in going to a darty in Santa Barbara for Red Cup Inc. homie Brandon Davis’ birthday. We bounced on the bouncy house, messed around in the beach, and caught some Pokemon in the UCSB campus. All in all, it was great getting to hang out with these guys over break. And, I think the only significant thing left this month was that I got to eat boiling crab with Garci, a close friend/mentor, who was visiting for a short time.
April
April started off with Pilipino American Culture Night (PACN), which is a show featuring traditional dances and a skit. This year's theme was centered around utang na loob or debt or gratitude, which means a lot to me now than it did back then. I performed Cariñosa and Sayaw sa Bangko, both of which I enjoyed. My entire family came which was really cool since it was first time really being on campus and seeing what the filipino community was like at USC. And because it was Jackie's last PACN (and ironically, my first), it made this night even that more special. And since it was so special, we culminated the evening by hitting up Yoshinoya for a yummy beef bowl. This month was also the first time Troy Phi participated in Pilipinx Visibility Week, which was started by the SIKAP campaign to promote Pilipino and Ethnic Studies in California colleges. Having just come off the PACN train, our organization showcased Tinikling at an elementary school and on campus, while trying to get people to pledge to the campaign and promote the cause. At the culmination event, I got to share our progress of our club's short and long term goals with other schools who are in the coalition while getting to hear from some inspirational Filipino speakers. At the end of the month, I organized a team to participate in Lakad for Lumads, a a marathon that fundraised to help Lumad Leaders fight for their land back.
This is also the month I crossed as an active in DOZ, which made this month particularly challenging because of that. Hell week consisted of a pledge class retreat to Mammoth Lakes and having to drive all over LA doing a bunch of tasks (redacted af). Self note: There's a video out there of the entire week which I'll upload to this site at a later time. But basically, the journeyman semester concluded with a gauntlet-style challenge course that involved team challenges. This was by far my favorite part of pledging. At the end of it all, we received our new active pins and got lit with everyone.
This is also the month I crossed as an active in DOZ, which made this month particularly challenging because of that. Hell week consisted of a pledge class retreat to Mammoth Lakes and having to drive all over LA doing a bunch of tasks (redacted af). Self note: There's a video out there of the entire week which I'll upload to this site at a later time. But basically, the journeyman semester concluded with a gauntlet-style challenge course that involved team challenges. This was by far my favorite part of pledging. At the end of it all, we received our new active pins and got lit with everyone.
May
With the exception of finals during the first week, May was pretty chill. This semester had me pretty ambivalent towards school which made finals gruesome to go through. It was the last semester of taking GEs and pre-reqs that had nothing to do with my interests, but I was fortunate enough to scrap by with a solid GPA. But now that finals were over, it was time to use this month to just unwind before I left for Kaya co.
First on agenda was seeing my bbgurl graduate... discretely of course since her parents still didn't know we were dating. Now that I'm writing this with only a year of school left to go, it's pretty crazy looking back at this and realizing it'll be my turn in just a little bit. Graduation itself was actually pretty uneventful though. You go on stage, get your diploma, and you're sent off into the world. Nevertheless, getting to attend graduation dinners and the ceremony was still really fun.
But the best part of the month was all the free time I now had. In my first week of freedom, I rode ATVs, went to Six Flags, met G-tongi and attacked her with a bunch of Duterte questions (lol), opened up my chakras, went ATV-ing again, drove down to San Diego, and of course ate a lot of ramen. The week after that, I turned my mountain man mode on and went on a couple hikes. The gist of it all is that I had fun just kicking it with my girlfriend and friends in the places I loved going to.
First on agenda was seeing my bbgurl graduate... discretely of course since her parents still didn't know we were dating. Now that I'm writing this with only a year of school left to go, it's pretty crazy looking back at this and realizing it'll be my turn in just a little bit. Graduation itself was actually pretty uneventful though. You go on stage, get your diploma, and you're sent off into the world. Nevertheless, getting to attend graduation dinners and the ceremony was still really fun.
But the best part of the month was all the free time I now had. In my first week of freedom, I rode ATVs, went to Six Flags, met G-tongi and attacked her with a bunch of Duterte questions (lol), opened up my chakras, went ATV-ing again, drove down to San Diego, and of course ate a lot of ramen. The week after that, I turned my mountain man mode on and went on a couple hikes. The gist of it all is that I had fun just kicking it with my girlfriend and friends in the places I loved going to.