My Year-end Reflections

So, I finally have time to think...

My "new" job started on Monday, 1/23/12.  It turned out to be far more challenging and overwhelming than I initially anticipated, and it definitely made me wonder why I took it in the first place.  As stressful as the job may be at times, I have no regret.  The most important thing I've learned from this experience is: I've pushed myself to go outside of my comfort zone; I've pushed myself to live through something new and different; and I've convinced myself that, in the end, I am still capable of starting fresh.

I continue to nurture my photography endeavor.  Looking back on the past 12 months, it was Photography that gave me the courage and "reasoning" to take so many untraveled roads; it was also Photography that allowed me to experience nature and life in such a special way that I would never have experienced otherwise.  To me, Photography offers a special lens for me to see true colors in nature and in life, which is precisely why I no longer view Photography as a pure art form or a pure technique -- it helps me shape the way I live!

Michelle came home briefly for the winter break and will fly back to Boston tomorrow for the new semester.  Over the past 17+ years, I have told you so many stories about my little Michelle, and now I have to say that she is really growing up!!  I remember for the past many years, right before each New Year, I would always write Michelle an email with a list of things I hope she could do or improve in the next year.  I didn't do it today, as I really, truly believe that she doesn't need it anymore...  

May 2013 be joyful and prosperous, and I wish you happiness and good health in the New Year!

Michelle's Holiday Letter to Grandpa

Dear Grandpa,

Merry Christmas! I hope you are doing well this holiday season, and staying warm through this chilly winter. I just got back to Illinois a few days ago and have really been enjoying my winter vacation. It is great to be able to relax after a semester of working very hard.

This semester has been quite a busy one, but it has been better than I ever imagined it could be. It has been incredibly stressful at times - to the point where I had weeks where I would just wake up stressed out, feel stressed out the entire day, and go to bed stressed out. However, it has certainly been worth it. I did well in all of my classes and I think that I've finally figured out how to work more efficiently in medical school, so it's been less stressful ever since. I have made some amazing friends already and they make every day at medical school a lot of fun. They're all so smart and have a great sense of humor, so when we get together we have a great time. I can tell that even though we've only spent a few months together, we already care about each other a great deal. It's great to know that I will always have people to count on during this difficult and long journey. 
 
While I have learned a GREAT deal of information in all of my classes (like the entire anatomy of the human body), I have learned even more from the extracurricular programs that I've become involved in. At my medical school, we have two amazing programs that deal with the homeless population of Boston - one is the Outreach Van Project, where we take a van out every Thursday and bring food and clothing to a small group of homeless people in East Boston. The other is the Homeless Health Project, where we go and interview patients that are at the homeless hospital across the street from our school. The amazing thing about Boston University is that we have such a strong connection and concern for extremely underserved people, like the homeless. Not only does our major hospital - Boston Medical Center - take in all patients regardless of whether or not they can pay, but we also have a specialized hospital for homeless patients, with doctors and nurses that have dedicated their entire lives to working with the homeless. Anyway, both of these programs were very selective. There was an application process at the beginning of the year and many students wanted to participate in them, but weren't selected. I was extremely lucky to be selected for BOTH programs, which has been the greatest blessing at medical school. Being in science classes all the time can be really, really dry and you start to lose that sense of why you wanted to become a doctor in the first place. But these two programs have helped me keep that vision alive, because every time I go out in the van or go to the homeless hospital, I talk with these people that don't have anyone else to talk to. They rely on us to care about them, because nobody else will. They are not bad people - most, if not all of them, have had immense hardships that I couldn't even imagine going through. They have been unfortunate. They have not come from good families. But they try to survive nonetheless, and some of them come out of these terrible ordeals with more wisdom than I could ever gain from my own privileged life. And they share that wisdom with me. They try to teach us what they've learned. It's an incredible relationship that we foster with these homeless people, and I am thankful every day that I can be a part of their lives.
 
So that has been my life for the past semester. I still find time to have fun with my friends. Overall, I'd say that I have an incredibly well-balanced life in medical school and I'm really happy with how everything has turned out. The only thing I'm a little sad about is not having time to read or study philosophy anymore... I miss that more than anything. Hopefully this upcoming semester will be a little less busy, and I will be able to spend some time at Tufts on Thursday nights when they have their Philosophy Club meetings...
 
Anyway, I hope that you're doing well. I miss you a lot and I think about you quite often. I hope that you've been taking care of yourself, both in body and in mind. That is the most important thing.

I love you, Grandpa!

- A Bao (阿宝）

Just a Story...

Coming back to civilization may not always be a good thing.  Driving out of Death Valley, the first email my lovely little iPhone got was from United telling me that my flight has been delayed for 4 hours, so I won't get back to Chicago until well after 10 PM tonight...

Let me tell you my weekend drama at Death Valley.

As promised, I got up at 2:37 AM Saturday morning, managed to leave the hotel at 2:55 AM and headed out to Death Valley.  About 10 miles out of Las Vegas, I immediately drove into heavy rain and then it turned into a real winter snowstorm.  It was pretty unbelievable -- the snowflakes were like thousands of silver bullets coming at my car, and I could barely see anything -- there was ONLY the darkness, the silver bullets and my headlights....  After about 20 miles, I seriously thought I should just forget about Death Valley and head back to Vegas...  but I didn't, as my mind was controlled by overwhelming stupidity at that point!!  Through millions of "silver bullets", I drove about 80+ miles, and finally, out of the storm area...  Honestly, something is very wrong with the current weather pattern where Chicago has been about 50F for the week, and Vegas is experiencing some really tough shxx so far this winter.

The bottom line is:  I made it to Death Valley in 1 piece by 7 AM -- safe and sound, but a bit freaked out...

The rest of the day was as usual -- wondering off in the wilderness and totally stressed out about where and how to take my pictures...  By the time I got back to the hotel, it was about 4:27 PM, yeah, believe me, there was NOTHING to photograph at that point!!  I stayed at the same hotel back in February, but could not remember that there was NO TV in the room.  NO telephone either... by then, my iPhone has been in "No Service" for about 10+ hours -- how wonderful!!!  I felt lost for a minute, but immediately realized that this would be a great opportunity for me to fast and meditate!!  Haha, just imagine how that story ended :-)

I went to bed at 5:30 PM, literally, and that ended my night!

My alarm started singing at 3:30 AM this morning so I could go back to the sand dunes to photograph the milky-way (because it was a moonless night).  Either God hated me or I was too stupid, I did not find the milky-way.  My friend once told me that if I look up to the sky, I wouldn't miss it.  Guess what, I did look up and I missed it...  So, once again, no milky-way shots.

It's pretty unthinkable that I have to WORK tomorrow -- coming back to civilization is definitely NOT a good thing!


12-22-12

By the way, the bottom photo was put on Michelle's Facebook home page today with the following note:

Courtesy of my mother who spends all of her free time traveling to beautiful places and taking amazing photos at strange hours...

  

My Effort of Making Lobster Rolls

In addition to the usual weekly photo emails, I feel obligated to provide a summary report on my grade for making lobster rolls for Dr. Michelle over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Before Michelle came home for Thanksgiving, I slightly over-stated my cooking skills by telling her that, in addition to making delicious Chinese foods, I’ve also learned to make lobster rolls, which is a special New England dish she has grown to love after staying in Boston for the past 4+ years.  She was very excited about me making lobster rolls for her, so we scheduled the lobster rolls for dinner on Saturday. 

Rudi and I had to go to my friend’s house for dinner, so my job was to prepare the lobster rolls for Michelle and her friend before we left.  I could not tell you how stressed out I was for the entire day trying to think through all the little steps on how I would actually “make” lobster rolls…  Well, after hours of struggling, the lobster rolls were made, beautifully!!  Sadly, we had to leave for the party before Michelle ate dinner. 

On our way to my friend’s house, I texted: “Chelle, let me know how the lobster rolls taste, and give me a score on a scale of 1-10 with 10 = the best.”  About an hour later, I received a message: “It was good!”  I could not help to scream at the dinner table with bunch of my friends, quite proudly… and then realized that I didn’t get a score.  “How about the score?”  Within a split of a second, the score came back: “7.”

I was a bit surprised by the “low” score, but Rudi said “This is pretty good, a solid C-”  Haha, I probably only deserve an “F” when it comes to cooking!

On my way driving Dr. Michelle back to the airport this morning, we went through all the details about how to make the lobster rolls better next time – a bit more salt and pepper, a little less celery, a little less mayo, let the lobster meat turn totally cold before serving it…  The list goes on, but I am determined to make a better lobster roll next time!          

Shooting Outside the Box

Finally had time to digest all the pictures I took last weekend and think about "Shooting Outside the Box". 

By now, most of you have seen these 2 photos I took last weekend.  What I learned from this experience was -- to get a good image, you really need to shoot outside the box!

For the first day (image 1), I stood with many photographers for 2+ hours on that ever-so-famous bridge to shoot the last glow of the Watchman.  The bridge was so crowded that it really couldn't fit any more tripod at the time when we were shooting...  I did not like the composition from that angle, but thought there's got to be something special about the bridge.  Otherwise, why would all the "experienced" photographers stand here???

For the second day, I was determined to find a different angle underneath the bridge and close by the river.  So, during the day, I went to the bridge twice and finally found a way to go down from the bridge to the river bank.  All of a sudden, I saw a whole new world, and that's where I took my shoot of "Last Glow at Watchman".  Enjoy!      

Shooting for Stars

It's been a long day -- 4:15 AM to 7 PM at Zion National Park.  Still, no photos...  have to process them when I get home tomorrow night.

Got up at 4:15 AM.  To challenge myself and overcome my fear of darkness in mountains and canyons, I left my hotel room around 5:15 AM, drove through the narrow roads surrounded by the DARK, DARK canyons...  I did not have a specific goal for the early morning, just wanted to stay in the dark and look at the mountains and stars to see if I would still be afraid.  The sad truth is -- my fear was still totally in control, so I sat in my car for about 20-30 minutes with the doors securely locked!!

Several photographers came to the same location, parked next to me and went out in the dark to set up their gears for "star shooting".  I finally got the courage to come out of the car to set up my gears...  But it was a little too late, the sky started to light up, and I lost the mystery look of all the stars quickly.

So, I will have to get up early again tomorrow morning to catch my stars!!  Wish me luck.

Yeah, so much in life is about challenging ourselves -- making sure that we can eventually overcome our own fear... not just about darkness, but about all the "unknown" in life.


Sunday, 11/4/12

I kept my promise and got my starry shot!!!

 

Fall 2012 CACCA Competition

I learned today that my image "Eye-to-Eye" was sent to the Chicago Area Camera Club Association (CACCA, the Association of local photography clubs for Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana) for the Fall 2012 Class A Competition.  It received an Award!!  

"Eye-to-Eye received a score of 24; resulting in an Award.  As additional background for you, out of a total of 59 Class A images, yours made it through all of the elimination rounds to receive one of only 5 Awards in class A."