#TheAirbendingBaldies

[dinhxpressions]

Mirna Mejia Munguia

1. Name, Year, Major Mirna Mejia Munguia, 3rd Year Human Development and Psychology Double Major Trainer Group: The Airbending Baldies

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? My mom’s pozole! It's huge comfort food native to Mexico. My mom cooks it whenever I'm sick, for special occasions, or for my birthday.

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? Good communication. Without it, everything else gets thrown out the window because there will be misunderstandings, arguments, and conflicts without resolution. 

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. The best advice someone has given me is “to be unapologetically yourself. You are the only person responsible for yourself for the rest of your life, so make sure you're happy and make decisions to make you happy, even if they hurt at first.”

5. What are three things on your bucket list? Go skydiving, travel the world, and buy a house for my parents.

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? I'd love to be famous for modeling! I always wanted to be a model/ fashion designer as a kid, and it translates now to creating cute outfits.

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? I would swap lives with Valentina Voight, my favorite lingerie designer. I'd love to have a day designing clothes, sewing, and marketing my brand. She’s super cool about that.

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? I would teach inclusive Sex Ed starting in kindergarten. Kindies would be taught the names of body parts, and the curriculum would build up every year. Children deserve to be informed about their bodies and processes if we want to have fully healthy communities.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? People don't understand that I'm a very sensitive person, despite my tough-looking exterior. I'm very approachable and will keep and hold any secret you entrust me with. I'm very loyal as well. 

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not?

I regret giving people more chances than they deserve. I usually try to see the best in people. I provide a lot of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, etc., where they may not be deserved. People have taken advantage of my kindness in the past. It's been a hard lesson to learn that not everyone will love as hard as I will, and not everyone will appreciate the love given to them, even if they're the ones benefitting the most from it. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and try my best to explain their actions when they mistreat me. It's a bad habit.

I’ve had to learn how to let go of people even if I love them. If given the opportunity, I would still love them the same. I’d probably just leave earlier to save myself the disappointment. It’s funny because I think about them all the time and I don't wish them bad things. If anything, I hope I helped them learn something as well. I believe that even if people didn't appreciate the love you gave them, at some point, they needed it. I have a lot of love to offer. I'm renewed with  it every single day. I don't believe saying I love you often loses its meaning or that being randomly kind is a waste of energy. I never regret giving the love I did. I just need to learn who to thoroughly and adequately give my love to.

[dinhxpressions]

Kelly Zhu

1. Name, Year, Major Kelly Zhu, 3rd year, Psychology Major + Human Development Minor ;D

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Seafood kimchi tofu soup bc i never get tired of it and you can always change up the ingredients hehe

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? Reciprocated communication bc if the energy isn’t reciprocated in fun and serious conversations, then idk if it’s a good connection.

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. Do things for yourself and not for others. I used to be very dependent and would always think about what people thought of me but now idc LOL kekekekee

5. What are three things on your bucket list? I want to (1) Dye my hair (2) Marry Even Jaeger (3) Learn how to swim lololol

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? I want to be famous for makeup and fashion hehe lol

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? MIKASA from attack on titan so i can kiss eren jaeger

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? How to not die at a rave

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? I’m not an abg

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? I regret being selfish during the summer of 2019 because I would always stay out late and party with my friends. My parents would always be so worried about me and I did really bad things that made them lose trust in me. My relationship with them during that time was really rocky and my siblings started to behave differently around me. At that point in time, I felt really alone because I didn’t know who was truly there for me if my family wasn’t. So I would escape and go party/rave almost every day. I do think that it was one of my best summers because I had lots of fun, but the consequence of having my parents hate me makes me really regretful. I’m not sure if I would change much because I personally think it helped me become who I am today. But I would regret how I treated my parents.

[dinhxpressions]

Trina Lim

1. Name, Year, Major Trina Lim, 1st year, Biological sciences Trainer Group: The Airbending Baldies

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? I could probably eat rice porridge with chicken for like forever, plus a side of veggies please. I dunno, rice is really good and I could never give that up, and I’d have to have some protein so chicken will suffice. I feel like I've always eaten vegetables, so I can’t break that, and eat your veggies for your health :)

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? I think being real in a friendship is the most important thing, like nothing fake. Cause if you see the true them then you can really tell if you completely vibe with them. And if they are not fake to you, then most likely you can be the most true to yourself, so yay to good friends.

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. I can’t really recall a time when I was straight up given advice (other than APO interviews lmao), but I feel like I've been told to try harder at some point in my life, probably in sports or something. But, honestly it's pretty good advice, like giving no bs and straight up telling me to just put in more effort. I think just trying really hard in school or really anything will get you pretty far.

5. What are three things on your bucket list? Travel to any country in asia and eat, get into medical or DO school, get a tattoo

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? I’d want to be famous for something stupid but iconic, like Bill Nye. He’s pretty reputable for being smart, but he’s also iconic and I'd say helps people learn.

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? Hehe, I'd probably swap lives with someone from admissions or something, and so I can accept my own application (but that’d be cheating). You know, maybe god, so I can judge everyone for their sins and what not, but also so I can know all of the tea.

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? UH, I would teach how to take a break, because students do not need more information to memorize.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? I guess I'm introverted, so people might think that I'm totally quiet until they get to know me, which is kind of the definition of an introvert.

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? I think I regret not getting out of my comfort zone in high school because I probably missed out on a lot of opportunities to grow, or just be a different person. I focused too much on my education and extracurriculars that I didn’t engage in other things. Now that I am meeting more people and hearing about their life experiences or things they do in their free time I feel a little envious, because I wish I had the ability to put myself out there. I feel like I could be more comfortable if I was more extroverted and exuded my energy without really caring what other people think. I guess college brings many more opportunities for me to do this, but school is hard and I get too tired to try :((. It's the end of my first year, and I didn’t take too many risks. However I don’t think I would change that, just because it's completely fine to be introverted and absorbed in school. I think I put too much emphasis on finding your personality in high school, and what you establish is who you will be. But that isn’t true, and in the long run, I have a lot of time left and am still in the process of being independent and learning who I am. But I am trying to change a little, I mean I never expected to join a fraternity, and honestly I have been having a lot of fun getting a little bit out of my comfort zone through APO.

[dinhxpressions]

Matthew Chan

1. Name, Year, Major Matthew Chan, Freshman, Science and Technology (STS) Trainer Group: The Airbending Baldies

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? I would eat hot pot for the rest of my life because there is always a variety of foods and because I love eating hot pot with family and friends.

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? I think the number one most important thing in a relationship or friendship is being honest with each other and communicating with each other at all times.

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. Always be nice!

5. What are three things on your bucket list? To travel the world, to eat good food, and to play basketball professionally one day.

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? If I was famous, I would want to be famous for playing basketball extremely well.

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? If I could swap lives with someone, it would be Stephen Curry because I could play basketball, golf, be famous, play for the Warriors, and you know hang out with Ayesha Curry.

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? If I could create a whole new subject in school, I would create a gaming class so that I end up playing with my friends.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? I think something which people misunderstand about me is that I am quiet because after you get to know me, I am pretty loud and noisy.

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? Something that I definitely do regret doing was not going to the winter formal during my junior year because I thought that we were going to have to prom, but then covid hit. If I was able to do it all over again, I would definitely go out and do it. I honestly would have asked someone to go with me if I had known that covid was going to strike because originally I already had people in mind to ask to prom, but prom never happened so I never got to ask. I had a great idea for a poster and pickup line which was cheesy, but it was extremely creative and yet it was pretty good. I would want to do it because I have never been to a dance with in high school and I would love to go if I had the chance. Covid made me realize to take more chances and get out of my comfort zone because I was pretty introverted growing up. I think another thing I regret not going to boat dance when they had during my sophomore and freshman year. After my sophomore year they canceled it because the boat was destroyed and it cost a lot of damage so they were unable to continue it. I heard that it was extremely fun and that people had a blast on the boat, but it is also something that I regret not going to because I was too nervous and too scared.

[dinhxpressions]

Brenda Tran

1. Name, Year, Major My name is Brenda Tran and I am a 4th year Biological Sciences major. Trainer Group: The Airbending Baldies

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? If I could eat a meal for the rest of my life, I would eat Wagyu beef. I tried it in Las Vegas for the first time and it was the best quality of meat I’ve ever had. It’ll make me broke, but at least I’ll be broke and happy.

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? I think empathy is the most important thing in a relationship or friendship. Everyone has a story to tell and having empathy for others is very important when it comes to building relationships of all kinds.

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. Someone told me once that “money does buy happiness” and I agree with that. I feel like when rich people are sad, they buy lots of things. 

5. What are three things on your bucket list? The three things on my bucket list are eating all the uni I can in one sitting, building a cat mansion for Sooya , and raising chickens and baby goats when I retire.

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? I want to be a famous mukbang vlogger. I get to eat all the good food I want AND I get paid to do it.

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? I would like to swap lives with my cat because I wanna know what she does when no one’s home and what she’s thinking. Does she love me as much as I love her? Why is she such a brat every once in a while? I have so many questions.

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? A new subject that should be taught in school is “how to handle spicy foods”. I feel like everyone should have the opportunity to build their spice tolerance or strengthen their tolerance.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? Typically people assume that I am super innocent and that I haven’t done much. So when I say I did something crazyyyy, people get surprised. I don’t really mind too much though because I think their surprised faces are funny.

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? I regret being mean to my mom when I was younger. I think about it every once in a while because she is such an important person in my life that I could never live without. The regret really kills me. She was my support system and someone I could always rely on. She sacrificed so much for me in order to give me the life that I have. Yet, I was a b-word to her in high school. She was strict on me and I thought she would never understand me, but our arguments were actually because I never tried to understand her. If I was given the opportunity to change my relationship with her, I 100% would. I would want her to feel loved and appreciated for her hard life raising me and my siblings. I would tell her I love her everyday as a teenager and do things that would make her happier. I wish I had the patience I have now back when we were constantly fighting. I hope that my mom would never have to cry ever again because she was disappointed in me. As I grew older, I began to learn more about her and began building patience in my relationship with her. Our relationship has changed drastically and I always call her when I miss her. Her birthday is actually coming up and I plan to take her out shopping and eat a nice dinner with my family. Although she still nitpicks every little detail about me, I started to think of it as an endearing act of love. She deserves the world and I want to show her how much I love her for the rest of her life. My mom will always be my mom. 

[dinhxpressions]

Lauren Gee

1. Name, Year, Major My name is Lauren Gee and I am a Mechanical Engineering major. Trainer Group: The Airbending Baldies

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? If I could eat a meal for the rest of my life, it would be sushi because there are various options of things you can put in sushi so I feel like I wouldn’t get tired of it easily.

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? I believe that the number one most important thing in a relationship or friendship is loyalty because I want to be able to rely on them or be supported by them. 

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. The best advice someone has given to me is not to trust people too easily. My mom advised me this because I tend to overshare about my own life too soon into the friendship/relationship.

5. What are three things on your bucket list? Three things that are on my bucket list are sky diving, traveling to Europe or Asian countries, and seeing bioluminescent waves. 

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? If I were famous, I would like to be famous for inventing a commonly used medical device product. 

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? If I could swap lives with someone for a day, I would choose Jackie Chan because he was an actor I really enjoyed watching growing up, and his karate skills are top-notch!

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? If I were to create a whole new subject to be taught in school, it would be on how to destress.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? People misunderstand that I only care about school but in reality, I like to go out and have fun as well.

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? Something that I really regret is not making the effort to learn Chinese when I was younger. Growing up I went to Chinese school, but never took the effort each week to apply what I learned by speaking Cantonese with my parents. Since I didn’t do this, learning Cantonese was really hard to get used to and I found it hard to keep up with what I was learning each week. I would struggle during each test and learning Chinese would feel more like a chore rather than a great opportunity and a privilege. In addition, my grandparents are only able to speak Cantonese and can barely speak English, so there is a huge language barrier between us. I always regret not putting effort even now to learn Cantonese because the longer I wait, the older they get and it might eventually be too late. I want to be able to have a full conversation with them and hear more about their lives in the past but all I can really ask them is what they had for dinner or how they are doing. It makes me sad every time I think about it but I still have not actively made the effort to learn, but it is something that I am working on. On a less serious note, I want to be able to speak Cantonese so that I can go to Chinese restaurants or stores and order and speak to them in Chinese. Something about being able to speak Chinese to the workers creates a greater bond and closer connection. I also just want to be closely connected with my culture and where I came from.

[dinhxpressions]

Koji Lo

1. Name, Year, Major Koji Lo, 3rd Year, Managerial Economics w/ Psychology minor Positions: SAA/Trainer

2. If you could eat a meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? It would have to be any type of noodle dish! I am a big noodle guy, and growing up, my dad would always take me to get pho, ramen, pasta, you name it, and I loved it everytime.

3. What do you think is the NUMBER ONE most important thing in a relationship or friendship? I think the most important thing in any relationship is Communication. I feel it is one of the most important skills in life itself. I feel like if there is poor communication between the two, it can cause misunderstandings and frustration.

4. What is the best advice someone has given to you? Describe the situation if possible. I think the best advice I ever received was that, “even if someone acts like a jerk, it doesn’t make it right for you to act like a jerk.” An example could be like, if a customer is acting like a jerk to you, you don’t have to stoop down to their level and act like them, we are better than that. Or like when the car behind you is honking at you, that doesn’t make it okay for you to be mean to them. But I will admit this one time, I heard that in a drive thru, this guy had a jerk behind him, so when he got to the first window, he said he was gonna pay for the guy behind him, and left with his food, so the jerk got nothing, that was good.

5. What are three things on your bucket list? The first thing on my bucket list is to go to Vietnam with my dad. The second thing is to plan a big trip to Japan where my grandparents can go with all their grandkids. And Lastly, I wanna be able to make a difference in someone’s life.

6. If you were famous, what would you want to be famous for? If I were famous, I would want to be famous for being the nicest guy people have ever met. When people talk about me, I want them to be like, yeah that guy is so sweet.

7. If you could swap lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why? I would wanna swap lives with my pdad Kyle, so that I could drive his Unitrans bus and get him fired >:).

8. If you could create a whole new subject to be taught in school, what would it be? I would like to create a mental health class. I don’t know if that’s a real subject honestly, but for me mental health plays a big aspect to everyone’s emotional well-being. I think it would be great that people could be made aware of their health because it can affect how they think, act, and feel around others. And it can also affect how we handle stress and make choices.

9. What do people constantly misunderstand about you? I think people who know me very well always think I am a DC fan over Marvel, but that is not true. I will admit, Marvel makes better movies than DC. I love the first Iron Man, that’s my favorite, but my favorite superhero growing up has always been Batman, that’s why I side with DC. BTW, I love the new Batman with Robert Pattinson.

10. What is something you regret doing or not doing? Would you change it if given the opportunity? Why or why not? I always have regrets, I think everyone does, it’s a part of life. But the one thing that I always regret was when I didn’t live my own life. I think the greatest success lies in living your life your own way. Being the younger sibling, I always compare myself to my older brother. I would do things like him so that I could live up to his standards. In middle school, he was known to be the best golfer in the school, so when I got to middle school, they thought I was really good too. I wasn’t, but I still practiced hard to live up to the standard he set. Or when I went to high school, I became the president of the same club as him, and went to the same college as him, even though that’s not why I chose UC Davis. And along the way, I lost track with who I was, I was starting to act like my brother and not myself. And that’s when I thought, I don’t wanna be remembered as being the guy who copied his older brother, I want to be remembered as me. I am not my brother. Same thing with my grandparents, I volunteer a lot back in Sacramento for my grandma, and when people see me, they call me her grandchild. I laugh it off, but to be honest, that kinda hurts. It’s like I have a name. I’m myself now, I’m behaving like myself, and I am proud of who I am, but whenever I look back at those days in middle school and high school, it always eats at me.