YGTLC 2012

january 2012, golden gate bridge, san francisco

i was in san francisco, california this past weekend for the annual technical and leadership conference, YGTLC hosted by KSEA. i had the opportunity to meet amazing speakers, young professionals, graduate students, medical students, and other undergrads from all over the nation. i felt so inspired by the loads of intelligent, driven, successful, passionate, and ambitious korean-american people i met. i listened to inspirational talks from renown physicists and biologists, one of the first 200 employees of google, a computer scientist who works at disney, the department head at youtube, etc. i met a famous robot scientist, a former olympic swimmer, leaders in technology and research, successful businessmen and businesswomen, a person who has their own talk show, intelligence government workers, and so much more. not only did i have a lot of fun at the workshops, learned about how to succeed, listened to technical posters and presentations, toured a wonderful and extremely beautiful city, and partied with the most well-rounded people i know, i learned so much. the most important thing i took away from this conference was motivation. last semester, i had a really difficult time focusing on my schoolwork. i was emotionally and physically drained after returning from an amazing summer in europe. i really wanted to just quit school and travel. i had goals but i didn't know how to even start to work toward them. this conference made me realize the great potential i have. next to these people at ygtlc, i honestly felt insignificant and felt that i had done nothing with my life so far. with that, i will be working extra hard this semester. no more distractions!

first time at in-n-out!

golden gate bridge with the atlanta girls

hehe, kisha is such a cutie

 hotel window

  some of our new friends from virginia

 the city from lombard street  

 riding to downtown on the BART

street food at fisherman's wharf

 golden gate bridge at sunset

the cutest teddy bears! (i took a business card from the 

lady who makes these so i can buy one later, keke)

 kisha and i got handmade rings made by a chinese 할아버지

went to the famous hog island oyster co. with donna & kisha

 musee mecanique, a vintage arcade (so cool!)

 a night time trolley ride to union square

"But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth."

-Rocky Balboa

kisha, me, and hara, our roommate from london

 our new friends :)