James Nguyen's Life Story by James Nguyen

Important moment in my childhood (Should've Drowned to Death)

nguyenj82 — 2023-08-31 18:50:10 UTC

When I was around 8 years old I nearly died at a beach, where the forecast was cloudy with high winds. With that as a variable, I was destined to fall. As I did, the way I fell made my boogie board shoot 20 feet away from the shore. Knowing that I was just borrowing my friends board, I chased after it; I wish I knew how powerful the current was. I got sucked out another 50 feet away from the shore, and this is where I thought I was done for. The fear truly ran through my body the moment I couldn't feel the sand under my feet. Instead, a lifeguard and my family members went into the ocean after me, and they saved my life. This moment taught me that my life is finite, that I could die from practically anything if I'm dumb enough.

According to "Drowing" by Szpilman et al, "drowning is the leading cause of death for boys ages 5-14"(2102). I should've been a statistic but me yelling for help before I was too far away to be heard saved me.

Furthermore, according to "Drowing" by Szpilman et al, "The majority of drowning persons aspirate only small amounts of water, if any, and will recover spontaneously. Less than 6% of all persons who are rescued by lifeguards need medical attention in a hospital"(2106). I think me panicking saved me from going under the strong waves. Thinking back on it, I don't know if I even knew how to swim.

Where my world view changed. (Homeless outreach in San Jose)

nguyenj82 — 2023-08-31 19:11:55 UTC

Sometime during middle school, I was a part of my church's homeless ministry. We went to downtown San Jose where the homeless is most rampant, and handed out hundreds of bags of food at a time. We continued this for the next year, until SJPD shut all of us down and forced us to get permits. While we were heartbroken, the only people that this affected were the homeless. It took over a year to obtain our permits and have enough of a surplus of food and clothes to give out. I couldn't believe why they were criminalizing charity and outreach; We offered hot food and clothes, with no strings attached.

The moment I felt connected with my church family

nguyenj82 — 2023-08-31 19:21:21 UTC

As we were camping in Soquel, our entire youth group, were sitting on a cliff looking at the beautiful sunset and taking in the nature. At that moment, I can remember clearly thinking to myself looking at my group of friends, "I don't want to lose this". That was around 8-10 years ago, and we have been in touch ever since.

The moment I was inspired by my cousin

nguyenj82 — 2023-09-07 03:26:18 UTC

My cousins and other relatives were always close by. One of which was in to college, and I was always curious to what the college experience was like. I saw her work tirelessly and she always looked drained. I later learned that she was studying to become a nurse. She would always tell me what she would do with the salary she is going to get when she's out of college, and that kind of kept her from burning out. Currently, she's making a 5 figure income MONTHLY. Seeing her in that constant grind always stayed in my mind.

The moment I chose my major

nguyenj82 — 2023-09-07 05:04:01 UTC

As expected, I, a freshman, was questioning my choice in majoring in Administration of Justice. In doing so, I saw that the job is not very lucrative and your options are limited to working with the government or teaching Administration of Justice. It was until I started looking at my family's choice in careers that I knew what I wanted to do. My uncle worked as a manager at a small business, and was practically running the entire shop by himself. Finances, advertising, networking, was all done by a single person. Although he wasn't a shareholder when the business sold, he was paid very well. He started taking me under his arm and showing me everything about what he knew. Topics like leasing, inspections, profit margins, etc is what he was mostly emphasizing about. Later in the conversation we were discussing opening up a business together as co owners. It was my idea because I saw that there was a lack of this specific thing in San Mateo, and the closest business would be around 30 miles away. After a solid conversation about how serious I was about doing this, he agreed that once I get my degree and no one took our opportunity, we could possibly open up a business together.

Future Career Goals

nguyenj82 — 2023-09-07 05:12:19 UTC

The most ideal scenario for me when I get out of college is that I find a nice office job to stack my money to eventually startup my own business. I expect myself to work entry level jobs for about 5 years making 60-80k to afford the huge licensing fee and have enough to protect us from bankruptcy. The last thing I need is my business venture to fail.

I incorporated my aspirational capital while I was writing this plan because I expect that there will be challenges I will have to overcome to achieve my hopes and dreams. The road to success is never an straight road.

Future Dreams: Middle Ages 35-60

nguyenj82 — 2023-09-07 05:15:20 UTC

If my business startup works out, my uncle and I would be rich enough to have employees working for us, and enough for us to branch out more into different locations. Being a business owner with my uncle is one of my biggest goals in life. Any and all disposable income during this time will be reinvested to make more income. Hopefully, I will control a major portion of traffic in California with all the businesses I will own.

I incorporated my navigational capital during my Middle Ages because that's where I believe I will peak in my business and social knowledge.

Future Dreams: Old Age 61-80

nguyenj82 — 2023-09-07 05:15:50 UTC

Around this time, I'll hopefully have enough money to go traveling around with my family for months at a time. Traveling to places like Japan, Dubai, New York, and other developed countries, has always been a dream of mine. If I don't make a family I would start a foundation and put all of my life earnings into it, giving back to children living in true poverty in third world countries.

College 1 Topics: Goal Setting

nguyenj82 — 2023-12-14 01:52:34 UTC

One of the things that I incorporated into my academic success is goal setting. Goal setting is essentially creating a plan to be a better person than you are in the present. A goal can be short or long, depending on the situation. If my current actions do not lead myself closer to my goal, then it's a clear sign that I should not do it. An essential principle of a goal is that there are multiple steps to get to that goal. A goal should be executed slow and steadily, with meticulous planning. Taking shortcuts to a goal will only leave you inadequately prepared when time comes to have bigger goals and dreams. This is a common sense principle that everyone should apply to their everyday lives. A piece of advice I'd give to new students is to never lose sight of the reason why you went to college; that reason that brought you to CSM requires a clear goal and plan to execute.

One "ah-ha" moment from this semester

nguyenj82 — 2023-12-14 02:02:03 UTC

One "ah-ha" moment would be when I realized that a class would take way more effort that I initially realized. If you are unfortunate enough to not consider the professor teaching, you will have a bad professor. Some professors aren't meant to be teaching such meticulous subjects. I had a really bad math professor this semester, and I forced myself to study way more than a normal student should because of inadequate and incoherent teaching. The only benefit that I can see from this experience is that I have developed my work ethic for rougher years to come. A piece of advice I would give to future students is to use RateMyProfessor to select your teachers for your most important classes that you would want a good grade on. While some reviews may be subjective, it can provide an insight to the type of person that will be teaching the class.

My Academic Goals

nguyenj82 — 2023-12-14 02:09:51 UTC

My current academic goal is to achieve all A's or a B+ to remain competitive in my major. Nothing has shifted, and every action I took was to ensure that my goal would be met. I have achieved that goal, and this is a goal that applies to every semester I am in college. In my first semester I've learned that there is way more help that I initially realized. I was under the assumption that in college, you are completely on your own to complete your assignments; In reality, there are writing centers, math tutors, multiple counselors, etc. They are more than willing to help, but the only downside is that there are a limited number of tutors to help you; It is a first come first serve basis. There are many resources to take advantage of so you can have academic success, you just have to take the initiative to actually execute.