At one point during my blissful summer, I found myself in the middle seat of the back row of a Boeing 737, destination: Houston, Texas.  Seated in the row in front of me were two men, respectively around twenty and thirty.  Perhaps their natural kinship arose from the fact that, though strangers, they both looked like they had a common interest in cheap beer and prostitutes.  As I was engaged in reading one of the greatest works of literature of all time (East of Eden, by Steinbeck), I only caught tidbits of their conversation, which, it seemed, revolved mostly around alcohol and “having the time of your life,” usually in combination.  The younger of the two men captured my attention however, when he mentioned a recent trip to France.

Case Study: Maximizing My Life Utility and Post Abroad Efficiency

Problem: Did I come back from abroad more lost than found?

Never in my life did I think I would write this:

Josh Groban changed me.

On Sunday February 10, 2008 at approximately 2:34 am in an overpriced but delicious West Hollywood diner, Josh Groban raised me up.

Really.

As a probable gesture of inherent love towards all man(kind), THE Josh Groban – curls and all – gave my table a piece of untouched red velvet cake.* And as I joined my posse of gallivanting, well-dressed brothers in digging my hands into God’s next best gift besides Josh (who did not give us forks), I only had two things on my mind:

“How the fuck is this happening?” and “Where is Byron Yang?”

Like many of my fellow junior brethren, I took a break from the Club Med College lifestyle last year for a semester “studying” abroad in hopes of gaining true insight of the world, and my life.