The good old days. We speak of them often, reminiscing about how the past was so great. Ultimately, we know that the past is gone and done with. Tomorrow is what we have to look out for. Although the past lays out the path for the present, we can still change our own futures.

I'm not moving fast enough. The world is changing before my eyes and here I am, still the same as I was yesterday. Where will I be tomorrow?

So much time has passed and yet today, I still cannot grasp the concept of where I exist in today's world. I am overwhelmed by the vast advances of technology and sheer knowledge. Yesterday, I was just a kid trying to make it through High School. Today, I'm a sophomore college student aiming to obtain my AA degree. Where will I be tomorrow?

When I was young, I often went outside and ventured into the woods of North Carolina with my friends. We’d build all kinds of forts and we’d play all sorts of sports. My parents took us camping and we vacationed around the US. We saw the world from a child’s eye. But as I grew up, the world started living through the computer. Times have changed.

I remember in elementary school, we had to go to the library for reference materials. Today, Wikipedia and Google is readily available for any inquiries you may have. When I was in the 4th grade, vocabulary homework consisted of opening the dictionary. Today, it consists of opening dictionary.com. In kindergarten, I actually learned to use a typewriter. The following year, we moved onto using computers. In college, I have a laptop with me all the time. Am I really that old?

My mom had loads of music cassette tapes. Yeah, she owned some of Madonna’s cassette tapes. I remember being in 9th grade with a CD player. Everyone had a CD player in their pocket listening to whatever they had on their CD. It was only recently that the iPod became more common to people. I remember being a little kid and we bought VHS tapes to play in our VCR players. As the new millennium came around, DVDs were introduced. No longer did we have to rewind our videos! Now we have Blu-Ray technology? Crazy!

Aside from Polaroid cameras, taking pictures weren’t so instant. Today, we can take a picture and see the result instantly. Do you remember when everybody had dial-up internet connections? Try living in that era today. Streaming High-Definition YouTube videos would’ve been a joke! Did you ever keep a diary or journal? We blog today. Want to know what your friends are up to? Check them on Twitter.

Ever remember writing actual letters to your friends? We began writing e-mails in the late 1990’s. Today, we use instant messengers to communicate with friends. Cellphones are fully capable with texting today too. Whatever happened to pagers and beepers? Today’s world, we can easily express ourselves so much more. Type a message and send it to your friend’s phone. Take pictures and upload them to Facebook. Compose a song and post it on MySpace. Record a video and send it to YouTube. The internet world brings all of us a little closer. Literally.

Does anyone remember the Floppy Disks? Whatever happened to the A: Drive? It’s become totally obsolete in today’s world. USB Flash Drive sound a little familiar? I remember when my uncle gave me a 128 MB USB Flash Drive as a gift. It probably cost $80 when I was 14. When I was 16, I paid $80 for a 1 GB USB Flash Drive. Today, they’ve got 32 GB USB Flash Drives for the same price!

I remember when we got a new computer in 1995. My dad paid $3,000 for the best kind out there. Our hard drive was 2 GB! Two years ago, I paid $350 for a 500 GB External Hard Drive. Today, anyone can buy a 1 Terabyte External Hard Drive for less than $100! Right now, a 6 Terabyte External Hard Drive can fetch for over $1,000 easily. What will it cost by the end of 2010?

What kind of technology will we have in 10 years from now?

Time has always intrigued me so. Roughly 10 years ago, we were embracing the year 2000. Our culture, our world has changed so much since then. Although 10 years is about 1/10th of our lives, 10 years is nothing more than a blink in scale to the age of the universe. We live in a world where it grows exponentially. We are being catapulted into infinity and we’re not coming back. But in this flash of time, what will we make of it? Will we construct a foundation for the future? Or we fall to own demise?

What do I want to make with my life? What do I want to achieve in life? I've learned that I can make anything happen with a strong will. Things don't just happen. Somebody makes them happen. I can never rely on others to make them happen for me. I have to get what I want. But what I do I want?

For tomorrow, I want to graduate PBCC with an AA Degree with a pre-major in Engineering. I should be graduating when I'm done with Spring 2010 classes. Soon after, I'll transfer into UCF aiming for a Bachelor's Degree in either Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering. I don't care how long it takes. I want to be living in my own apartment or house by then. I also aim to obtain an internship at NASA someday. It'll be my small step into a career, but a giant leap for my life. I don't want to stop learning there either. I want to earn a Ph.D. in my field. Could I possibly even double major in Mathematics? I don't think I could ever be satisfied with the things I learn. I want to know everything!

Going to college changes your perspective of education. For once, you understand that education has a cost and its benefits. Skipping a day of class in college is like skipping a week in High School. Although you don’t go to class as often as you do in High School, each class teaches the equivalent of a week you learn in High School. For once, you go to school regardless that you are sick. For once, you decide you won’t skip class just because you don’t feel like going. I remember signing up for only two days of school per week. The other five days were complete vacation time for me. Why would I want to skip anyways? Vacation was just “tomorrow”.

We live in the craziest era of humankind. We've discovered so much in this day and age. I want to be on the leading edge of new discoveries and innovations. Where I am right now is nothing compared to where tomorrow may be. I'll have to catapult myself into the frontier. I have to learn a lot.

What can I do with my knowledge I will hope to obtain? If I am blessed with such power, what good may come out of it? I don't know yet. I just hope I can change the world for the better. I want to help people live a better life. But I definitely do know one thing.

If my future career provides me with a surplus of wealth, I would love to give back to the world. Philanthropy. I want to become a teacher when I'm finished with the height of my career. If I had the time and money, I’d teach for free. I want to open up a school somewhere in my life. I want to share my wisdom and knowledge with the world. I want to inspire the young minds of children the same ways my mentors and teachers have inspired me.

I wasn't always the best kid out there. Early in my life, things came pretty easily for me. I had anything and everything I wanted. Toys, games, books, anything I wanted, I got it. I wouldn't say I was a spoiled kid. I had my limits. When I was young, school was particularly easy. Mathematics was a breeze to me. It always connected and made sense. Everything else was just absorbed so easily. Up until High School, I usually maintained my grades with a lot of A's with the occasional B's.

When High School came around, I sort of let myself slip. I fell into the gaming world playing computer games all day and all night. But I wasn't stupid. When I was in school, I'd listen to everything the teachers lectured about and I absorbed it all. It was relatively easy. But it wasn't enough. As the years came by, I started to struggle through school. Things didn't come to me so easily anymore. I had to study. But I didn't know what studying was. I thought I just knew it all. Literally. Just listening to the teachers' lectures was usually enough. Usually. But not anymore.

When I was not at home, I usually played computer games all day. I'd compete online and interact with other people across the world. I devoted so much time to this game. Sure, I sound like a loser for wanting to be a "pro" in this game. I desired to be "strong" and "well acknowledged" within the community. Over time, I gained that level of power I willed for. I was somewhat "famous" for the accomplishments within the game. I felt good.

But what good was it for? What can I do with a virtual game character? For three years, I spent so much time and money on this pitiful game. What I have in the game now wouldn't be able to do anything significant for anybody in this world. For three years, I became a gamer people "idolized". I was a model character for new gamers to look up to. But in those three years, I wasted away my life for a game that didn't do anything. Before I played games, I had a 4.0 GPA in the 8th grade. By the time I quit gaming, I had a 2.5 GPA when 11th grade was finished. Do you know much money I wasted on the game? $2,000. What could you have bought with $2,000?

When I started to realize how pointless this game was, I started thinking. What could I have done in those three years instead of gaming? In those three years, I dedicated my time to something that sounded impossible. I had a goal to be the best. A game of several million players worldwide, I was in the top ranks of game. If not at gaming, what if I wanted to be good at something else? What could you do in three years' time?

I can't look back at those three years now. No matter how I wish those three years were different, my past will never change. But for the years ahead, I have almost a hundred years to do anything I want. Anything. I don't believe the future is planned out for any of us. Whatever happens to us in life because the circumstances allow it to happen. Everybody lives a different life, but we all have similar stories to tell.

My parents emigrated from Vietnam in the 1970’s because of the war. Escaping Vietnam by sea, they were the lucky few to survive the treacherous waters. My parents left their parents in Vietnam hoping for a better future in America. Many people died by starvation, fatigue, sickness, pirates, and many other reasons. Like many others, my parents came to America with nothing but the rags of clothing on their body. No money, no food. They didn’t even know English. In roughly 30 years, my parents worked hard to earn the home I live in now. They worked for everything they own and everything I have. Everything I have come to know would’ve never been possible without for their hard effort. They’re not prestigious doctors or highly respectable lawyers, but they’re hard working people. My parents earned everything they worked for. What was it that they were working for? I never asked.

To come to this country with nothing and to die with everything, that’s that the American Dream. From nothing to something, my parents created a foundation for the future. If my parents can do it, I can too. How could my parents achieve so much when they were so far less advantageous? They had nothing going for them, and yet they’ve endured the ordeals of life. Unlike my parents, I was born without the hardships my parents had. I’m not poor and I can speak English. I’ve got everything going for me. I’ve got to achieve more than my parents. I don’t want to work a low end job like they do.

Of course, I have my own friends who have recently come here to America for a brighter future. They’ll be somebody someday. They deserve it.

Senior year was the year I changed my life. In that year alone, I had a 3.5 GPA for the 12th grade year. I didn’t even try as hard as I would’ve liked. Unfortunately, my cumulative GPA barely changed into a 2.7 GPA. It was already too late to change. I remember I felt discouraged about college. How could I get Bright Futures now? My guidance counselor forced me to sign up for it although I had doubts of even earning the scholarship. My grades were nowhere near fitting for it. Now my parents would have to pay for my college because I chose to play computer games instead of learning. School isn’t cheap. Each semester alone can easily cost beyond $1,000. For a bachelor’s alone, you’d need four years of schooling. Don’t forget all the other expenses! I felt guilty for not being the best I could be. I thought about joining the Marines and earn my own future that way. I was talked out of it by my family and friends and I’m glad they did. It’s not for me at all.

I remember I was invited to attend the Senior Awards. All I knew was that I was going to win an Art Award. All my other friends were invited to be acknowledged of their Bright Futures Scholarship Award. That night, never before in my life did I ever felt so inferior to everybody. Everyone was getting money to continue their education in college and all I was getting was a pin for excelling in the “arts”.

I’m not a great artist either. I only found time to draw in school when I was bored and didn’t feel like listening to the lectures. I’d draw and doodle all over my class work. Terrible. Honestly, I didn’t care that I was being acknowledged for being a good artist in my class. I knew a lot of other kids who weren’t even thought about and they were so much better of an artist than I will ever be. Those kids deserved it so much more than me.

But that Senior Awards Night was the night that surprised my life. Somewhere along the list of names being called for Bright Futures, my name was one of them. I was shocked, baffled. How could such a kid like me win this award? Was it a mistake? No. However the system worked, I ended up qualifying for Bright Futures. I don’t care how I got it, but to me, it’s a miracle. From then on, I’ve set my mind on a future I cannot reject.