Timing

"To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage."

Urg, just found out that the Amazing Race application was due YESTERDAY!!!! NOOOOO!!!!! I'd say this is officially the first setback of 2010 for me. Although the deadline has been extended the past two times TAR has done a casting call, the problem still remains that I don't have an available partner. My friends in ILL are too far away to make a video with, and my roommate's timing invovles going to his summer associate position right after finishing up the semester. So it's a matter of timing, and it's not right. This goes against my overriding principle, my whole philosophy, of always applying for things because you have 0% chance if you don't, that after turning 21 I will apply religiously to my Top3 shows, so it's truly agonizing. But I think the right move here was not to force my roommate to apply for the show w/me; one man's will cannot dictate two people's time.

Setbacks, though, while inevitable , are not insurmountable.

Timing, much like luck, has an aspect of being beyond human control. It works in mysterious ways; sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you. But it's very, VERY important, whether it be for jokes, getting on LA traffic, or taking hacks at Tim Lincecum fastballs, timing controls whether you succeed or fail. Timing has also dictated a large part of my law school experience: Had I been born three or four years earlier, I would currently be in good position at a solid law school with great career prospects in a booming economy; unfortunately this is 2010, not the best time to be a second-year or later law student or anyone who doesn't have a job yet. Did I have a lot of control over that? Not really. Unless I was a master prognisticator of economic trends and could have predicted the 2008 global economic disaster, I guess. Maybe then I could have controlled the timing. But otherwise, no, I went to college at the standard time, went to law school at the standard time compared to my age.

My story is just one example how timing and luck play a large part in one's life. To be clear, I'm not one of those who think they're just unlucky; there's plenty of things I've gotten lucky with: Being born to great parents, being able to grow up in the U.S., going through my teen years in suburban America, having the financial resources to obtain a bachelor's degree and go on to law school, and of course a masterful ability to craft fantasy sports blog articles. All those things were not courtesy of me; I did not have to do with themk they either had to do with luck (my parents applied for student visa and were one of a few who were accepted, parents' first job landed in the Chicagoland suburbs) or timing (parents immigrated during a time with lots of opportunties to immigrate, able to get into USC with a 167 LSAT score when in a few years that score might be inefficient).

So in essence, my message is this: Whether we like it or not, sometimes we just need to get lucky, get a helping hand from gratuitous forces. It reminds me of the ending sequence of "Match Point" when the protagonist has gotten away with murder: When his son is born, the godfather proclaims, " I'd rather him be lucky than good." Agreed, sir, agreed. Let's hope some more good luck and timing is on the way in 2010, MY year.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan