Best Day of My Life

Really digging the song “Best Day of My Life” by the American Authors, especially set to the tune of a highlight reel of the baseball season. BASEBALL IS COMING!!!!!

It’s had to a single “best day of my life” in my 26+ years of life. There have been stretches of my life that were very enjoyable, like being on vacation, or spring break trips, or vegetating, stress-free holidays during which I could do anything I wanted. There’s definitely been days that ended where I went, “Wow, I had a great day today!” or mornings during which I wake up and say, “I’m gonna make this the best day of my life!”  but I’ve never went to bed thinking, “That was the best day of my life!”

Candidates:

10.) August 3, 2013………. Orange County Fair, Caged Dodgeball Championship. A beautiful California summer day, it turned into the epitome of my dodgeball career to this point, I was on the best team I’ve probably been on in my whole life, 7 dudes called “The Gun Show” who dominated most of the competition but had a close game against the other contender in the league. In Game 3 of the Best-of-3 matchup against that team, it was down to me against 3 other guys. I caught one guy straight on in what was one of the hardest fastballs I’ve ever taken (but right to the chest, making it catchable because the ball had nowhere to go), then when it was down to 2 v. 2 I surprised Handsome Costanza, one of the pioneers of dodgeball and a really good player, with an anklebiter. We won the tournament.

9.) Previously detailed Sept. 23, 2013 day of fantasy baseball where I came from behind in my fantasy baseball matchup while coming back from LA. The epitome of my fantasy baseball career (sensing a theme here).

8.) My first full day in Tokyo, Japan during a week-long vacation I took around Japan. Started out the day in mid-town Tokyo, woke up at dawn, walked around the Imperial Palace, walked all around the city, Ueno Park, ended the day at Tokyo Tower in one of the biggest cities in the world. A great experience proving that I could survive on my own in a foreign place in another country; I felt free. Only problem with it: I was alone. That alone rules it out as one of the best days of my life: you need to have people to share it with.

7.) One of my last days as camp counselor at Camp Kinneret in Agoura Hills, CA: one of the last jobs I remember as more fun than work. Had a full day of fun with kids on the bus, at camp, went on a hike, played Foxes & Hounds, magic tricks were involved, jokes were made, and followed with the Great Camp Kinneret Sleepout, which involved skits and ghost stories and camping followed by sleeping in the field under the stars. Basically an under-10 kid’s dream, but I got to live it out as a kid while being paid. O and I performed a skit involving my violin that turned out really well and “brought down the house,” one of the best feelings to have as an entertainer.

6, 5, 4) These 3 all go together as individual parts of 3 Alternative Spring Break trips that I went on during my college/law school years. They were all very enjoyable and I wouldn’t have changed any of them. 2007 I went to Eustis, Florida, for child disability camps, 2008 I went to Alexandria, Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C. for understanding gang-related issues among teens, and in 2011 I went to Seattle, Washington for environmental issues. On each of these alternative spring breaks there was a seminal moment of the trip that stood out: In Florida we were near the beach and saw the sunset after a long day of work, in Alexandria it was it a fulfilling day of hanging out with kids followed by going to the National Mall in D.C., in Seattle it was leaving the island full of memories and going to Seattle for a food tour and my first taste of Seattle. All essential memories of great times in my early-20’s.  

3.) Happened when I found out I passed the bar exam, or when I got my first legal job, or when I found out I got into USC Law School, or when I got my first substantial paycheck for my first legal job. These were individual moments of career satisfaction/ personal achievement that weren’t significant for the day that they happened but that I like to group together. And it might not be over……it could

2.) 2 will be when I get married/find the person I will marry. I’ve had what I would call a unique experience in that regard, filled with many disappointments and failures but also in the process of those disappointments I’ve had hope, and I still have a great deal of hope to find who I am looking for. And when that day happens, it will be all the more glorious due to everything I went through to get there.  

1.)    My first Christmas with my parents, age 6. My parents came to this country without me first to study as graduate students in Chicago, then sent for my grandpa and I when I was 5 years old, they saved up enough money to send for my grandpa and I. We lived in a tiny apartment in urban Chicago in an austere lifestyle; there wasn’t much money. But my first Christmas in America, I was hyped up by Christmas and the thought of getting a video game. A Super Nintendo! I really wanted one and I had been so good that year. On Christmas morning 1992, I woke up and found what I wanted: A Super Nintendo! Santa was real! Looking back, that was the day I was so happy to have my mother, father, and grandfather (my sister came later) in the family . We’ve been together ever since and hopefully for a long time to come.

Anyway, the point is not to read about my mostly insignificant candidates for best day of my life, but to appreciate that at some point you had the best day in your life and that to cherish it, remember it, but also to set about trying to make a best day in your life. 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan