This will be a running list of people in my life and a certain trait they have that I really admire. These people can range from family, to friends, to athletes, to celebrities, to anyone really. This list will be updated periodically. I hope to take these traits from these people I admire and incorporate them into my own life 🙂. (Order is also insignificant)
Kennedy Chung
Kennedy was an intern I worked with at Amazon while I was interning at Amazon in Summer 2023. We sat right next to each other in the office, so I got to know him quite well. What I picked up and what I admire about him is his patience and his willingness to always do his due diligence. Anytime he tackled a problem, he made sure he understood the problem fully, laid out exactly what needed to be done to solve the problem, and then executed on that plan with all the confidence that he would solve the problem in time, which he always did.
For me, I am always in a rush to get things done and am very impatient when it comes to getting things done because I’m always hyperfocused on the deadline. Because of this, I often rush into things without fully understanding the problem and without having a complete plan in mind, which often leads to me having to backtrack and redo things. Now, this doesn’t mean I don’t finish what I need to, but I definitely can do it with more efficiency, less stress, and higher quality if I took a page out of Kennedy’s book.
Jonathan Tung and Rachel Qian
Jonathan (Jono for short) and Rachel are friends of mine that I have known since middle school and high school respectively, and they both share one trait that I feel like is very rare. From my perspective, it seems like no matter what they do, they seem to have the purest intentions and pure heart. There are never any ulterior motives, hidden agendas, or anything of that sort. They are always just doing what they think is right and what they think is best for everyone. This is not me saying that I think everyone else always has a hidden agenda, but I think that it is very rare to find people who are so pure-hearted and genuine in everything they do, and it is something I admire about the both of them.
Zayam Tariq
Zayam is a friend I met at UT. We were in the same Intro to Electrical Engineering class, and we were partners for our Intro to Embedded Systems class. What I admire most about Zayam is how little he seems to care about what other people think of him. No matter what, he is always being his genuine self and doing what he wants to do. Now this doesn’t always mean he is always right in what he does. There have been many times where I don’t exactly agree with what he is doing, but I still admire how he is always being himself and doing what he wants to do. And when you take a step back, who really is always doing the right thing? Everyone makes mistakes and everyone does things that others don’t agree with, but at least Zayam is doing it while being himself and learning from each decision he makes to become a better version of himself.
Often times, I feel like I am too worried about what my peers think of me, and I am too worried about making mistakes. I always have tried to do my best to cause the least amount of trouble amongst my peers as I could, and this has been good in some aspects; however, it has also caused me to not be myself at times; so much so that it’s hard for me to even tell what it is I genuinely want to do. I think that if I can take a page out of Zayam’s book and just be myself and do what I want to do, I will be much more confident in myself and my decisions, and I would be much more content, not having to constantly worry about people’s perceptions of me.
Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic is a professional NBA player and he recently led the Denver Nuggets to win the 2023 NBA championship. While I was watching the NBA finals, Jeff Van Gundy, one of the commentators, emphasized how much Jokic was celebrating the success and plays of his teammates. Even when Jokic was not playing his best, if another player on the team was playing well, and the Nuggets were winning, Jokic would celebrate. For many superstars, this isn’t easy because they are the ones that are expected to carry their team to victory, so when they don’t play well, but another teammate steps up, it could hurt their ego. This is not the case for Jokic, though. He is always happy for his teammates and always celebrates their success, and Van Gundy explained how this is one of the secrets to their success and success to life and happiness in general, and once I started to think about it more and more, it begain to ring true to me more and more.
For me, I have always had trouble genuinely celebrating the success of others, especially when I am not doing well, mainly because I grew up in an environment where comparisons between me and my peers were always being made. This is something I am actively trying to work on, and I think that if I can get to a point where I can genuinely celebrate the success of others, I will be much happier and more content with my life.
Dongji Yang
Dongji is a good friend of mine that I’ve known since elementary school, so we’ve known each other for a long time. Since I have known him for so long, the thing I admire the most about him is seeing how much he has grown as a person and adapted to situations, especially since high school. Ever since COVID happened, I feel like Dongji has just become much more comfortable and confident in who he is, but at the same time, he has been able to be humble enough to improve himself and become a better person. Just as an example, I think he has become much more mature as time has went on, but at the same time, he has kept his sense of humor that I think makes him special. This balance I believe is very hard to achieve, but I think Dongji has done a better job at it than anyone I know.
Personally, I feel like I need to improve in both of these aspects. I feel that at times I am not super confident in who I am, but I am also not willing to change and improve myself. I would like to learn from Dongji and be able to find this balance so I can be more confident and gradually improve myself as a person.
Phillip Compton
Phillip is a friend of mine I met at UT. We met through a mutual friend, but have mostly seen each other at Gregory Gym playing basketball. I usually play basketball with him every Friday. First of all, he is very good at basketball, and I admire his skill and his work ethic with basketball.
I notice that the way he plays basketball reflects his character and personality. Whenever I play him one-on-one, I see how good he is as an individual player, but when we play five-on-five, he does not always look to score or to show off his skill. He always is looking to to whatever the team needs. Similarly, in life, he is always looking out for those around him and is always willing to help out those around him. He is also one of those people I talked about that seems to have the purest intentions and pure heart, and I admire that about him.