"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." – Helen Keller
I dropped off some flyers of the Donor Network West walk at Mr. Lewin’s class after school. I said if he wants to, my mom would love to run the 5k/10k with him. I’m just going to walk.
Mr. Lewin told me he had a high school classmate who was now a news reporter, and she was interested in doing a story about me. Hmmm. Awesome!
Today I filmed with Ivanhoe Broadcast News. Ivanhoe Broadcast News is a news station that provides medical and health news to network affiliates (ABC/NBC/CBS) around the country. The segments run 1-1.5 minutes and usually air on local stations a few months after filming takes place.
My mom cleaned up the house a few hours before they arrived. We were expecting them to arrive about 7~8 PM, but they arrived at 9 PM. I can understand, because the traffic from Palo Alto (Lucile Packard at Stanford) to Pleansanton is insane.
They set up in the living room. I watched as they pulled out the lights, reflectors, and cameras all for a simple interview.
As usual, they had me go in front of the camera and say my name, and then they started asking me their questions.
I always make sure to emphasize how much I appreciated my donor, how important is to be an organ donor, and how easy it is to register to be a donor.
It’s so important that people register to become organ donors. The matter of the fact is, the people who sign up to be organ donors will likely never even become organ donors. You have a higher chance of getting struck by lightning than becoming an organ donor.
My mom went after me. She had some really touching stories about myself in the hospital, and I always appreciate how much she’s done for me.
We shot b-roll (background shots) in the kitchen. My mom and I cooked my signature chow-mein recipe while they filmed. Later we shot our second b-roll in my bedroom working on my blog.
I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Amy. Is. Awesome.
She’s the best. She was like, “Oh wow Justin, you’re doing so great. I can’t wait to see what happens and stuff like that.”
Okay, stop. Hold up, back up.
So today at lunch I was doing homework at the library when I decided to talk to Amy about Tasty.
“Do you know about Tasty?”
“No, what’s that?”
I showed her some random video I pulled up and she was like, “Wait, I do know it!”
We talked a lot about going to LA, how cool it was that I had my first ever Hollywood experience, how it was shooting, and overall how cool this opportunity was.
Most importantly, we talked about the importance of Tasty.
Tasty has a huge audience. 1 million followers on Twitter, 15 million subscribers on YouTube, 32.1 million followers on Instagram, and 85 million followers on Facebook.
I cannot emphasize how tremendous of a leap it is to go on something like Tasty to talk about organ donation.
Amy says she would be surprised if the video doesn’t take off. But, how do I know? I’m still insecure about that fact. I guess I’ll have to talk with her about that.
But overall, Amy told me she’s not a social media person but the fact that she knows the video format means Tasty’s reach is HUGE.
I cannot emphasize enough what going onto Tasty means. It’s such a big leap forward because we were able to reach so many people.
I’m not usually a vlogger (I’m a blogger), but… 🤩
So I hate it when people preach as if they’re the masters of the Universe, and that’s why I’ll try not to. I know people hate it when they’re lectured by someone else, especially by a sixteen-year-old.
These are just my thoughts. Or my philosophies of life (oh boy, get ready for all the corny cliches!). If you agree with them, cool! 👍
I don’t know where to start. It seems like I think of this all the time, but once I want to write it down my mind goes blank.
I guess I can start by saying my blog doesn’t get a lot of views. Which is fine, but I wished it had a bit more.
I try very hard. And it doesn’t show. People mistake me for having the perfect life, but I’m not that perfect.
I put myself out there because I can. I’m a pretty open book (with a few scandalous secrets), and some people don’t agree with that. They can’t imagine doing that but that’s fine.
I don’t want fame, I want a legacy. Which is, y’know, same-same but not really. I don’t care about the tabloids or fans begging me for their autographs, I want to make an impact on this world.
My goal in life is to create a legacy for myself. I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I should be realistic: it’s most likely not going to happen.
I have this type of mindset because I don’t want to waste my life. Being in the hospital, I saw so many people not make it. It’s just not right.
We all have to die at some point, but why in their youth? I mean…
It’s different how in our society we value the youth more than the adult. At least in my view, the loss of someone young is more emotional because they didn’t have a chance to live a full life. They had a lot of potential to be something, do something, create something and now it’s just gone.
An adult dies and we’re like “okay.” They already lived their life; they became someone, did something, created something. So when an adult dies its less sad.
Which is weird? Because my mom told me, in China it’s the opposite (I could be totally wrong though). China used to be an impoverished country and children died all the time. You could always pop out another,
But when an adult dies you mourn that the individual who was there and did so much good isn’t here anymore. They’re gone.
I just think we’re all scared of death. I feel you could be ninety or ten, Pope Francis or atheist, assassinated or peacefully, we’re at least a little bit scared of it.
I’m scared of death.
I try not to be, but I’m such a weenie. And I know it’s not normal for someone my age to think of death that often, but my entire thing is death.
Organ donation is about death. I have a dead person’s heart in my body. Someone had to die for me to live.
If I ignored this chunk of my life, I could probably be normal, but I don’t think I can. I’m such a wuss.
It’s ridiculously easy to die. Just put a gun against your head and *boom* you’re dead.
It’s the uncertainty of death that scares me. And I don’t want to be scared right now, so I won’t go into it.
But there is one thing I live by: the only certainty is uncertainty. Which is what I apply to myself.
Especially right now, everyone around me is talking “in the future I want to be…” or “in the future I want to…” The thing is, what if there is no future?
Do you consider the fact that a car could run you over and bam! Dead. Or a shooter could come into the school and then that’s it?
They don’t take it into account because they think the future is guaranteed. Also, what kind of freak thinks about death?
Everyday is a blessing. It really is.
The fact that I’m able to wake up, stretch my arms, and hit the snooze button to go back to sleep is a blessing.
In my opinion, “live everyday to the fullest” is such baloney (I told myself I shouldn’t curse on this blog). I can’t live everyday like it’s my last! I don’t have that kind of energy.
What I try to do is appreciate the fact that I’m alive. The fact that I’m alive, well, and not in pain.
Some people take life as a blessing. Some people take life as a curse. Whatever you take it, life is life. Life is weird. 🤷♂️ Oh well. What can you do.
If you don’t notice, I’m a little aggressive. In a year I’ve started a blog, authored a cookbook, been on TV, been on Tasty, and go to multiple speaking events.
I’m aggressive because I want to build a legacy. I want to build a legacy so I can die happy.
Death is ridiculously easy. But when I die, I don’t want my death to be scarier or sadder than it should be. I want to make my death as easy and peaceful as I can.
And I know that living your life just for one moment in time may seem wrong, but in my opinion, it’s not. It guarantees me to live a fulfilled life.
Claire Wineland said that when she died, she had a fear not for death, but for what she hadn’t done. She regretted the times she had the ability to do something, and she didn’t.
I know that my blog will probably never take off, but that’s fine. I’m satisfied with what it’s done.
My blog will always be (or hopefully 🤞, you can’t be certain) online. It’ll outlive me and be available for whoever is interested in it.
Anyways, that’s just what I think. I decided to write this because I’ve been lazy and wanted to update my blog. So yeah!
Hello future Justin Wang! Are you still alive? How are you?
Today I went to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) walk at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. Children’s Fairyland is the name of the park, or at least I’m sure.
I thought of the idea of going to this walk a week ago. I sent an email to the American Heart Association Bay Area a long time ago, but I got now response. So y’know what, I’m going to meet with them in person.
My goal for going to the walk was to connect with people. I had to convince my mom that this walk was worth missing school, but I think she was in a good mood.
My mom dropped me off at the park, and it was pretty confusing. I think I was the only kid there. I wandered around and it seemed there were a lot of corporate employees.
I was too scared to go up to anyone, but my mom was kind of boss. She went up to the volunteer tent and blatantly said “Hi, Justin wants to volunteer for you” and gave me a shove. I then met someone that gave me their business card.
My mom was talking to a guy, and when I got there I saw they were talking about healthy habits. He emphasized that eating healthy is important. He’s a bodybuilder, and he showed me a picture of him when he was 17 (in his prime).
When the rally started, the mayor came up to the podium to speak. She introduced herself as the mayor of Oakland, and she also said she was a Skyline High School alumni. I thought, “Hey, that’s where I took my SAT!” Anyways, she declared October 10 Thrive day in Oakland because of all the support Kaiser Permanente provided to the city.
After the opening speeches, I met the CEO of the American Heart Association Bay Area. I gave her my business card, but I have to say I’m shy of giving away my business card (it makes advocacy seem like a corporation). It was awesome meeting her because I accomplished my goal of the day!
I didn’t plan to participate in all of the walk because I had to return to school, but before I went my mom decided to grab some food from the food trucks. Unfortunately, since the food trucks require a ticket that you received when you registered for the walk, we couldn’t get food. My mom said yesterday, “No, it’s fine, we can register at the walk.” But there was no place to register.
This really nice lady offered us free tickets for the food truck. God, the food was amazing. It was some great eggplant, chicken, and rice concoction.
So I unfortunately had to go back to school. I came back later than expected and wound up in the middle of math. My classmate saw I posted the story on social media and asked me how was it. I said “good.”
Today I met Kelly from the American Heart Association. Ever since the AHA’s walk at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland (October 10, 2019), I’ve been communicating with her over email. She said she wanted to meet up and I love that idea.
We met at Peet’s Coffee. It had a beautiful interior, but we sat outside.
Kelly told me what she does, and I’m so impressed. She heads the youth programs in the Bay Area, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles area. It’s like woah, all at once?
Our conversation can be broken into three things:
1: Me telling her about what I’ve done
I told her about everything: my blog, my cookbook, and my Tasty video. Kelly was impressed. It seems like everyone I meet knows about Tasty. They might not know the name, but the format is widespread nationwide. She said it shows up on her Facebook feed, and I should probably use Facebook. Even though I have a Facebook page, my mom is the one updating on it.
2: Me asking her about “the next big thing”
I shared with her my idea for my next big project. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you about it. It has to be a secret. 🤷♂️ I am so grateful for Tasty, but I don’t anticipate it being my only thing.
She said it’s not her department, but she said she’ll send it over to someone who can help. However. she’s on vacation right now. She’ll be back in a couple of weeks
3: Kelly asking what she wants from me
My next big project is an ambitious thing, and Kelly said she does more grassroots things. She told me she did something called the American Heart Challenge in high schools, and it’s to promote health in the heart, mind, and body in high school students.
She does a lot of health programs in elementary schools, and usually the American Heart Challenge takes over for them. For high schools, they’re usually student run.
Kelly also communicated it would be awesome if I could participate in kick-off assemblies. She asked me to look at my schedule and tell her how many days I could take off school, which is definitely on my agenda.
Guys, can I tell you how awesome Beth is? We met Beth on August 9, 2018. She’s the director of Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area. In fact, she’s the one that introduced my cookbook.
Today my mom and I decided to meet with Beth. Since today’s PSAT schedule, I have the entire morning open to myself.
Beth is retiring. Woohoo! I am so excited for her next step. I understand she’s a little uneasy, but I believe in her. She pondered over it and made her final decision, and I support her.
We met at Oakland. More specifically, at a coffeehouse called Modern Coffee. There are apparently 3 Modern Coffees in Oakland. My mom dropped me off at the wrong Modern Coffee (which I gave her directions her to), and I had to walk 15 minutes to get to the other Modern Coffee. My mom already met Beth by the time I arrived.
We talked a lot about my future. About my college, I’d want someplace in a city. Not in California. Beth told me education is extremely important. I have to get a college degree. About my job, you’d think I’d know what job I could do. But advocacy doesn’t pay the bills. Beth said I could always work at Make-A-Wish. In fact one of her coworkers was a wish child.
I said I would be going to the conference in Phoenix. The national Make-A-Wish conference is held in Phoenix, Arizona (where their national headquarters are), and this year yours truly was invited to speak. Beth said to have fun, and I for sure will!
We talked about Beth. Of course I can’t write it down and share it with you (it’s her personal stuff), but she did recommend to my mom for her to shelter foster children. I mean since I’m going to go to college, my mom might have some time. She can fill that empty hole with foster children.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I had to get back. Thankfully there was that PSAT schedule, and there was *shrug* no use in taking it. I had to go back to math class. My classmate saw I posted a picture of Beth and I on social media and asked me how was it. I said “good.”
Hello world! My name is Justin Wang, and I just turned 17!
I am so proud of what I’ve done. In a year, I’ve started a blog, authored a cookbook, and appeared on Tasty!
I cannot believe how great today is. I decided to spend some time with my awesome family and celebrate seventeen full years of life.
Wow, I’m almost an adult. That’s crazy considering I spent a good half hour putting a name tag on my suitcase.
Could you imagine turning 17 without having your driver’s license? I could never…
¯(°_o)/¯
Hi, so this isn’t really a heart transplant thing, but I thought I might share this because it’s fun. Today I met my mom’s running group.
My mom told me that it was important to come because I might join the group. I’m not jumping up and down to start running. I know I was at the beginning of my heart transplant, but I don’t feel the need anymore. I’m already exercising really well.
I’ve never really had a positive connotation towards running. I’ve only ran the miles in PE (while my heart was damaged), and that was a HORRIBLE experience.
But anyways I met them, and as they went around sharing their stories I began to change my mind. Even though I’m not part of their group, I wanted to speak up and say I might be joining them.
The coach seems to really like me. My mom has been communicating with her about my journey, and she said my transition was amazing.
I hope they have a 5k or 10k training, because I don’t know if I can handle a half-marathon training.
