Meta-Morphosis Part 1: B-L-O-N-D-E-Y

This was a pic of my brother and I, XMAS 2003. Let the carnage begin...

Taken at the Jamba Juice 5k. My first 5k ever....completed around 15:07. Look different?

That would be freshman year. Notice the ripped polo hat, puka shell necklace and...most importantly, the beer belly. Circa 2004.

My first age group win. I placed 6th overall and won the Mens Open 20-30 age group for my second ever half marathon.

Jenks - You did a fabulous job dying the hair btw...years later I think I owe you thanks. :-)

I'll take a moment to let you fully digest who that chubby dude is in this blogpost [one of 5 blog posts dedicated to Meta-morphosis]. Umm...blonde hair? You betcha. I've decided to let you in on some Alex-history with these next couple of blog posts so blend a smoothy, sit your okole down [Hawaiian for 'arse'] and get comfy. This could take a while [5 blog posts = a while]. I'll put up some 'before' and 'after' photos each time so you can wipe the drool off your mouth after saying 'Holy sh*t! THAT was ALEX?!'.

In order to fully appreciate this story, let me take you back to freshman year of Brown University. Jenks was dying my hair blonde in the womans restroom. Now, for us asians, blonde is never blonde...it's always shit oragne. And hence, the orange color. Back then I was into a lot of pastel colored j.crew/Polo shirts, salmon-colored khaki shorts and Birkenstock clogs. To summarize: the uber douchebag frat boy look. To justify my new found preppy-ness, I joined the Brown University Rugby Team to make it look like I was doing something 'cool'. That, and it gave me a great excuse to pop my collar like the other morons I used to see at Sigma Chi. Yes, I was planning on pledging a fraternity too - at the time, Sigma Chi was the 'in' frat with all the connections and rugby players. Thankfully - and no offense to Sigma guys - I did not guy that route. Instead, I proceeded to do alright in class - assuming I showed up - and pretty much drank and ate my freshman year away. I did this all the way to where my weight got up to a hefty 190 lbs of pure lard. My girlfriend at the time used to tell me I didn't have the Freshman 15 but rather "the freshman FORTY". Just looking at those photos is more than enough to cause nightmares for most folks!

Freshman Year Weight = 190 lbs of d-bag-ness.

Fast forward to Sophmore year. Seeing as how I didn't have access to a buffet of fried foods over the summer and that I was doing physical labor as a summer gig, I lost 15 lbs or so and 'dropped' to 175 lbs. That year, I also got pretty serious about my schoolwork and applied to study at the LSE [London School of Economics]. I also roomed with some pretty cool guys who - unfortunately, I have lost touch with since then. Diet was still shit: Subway, instant noodles, burgers, fries, bbq and let's not forget: Busch Light. And when I had the dough, I'd 'splurge' for Corona. In spite of all that, I managed to keep most of the weight below 180 lbs and finished sophmore year with a 3.8 gpa and an invitation to join the LSE for my entire junior year of college.

...and at the LSE, the shit hit the fan. BIG TIME. Biggest difference between UK vs US schooling: Desire and Exams. Englandshire folk [and actually,this describes the hundreds of foreigners that come to the LSE each year] take education VERY seriously and it showed. Furthermore, there are no midterms, papers or homeworks at the Uni. Just one exam at the end of the year worth all the marbles. That'll be part 2 as it deserves an entire post to itself. Enjoy those photos...and stay tuned.