5 pieces of furniture that I must own

As some of you may know, I LOVE lists. David Lettermen's top 10 lists, cracked.com's lists, if it is a list, I'm in love with it. They are just so genius. My life is just a giant list of things I'd like to do, broken down into sub-lists, of course. Here, I'd like to share with you a list of pieces of furniture that I'd like to own.

5- A giant NES controller that doubles as a coffee table:


I actually think it should be law that EVERYONE own one of these. And it's multi function! How can one shy away from the multifunction!!?

4- A 14-in-1 game table (I like games, and I like tables, and as stated above, I like multifunction) :


I really only need it for pool, foosball, and ping pong, but I'd gladly take the other 11 games. Also, this 14-in-1 can turn into a 15-in-1 by making it the dining table as well.

3- This bunk/bed/futon chair/desk set up:


It will save so much space when I'm poor and can't afford a lot of space. Also, notice the multifunction: hang a sheet over the desk area, and you have a little kid's dream fort/tent.

2- Entertainment center similar to this one:


Because items 3-5 were so cost effective, I'd probably save up enough money to splurge.


1- A dishwasher:


I've never had a dishwasher before, and I've never actually used one. But I have always been ridiculously jealous of all those dishwasher owners and operators. I -will- someday have my dishwasher.

My American Dream

My favorite thing about being 20 and graduated from school is that I can do just about anything I want with my life. It's like I have a whole building of open doors for me. Sure, it might be hard to get my foot into the door of my choosing, but as the old adage holds, "where there is a will, there is a way." I will have the support of my family and friends no matter where I go. My family is stable enough so that I don't have to worry about them, and in turn, I think they trust me enough not to make any completely irrational decisions.

Earlier today, I was listening to the audio book/biography of John Adams.




I'm continually impressed with his desire for life. He was a lawyer, a politician, a leader, and a great husband. But before all that, he had ambitions. If you think about it, no one ever gets anywhere without ambition. Anyways, back to John Adams. It was his goal to 'rise with the sun' and study fervently books that he's always wanted to read. He wanted to read 3 days a a week from Latin authors, and 3 days from Greek authors, and 1 day from English authors. He wanted to be counted as one of the great thinkers of his time. He wrote that in his journal. The next day, his journal entry showed "slept in all day, dreamed the day away." Dreaming, and imagination, was his bane. This was his goal when he was 20. He finally got it together, and went on to Harvard and became the 2nd President of the United States.

I'm 20 right now, soon to be 21. I would say that I have the 20-year old John Adams syndrome. I spend a lot of my time dreaming of things I want to do, and not enough towards doing them. Granted, I am a paralegal, which is helping me with my quest to go to law school. But I also want to do many many things with my life. I often wonder where I get this drive from.

I was raised in a very Philippino culture. On my mom's side, I'm a second generation American. On my dad's side, I'm a 4th generation American. Anyways, I was raised more Philippino than American. WIth us 2nd generation kids, we've always been taught to either be engineers or nurses. If you don't do either of those things, you have to either work for a really big company or the government to be considered successful. Stability, it's a huge sell, for very understandable reasons.

My point is, I don't want to do any of those things. I want to be unique and innovative. I want to go on an adventure. I want to be the president of some nice company. I want to be an astronaut. I want to be a detective. I want to have kids and send them all to fancy-pants private schools. I want to be able to call my own shots and keep my own money. I want to take risks, work hard, and play harder. I want to make tough decisions, lose it all, take twice as much back, and talk to homeless people and world leaders all in the same day. That's what I think the American dream should be. Is that too much to ask for?