TAF Real World – Week #37 of 51

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose!

This is the pre-game chant Coach Taylor uses to fire up his football team on the TV show Friday Night Lights. I am a huge fan of this show, which began airing its final season on NBC last Friday (watch the season opener here on Hulu!). I’ve already had the luxury of watching the final season on DirectTV, so I’m turning my tafBlog post into my FNL farewell homage.

To those who don’t know, FNL is not about football, but rather, it’s about the universal themes of everyday life, told through the lens of the local high school team. The players and coaches are the center of the small West Texas town’s interest, and the fans live and die with each pass and tackle made by their boys. And through this game of football every Friday night, they create an incredibly strong sense of community. But not everything is perfect for the players of course. Aside from carrying the hopes of a whole town, there are relationships, family issues, recruiters and boosters, and racial and class differences that everyone has to deal with (which from an audience perspective, makes it an incredibly rich viewing experience). But through it all, Coach Taylor guides these young men.

His lessons aren’t out of the ordinary, work hard, give everything 110%, care about your teammates, etc. But one moment in the FNL pilot shows us another side to Coach Taylor. He says,

We are all vulnerable, and we will all, at some point in our lives fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us, and when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls…it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves.

Whether we’re star football players or the audience watching at home, we are not invincible. And when trials come, and they will, we can and need to count on those around us, our teammates, our friends, our family, to lift us up, and to use the adversity to look deep within and challenge ourselves to come out the other side a better person. This lesson resonates throughout the show. Characters will grow and change, but they’ll always grow or change for something better, and they will do it with the support of loved ones. It’s a simple lesson, but because it is so well told, the message is perhaps clearer. And maybe this is what the show means with its signature chant. Clear eyes (knowing yourself) and full hearts (surrounded by loved ones) simply cannot lose in life.

Storytelling like this and the lessons it can impart are what drew me into my current career in film production. Through my work, I hope to have a helping hand in creating meaningful media, and thus, how I hope to Love Out Loud. I’ve had the good fortune to work on Formosa Betrayed and the Write in Taiwanese Census PSA among other things so far in my career. Perhaps I’ll start developing a show about the lives of teens at a summer camp in Indiana and the incredible bonds they form once they leave…

But regardless, Slideshow this year is gonna be epiicccccccc!

– Jon Lee


Love Out Loud through {HEART JAPAN}

It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been to TAF and actually only went that one year. But it’s amazing the friendships that forge through one week at TAF. Since then I’ve stayed in touch with a good handful of TAF folks and it’s been even easier to follow as production quality has gotten better and better. It’s always inspiring to see what people do with their gifts and talents and amazing the impact we can make as a generation through multimedia.

Recently, my wife and I started an organization called {HEART JAPAN} along with two of our creative friends. Our goal is to empower other creatives to make a difference with the gifts and talents they’ve been given. It’s truly amazing what we can do as a collective group as opposed to individuals.

Although we’re currently focused on Japan, we plan on rolling it out to a much larger scale. Maybe what you are passionate about is your local dog shelter. Well go out there and do something about it!

In the meantime, what can you do?

1. Get involved.

Think of a creative way to raise funding and/or awareness and we can help get the word out about it and support you from the back end. It’s pretty open for interpretation. Doing a bake sale, a benefit concert, a silent auction, an art show, YouTubeing about it. That all counts. Visit heart-japan.org/join for more info.

2. Support.

Buy a shirt. We have shirts and calendars on sale on the website. All proceeds will be going to support Japan relief. Visit heart-japan.org/shop to see everything.

Donate money. Regardless of if we’re a student or working, we’re all very blessed. Support Japan relief directly at heart-japan.org/donate.

Support a friend. For those of you guys who know Young Lee, he and his band are having a benefit concert this Saturday. For details and to see what might be going on in your area, visit heart-japan.org/benefits. If there isn’t one in your area, see number 1.

3. Get the Word Out!

We all have so much power and voice through all of the social media out there. Facebook, tweet, email, and/or text people about {HEART JAPAN}. Although it was started by four creatives, {HEART JAPAN} is our collective effort!

Thanks for listening to an old man talk. Do good, be passionate, and love out loud!

Jacob Fu

(That’s me in the bottom right!)


TAF Real World – Week #36 of 51

TAF Chicago would like to extend a great big “OH HEY” to all fellow TAFers. Although spring is slowly but surely creeping up on us out here in the midwest, it’s still as cold as some soft serve ice cream from the Manchester Cafeteria, and not nearly as delicious! We here at TAF Chicago are a crafty bunch. So to keep our toes and spirits warm, we dance! In an effort to keep the TAF spirit strong year round, our monthly gatherings are filled with many of the same games, activities, and rotating themes of leadership, communication, ethics & values, and identity taught at TAF. Included among these activities is of course, Swing Choir. More than half a year after TAF 2011 has come and gone, campers can still bust out their favorite Swing Choir choreography.

P.S. the part of the video between 2:16-3:58, where it goes to a black screen with no sound… is for you to imagine your own beats so you can dance too! LOL


TAF 2011: WE GOT THE LEADER FEVER!!!

Editors Note: ***APRIL FOOLS!*** — The real TAF 2011 theme name coming soon 🙂

Ladies and gentlemen, we’re excited to introduce to you your TAF 2011 theme! Leader Fever won out over other strong contestants after weeks of deliberation from TAF Board Members and Program Directors. TAF Marketing Director Andrea Hong said, “We want to capitalize on what is hip and in, and what’s better than playing off the phenomenon that follows The Biebs right now?” Moreover, ED Karen Lin agreed that not only is the theme name timely in the pop culture world, but, “it also carries a deeper meaning because it builds a passion for servant leadership.” Youth Program Director Alex Yang responded glowingly with ” >: ) “.

Other potential theme names included Our World 2.0.11, Somebody to Lead, The Ones, and Eeniee Meenie Leadie. It wasn’t until Juniors PD Sherry Lin noticed the trend that JH PD Michelle Hsu proposed Servant Biebership or Jarrell & Justin, the latter which morphed into Leader Fever. However, the name did not come without any debate. Labs PDs Kevin Yau & Jon Lee refused to comment, mumbling about “young kids these days”, and when Juniors PD Emmeline Kuo declared that she’d never vote for Leader Fever, JH PD Young Lee quickly retorted, “NEVER SAY NEVER”, a quote from the Mr. Bieber’s critically acclaimed documentary, Never Say Never.

Tell us what YOU think! Only four more months till TAF2011!

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TAF2011:Leader Fever begins July 31st through August 7th. Stay tuned to www.tafworld.org for more updates. Staff Applications available on the website!

Photo credit: 1. Anna Wu Photography 2. Justin Bieber


TAF Real World – Week #34-35ish of 51

Happy Spring! Seventeen weeks until TAF 2011! Seven spots left for this LOL Blog Year! http://bit.ly/tafrealworldsignup
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So to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to tackle this blog assignment. There’s so much to say about TAF and so much to say about Loving Out Loud. Then I realized something – hand-written letters are slowly becoming extinct, but they make people warm and fuzzy inside. So here’s a letter for you!

After I wrote this letter, I got online and chatted with my little sib from 2008 for a little bit, and we agreed that we’d try to hang out whenever I make it back up to Chicago again. So here’s my challenge to you: reach out to those friends who you haven’t talked to in a while and check in on them. Check in on a little/big sib and see how they’re doing. It’s a small gesture, but you never know what can make someone’s day. Put your pen to paper and write a letter to someone, or even write a small thank you note for someone who may have made your day.

I’m not sure who Amanda is, but this is just one way of many to Love out Loud. We can show people we care with our words and our actions. Your role as a TAFer is never over! We’ve got to go out and use everything that we’ve learned at TAF in the real world, because the real world needs servant leaders, and people who love.

Oh – if you need stationery, click around here and you’ll find some cute stuff, like the one I used! http://moko.pupu.jp/print/


TAF Real World – Week #32 of 51

Hello! Apologies from the TAFBlog admin that this is posted a wee bit late. We’re already through weeks 32 and 33ish (less than 20 weeks until TAF ’11)! sTAFf applications are out and conference dates have been set. Don’t forget to apply, mark your calendars and invite your friends! Speaking of friends, here are Stephanie, Kristin and Jennifer with a LOVE OUT LOUD refresher crash course.


TAF Real World – Week #31 of 51

Hi there, WEEK 31 (or 20 WEEKS ’til TAF!) Here’s Sherry sharing an example of LOLing – ninja style. Don’t forget to sign up to post more LOL thoughts/stories/media here!

Attention TAF Family,
This is Sherry Lin reporting LIVE from the University of Illinois Chicago. There has been a recent report of a ‘LOVE Ninja’ activity on the UIC campus. These disguised figures were spotted passing out care packages under the banner of LOVE. Let us look deeper into this LOL matter inspired by their Sensei, Jaeson Ma’s 365 Days of Love project.


TAF Real World – Week #30 of 51

Hello! It’s already WEEK 30 (or 21 weeks ’til TAF!) Here’s Tiffany with a lovely essay on what makes TAF unique, yet translatable to all mankind:

I have a friend whose dad is a priest, and she’s super into everything church-related. For the past few years, I’ve heard about the summer camps, the random weekend events during the year, and the close friends she’s made from all of these things. One of the most recent events that she attended was an out-of-state basketball tournament she’s been going to for a few years. She was super excited for it and talked about non-stop the week leading up to it, but I’d heard it all before so I didn’t really think all that much about it. When I saw her the following Monday in class, I asked how it was. She said it was good, but then got a nostalgic look in her eyes, and started talking about how she missed it so much and felt like she just didn’t want to do anything when she got back home.

This really kind of hit me because it reminded me of post-TAF depression, or TAF blues. I remember getting a handout my first year during small group, and I remember exchanging raised-eyebrow looks with a fellow newbie in the group. All the “symptoms” and everything just sounded so silly. But in all honesty, once I experienced post-TAF that first year, I realized how much truth was in that little half-sheet of paper. There are just moments where you pause whatever you’re doing and zone out for a little while, just reminiscing on those great memories, and you don’t really feel like doing anything else. It sounded just like what my friend had mentioned, and it got me thinking. The more I thought, the more parallels I found between my friend’s experiences and my own TAF experiences. We’ve both made incredible interstate friendships, learned enlightening things, and gained valuable experiences. I suppose this would hopefully apply to any camp, but it’s like, the level of the impact. I went to a music camp the same summer I started going to TAF, and believe me, there was definitely a difference. I think a lot of where you can see the impact is with post-event communication; how close you get to the people you meet. I’ll admit, I have a habit of predominantly texting TAFers over school friends. My friend’s inbox also tends to be mostly camp/church friends. She’s more prone to tell her camp friends confidential things, and as am I. It’s not that kids at our school are undependable cold jerks, it’s just that friends we’ve made at camp just tend to be easier to talk to, even if we barely ever get to see them.

A lot the topics TAF related all relate to one thing- TAFlove. How singularly unique it is, how touching, how amazing it is. But I’ll admit, all these parallels with my friend’s experiences made me start to wonder if TAFlove really is unique. Yes, TAFlove is undeniably incredible, but is it one-of-a-kind? Are we the only ones that experience, absorb, and eventually try to spread this kind of love?

A few weeks ago, my school celebrated diversity week. We had culture-themed lunches, special “facts of the day” over the PA system, and most importantly, a diversity assembly. It was a motley assortment of performances, from Native American chants to poems in different languages, but one of the things that stood out most to me was a little speech one guy made. He pointed out things like being one of the school’s two National Award winners, one of two African Americans on the school leadership board; things that he was part of, but others were too. He was never the only one that did the things he did, and wasn’t “unique” because of the individual things he did. But rather, he was diverse because he had the combination of all the things he did. He pointed out that although there are other people doing what he was doing, there was no one else in the world that had his exact grouping of activities and accomplishments. And he was therefore, unique.

I think that’s the same concept with TAF and TAFlove. There are other people, places, things, that set out to do things the way TAF does, that strive to make the world a better place like TAF does, and that love like TAF does. But what makes TAF and TAFlove unique are all the little things that it’s made up of, what defines it. It’s the people, the campus, the program itself, the love, the things TAF has accomplished, the things TAFers have accomplished, the people TAF has influenced, the people those people went on to influence, the lives impacted, and just everything TAF is made of up. On their own, these things may not be that unique, but when everything is combined together, TAF and TAFlove are undeniably special and one-of-a-kind.

So in the end, I realized TAF is just an incredible thing. There may be other programs and camps that are incredibly similar to TAF, that reach for the same goals, create the same kind of relationships, and are just as wonderful, but that doesn’t make TAF any less unique or special. It is still amazing, inspirational, impactful, unconditional, unforgettable. It’s just TAF.
<3 Love you guys, Tiffany(:


TAF Real World – Week #29 of 51

Haallo, my name is Grant Wu. I am what most TAFers today would consider old school. Many of you weren’t even BORN YET the first year I went to TAF. Kids didn’t roll with cell phones back then, we had pagers! We didn’t have any high speed internet, we had to use dial-up – AOL baby! We didn’t have MP3s, I-pods, I-pads, I-puds. We had Sony Walkmans and Discmans playing tapes and CDs. Anyways, my first year at TAF was in 1993 as a Youth camper. I had some friends from Chinese School (Morris Lee and Andy Chen) who had been trying to get me to go for years, but for some reason I refused. Finally I gave in and decided to check it out. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even really understand TAF love my first year, and had second thoughts about going back. I don’t think I was used to the cheesiness, the games, the format, and just overall spirit that was TAF. Perhaps I was just caught off guard or thought I was too cool. Fortunately, I decided to go back in ‘94, and it was a complete 180 to say the least. My small group Advisor was Albert Chen (Andy Chen aka Fob’s older bro). Being in that small group changed my life. Ten years later, 3 years as Youth Advisor, 2 as PA, and 3 as Youth PD brought me to 2004 which was the last time I attended as a full week participant. By the time this gets posted, I will have just turned 35 years young, and I can honestly say besides my family and friends, TAF is the single greatest thing to ever happen to me in my life. I am who I am today in large reason due to TAF. There is seriously no place like it anywhere. I remember so clearly in one of my final years as PD. We were having one of our final staff meetings, I think it was a Friday night, and people were wrapping up the week, getting amped up for their final day with their small groups. Things got pretty emotional – and one staffer said that she felt sorry for everyone else (outside of TAF) because they will never experience what we have experienced here at TAF. Perhaps that is part of what makes TAF so special because it is such a small fraternity, and we truly are blessed to be a part of this. But at the same time, what good is TAF if you only live or act in “TAF mode” for 1 week out of the year? TAF should push you to live and love out there in the real world. Spread TAF love to everyone in your life, not only TAFers. Remember the TAF mission is to foster personal growth and develop servant leaders in the Taiwanese American community for the benefit of SOCIETY. It’s been amazing to see so many of you all grow up through the years and blossom into the servant leaders you are today. I know the next generation of kids will be even more amazing servant leaders because they have you all to look up to and learn from. TAF is in good hands right now and there is no doubt the future looks brighter than ever. Thank you TAF-labs for the opportunity to blog, and I just wanted to show that I still have TAF LOVE and always will!

Grant Wu

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oh hey!
we’re past the halfway mark in this TAF year! make sure you all mark your calendars and save the date – TAF 2011 at manchester college will be july 31-aug 7.
in the meantime, keep everyone updated with how you are LOVING OUT LOUD this year by volunteering to post on the TAFblog!
http://bit.ly/tafrealworldsignup
tiny link made by Karen, which is why she’s ED! she’s good at optimizing and making things user-friendly!


TAF Real World – Week #26 of 51

We’re going back in time to WEEK 26 (or 25 weeks ’til TAF!) There was a crazy snowstorm in the midwest last week. Texas got some snow recently too, which caused a state of emergency. Despite minor obstacles, Alison persevered with her commitment to post on TAFblog. That’s some serious LOL! Here are her reflections on how to apply LOL in daily life:

Hello everyone! I’m going to start this with a disclaimer. I always have a lot to say but I’m no good at putting my thoughts into words, so I apologise in advance for my inadequate writing abilities.

TAF 2010: Love Out Loud. When I received the Facebook message telling me this year’s theme, I was ecstatic. I thought the play on LOL was incredibly clever and whoever came up with it was brilliant. This was my tenth year at TAF, making me officially old school. TAF has been a huge part of my life, teaching me life lessons I couldn’t have learned anywhere else. Before coming to TAF, I was a trouble child, always doing my best to be rebellious and hard to raise. Suffice it to say, I didn’t have very many friends. When one of our family friends told us about TAF, my mother was so excited. She asked me and my sister if we wanted to go but didn’t wait for an answer. Her decision was already made: her two babies were going to get on a plane to Indiana where they would spend a week with other Taiwanese American kids, learning about what it meant to be Taiwanese American. Something like that. I remember not wanting to go at all. I was seven years old and the only place I’d ever flown was to Taiwan with my family. I went to one sleepover but had to be picked up in the middle of the night because I became homesick. Somehow my parents managed to get me on the plane without me screaming and yelling, and I reluctantly readied myself for a week in an unknown place filled with strangers, save my older sister. When the weekend came around, my parents flew up to Indiana. My mother was so anxious to see me, to make sure I was doing all right. According to her, I barely stopped to say hi because I was having so much fun. I could go on and on, telling y’all (make fun of me all you want, I’m from Texas so I will forever say “y’all” instead of “you all” or “you guys”) my story of each year, but I won’t put y’all through that much incompetent writing. Long story short, I ended up loving TAF with my whole heart. I’ve met so many amazing people through TAF. It’s a great feeling knowing you’ve got friends all around the world who will always be there for you if you need someone to talk to. This year I learned that loving out loud can mean lots of different things and that everyone has their own love language(s). Loving out loud can be something as simple as a random act of kindness. It can be sitting with and talking to a stranger who looks like they need a friend. It can be giving someone the benefit of the doubt when they’ve upset you; remember, everyone has a story. Loving out loud can be checking up on a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile. It can be in the form of a warm hug. Though loving out loud doesn’t necessarily need to be literally “out loud”, it most certainly can be. Telling your friends and family you love and care about them is yet another of the countless ways to love out loud. I strongly encourage everyone to keep up the loving out loud; you never know when your LOL will be what gets someone through the day.

I suppose that’s all I have to say for now. I hope it was somewhat articulate and understandable.. Hope y’all have a great twenty-five weeks filled with (TAF)love. See y’all at TAF 2011! 🙂