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
===========
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!