Influences are many, but the inspiration remains one.

A three year longing of mine was fulfilled tonight when I attended a reading/book signing by my favorite author in the entire world, Neil Gaiman. The event was held inside San Jose State’s Barrett Ballroom. I’m assuming that’s the same place he spoke three years ago when he came on his Endless Nights tour. I desperately wanted to go to that, having discovered his work through The Sandman earlier that year, but at the time, my car was a pain in the ass and it would have been way too much of a hassle to attend. And I missed him last year at Cody’s Books in Berkeley on his Anansi Boys tour because I was in LA at the time. But not this time. He was in town at the invitation of San Jose State’s Center for Literary Arts (an organization I would like to be involved with when I start attending) and doing promotion for his latest book of short stories, Fragile Things. I say “doing promotion” very loosely, because while the book was on sale at the event, and the flier said that he would doing a reading from the book, he didn’t mention Fragile Things once. Instead he gave us a nice surprise by reading two currently unpublished stories, one of which was being read out loud for the first time.

I was truly captivated by his readings. I am not used to hearing stories read aloud, as it was something that I experienced only as a child when my parents would read to me. The times in high school when my English class would have to read parts of novels out loud don’t count, as half of the people chosen to read put absolutely no emotion into it whatsoever. This was different. When reading a Neil Gaiman story, there are certain emotions and feelings that are drawn out of me by the words, mainly because there are certain familiar elements to all of his stories. As he took us through the two stories word by word, I felt all of those familiar feelings wash over me as if I was actually doing the reading. It was truly amazing.

The second story turned out to be somewhat longer than he expected, as it was a chapter in what will eventually become his next novel (which sounds like it’s going to be an incredibly fun read), and there was very little time left for the Q&A session. I wasn’t too disappointed in that, as I came to hear him read and get my copy of Season of Mists signed. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long for that. As people stood up I quickly moved up to the area where I thought the signing would take place while the majority of the people stood around waiting for a cue from the host. I wasn’t as star struck as I thought I would be, but I definitely felt a great amount of respect and admiration for the man who revitalized my aspiration of becoming a writer. I think I conveyed that well, as I got to say what I wanted to him, and he wished me luck in my endeavour.

Sometimes that’s all you need to get back on track. A few words of encouragement from the people who really matter. And Neil Gaiman is one of the people who truly matter in my world.

Looking back to look ahead.

I logged into my UCLA Ursa site today to request that a transcript be sent to San Jose State. I felt a twinge of nostalgia, even though my experience at UCLA wasn’t the best it could have been. Who am I kidding? It wasn’t good at all, except for working at the film school. Anyway, it created a sense of longing in me. As much as I hated it there, I do want to return and finish my degree. As much as I say it doesn’t matter, I really do want a degree from UCLA up on my wall. I’ll admit it. I do have a superficial side. Even though I didn’t want to go there to begin with, it was the only school I got into, and after I got in I started to think about how cool it was to have gotten into one of the best schools in the world. It never would have happened if I hadn’t applied. And it really is one of the best schools in the world. That never occurred to me while I was there, mainly because I was so miserable there. But now that characteristic is starting to dawn on me. So what if I didn’t get into Berkeley? They’re only 5 spots higher in the national rankings.

I’ll do the whole San Jose State thing for a year. But I’m doing it with the intention of going back to UCLA and getting that my degree in Physiological Sciences there. Work shouldn’t be a problem. If I manage to keep my job at the Apple Store, I can always just transfer to the Santa Monica store. The only thing I’m afraid of is that I’ll back out at the last minute and stay at San Jose State. I guess it all depends on how much I really like their Forensic Science program. But if I really do like it, I can come back and finish it on my way to graduate school. I mean one year of being in the program should leave me with only one year to go after I come back. I can take the classes, work and figure out where I want to go for graduate school. I want to put a lot of thought and research into that decision. Not like my undergraduate transfer. That was more of a shot in the dark type thing because I really wanted to get out of community college. I’d say it was a lucky shot, but in the end, a good one.

I need to get in touch with the head of the Forensic Science department at SJSU, the head of the Physiology department at UCLA, my college counselor at UCLA, my former MCDB department counselor at UCLA, and my peer counselor at UCLA. I should touch base with all of them if I’m going to actually do this and not just end up staying at SJSU because it was the easy thing to do.

I have some transcript errands to run tomorrow morning. Also, Neil Gaiman is going to be at San Jose State tomorrow. I can’t wait for that. I’ve been wanting to go see him for the past three years and have missed all his appearances since then. But I’m making sure that I go tomorrow. I’ll do my transcript stuff early in the morning, and then head over to San Jose State at around noon for the Conversation, and then come back to drop my mom off at her School District meeting, and then head back for the reading at 7:30. I think I’ll also get a copy of his new book. I still don’t know what I want him to sign. Anansi Boys, Season of Mists, Endless Nights, American Gods, the new book. It’s so hard. I’m going to be in the presence of my favorite writer of all time. The magnitude of this hasn’t even dawned on me yet. I think it will tomorrow at noon.

Shit. I just realized something. I don’t have to mail my transcripts from Chabot and Ohlone tomorrow morning. I can pick them up and drop them off at the Admissions office when I go there for the Neil Gaiman event. Rawk.