The Life of Tyson (part 3 - final)
OK. Short diversion here. I don’t share a lot about my brother. Mostly because if he wants people to know, he has his friends and can share whatever he wants. Family is important to me.
My brother is 2 years younger than me. Right after my brother graduated from high school, something happened with my brother. To this day, I don’t know exactly what it was, and he still hasn’t shared a whole lot with me. That’s fine. When he is able to he will. One day during the summer, my mom had come home from work, and when she walked into the house, she found my brother curled up in a ball on the floor. He was just staring and not speaking. My mom freaked. He was taken to the hospital, but since there was nothing “physically” wrong with him, he was taken to a private facility. It took about 6 months, but he did recover for the most part. He is still a different person, and I don’t know what happened. I did meet with his doctor, and she asked me a lot of questions about his friends. Apparently something had happened with him and some of his friends, and it put him in a “state” or something. Not sure. Anyway, I only mention this so that you can understand why I am such a queen I guess.
Back to me. Of course the events of 9/11 were devastating, but some of the smaller things that resulted from it happened shortly there after. About 4 months after it happened, my Aunt lost her job. She worked as a store manager for this luggage company. And because the travel industry literally died, her store was closed. San Francisco, being the expensive city that it was, my Aunt and Uncle couldn’t afford to stay in the city. They found a place about an hour outside of the city, but it would make my traveling to Berkeley nearly impossible. So I took this guy up on his offer to live at his place.
I had met him during the summer. I was taking a summer session class, and would study at this coffee place near the Castro. We got to know each other. He was much older than me, late 30’s, and though he was good looking, I sort of tried to keep his flirting to a distance. So I gave him a call and asked him if his offer was still good. He was really a nice guy. That is until after I moved in. About 2 months after I moved in, he became very controlling. I had my own room and all, but we were having sex. He acted like he owned me. I had to be at the flat as soon as I was done with classes. I couldn’t go out, had to be there when he would be home. I know I could have just said no, but I had no other choice. Most of the people I did know couldn’t help out. Because I didn’t have a job, it was really hard to get out of that situation. I needed to figure out a way to make some money. One day, I was on the computer chatting in some chat room, and this guy struck up a conversation. Turns out he worked for some “video” company, and that they were always looking for people. I swore I would never do that kind of stuff, but the money was decent. Enough for me to get out of my situation.
So I made a plan to do this one scene in one video. I agreed, but I didn’t want my face to be seen on camera. So they were doing this leather movie, and I wore a mask during my scene. They were filming in Arizona, so I made up a story that I was visiting family over spring break. So I get there, and was nervous as hell. It took a little over 4 hours just to do the one scene I was in. They had to shoot different camera angles. So I was literally being fucked for 4 hours. Not fun at all. The guy wasn’t even good looking. But you do what you gotta do. So I was done, and flew back home. I found a small studio, and at the end of the spring term in 2002, and moved out. I worked a couple of part time jobs during the summer, but by the time the fall term was going to start, I realize that I couldn’t afford it. So I dropped out. Not really drop out, but took the term off. I could go back in the spring.
So for the fall term, all I did was work. Saved as much as I could. Spring term 2003 came around, and I went back. I found a decent part time job that paid ok, and since I didn’t start work until 4, I was able to go to class and then go to work. The major downside was that I didn’t get off work until around midnight, and then had to get up the next morning for classes again. So it was pretty rough. My mom was able to help out a bit, since I pretty much wiped out my college fund already. My dating life was pretty much blah, since I had not time to do anything other than work and go to class. I did occasionally go out, even made out with this “straight” bartender at a club. LOL. But I wanted to concentrate so that I could graduate.
It took a little more time, but I did finally graduate. Class of 2004 (fall term that is). It was a fantastic time. My mom, brother, and a few other relatives came up. So here I was. A college graduate. Ready to start my career. Hello, I’m a graduate. Ummm, why isn’t anyone hiring me. I did get a decent job, but not what I wanted to do. But it paid the bills so that was ok.
So it’s now 2005, no real job. And then came Ryan. I was on the bus one day, and across from me was this really cute guy. I smiled, he smiled, and then I got off at my stop, figuring I would never see him again. About 3 weeks later, I was out doing my laundry, and guess who walked in? Him. The really cute guy I saw on the bus. I didn’t know what to do. So I was sitting while my clothes were in the wash. I was reading a book. Well, I had the book in my hands, I wasn’t really reading it. I kept staring at him. I’ve never been an aggressive person when I’m out. I usually wait for guys to approach me. But I decided to take a chance. I struck up a conversation with him. I mentioned that I thought I remembered seeing him on the bus. So were talking while doing laundry and I decided to take a chance. I asked him if he’d like to go out. At this point, I didn’t know if he was gay or not. He smiled and said yes. So we set a date for the next week.
So the next weekend came, and it was time to meet Ryan for dinner. We met at a very casual place. I didn’t want to overdue it. I had such a great time. We talked. He told me about his family. His parents were born in Thailand. His dad did something in finance, so they had moved to the states. Ryan was born here, but his parents had since moved back, and he was here, living with roommates. After about 4 dates, I was in love. I thought he was too, so we became bf’s. We did pretty much everything together. When we were out at clubs, we would always be with each other, or very nearby so that we always had each other to look at. He was an incredible guy. After about a year of dating, I was ready to ask him to move in together. We talked about it, but didn’t set anything.
And then I got a call from one of the career advisors at Berkeley. I was a bit surprised since it had been almost 2 years. Companies do recruiting all the time there, but nothing happened for me. So I got this call that JPMorgan Chase was interested in meeting with me. So we set up an interview. My first interview was with one person. A few weeks later, I had an interview with three people. So the first week of August, I got a call with an offer for a job. Finally, something that I actually studied for. I was so excited. My bf Ryan worked at Macy’s (department store), so he said if I came in, I could get his discount. I needed to get some clothes for my new job.
So about a week before I was to start, I decided to go to his work and surprise him. I was gonna shop and then surprise him and take him to lunch. I’ve visited him there before, and go to know some of his co-workers. So I go there, and didn’t see him on the floor, but one of his co-workers said he was in the back. He didn’t know what he was doing in the back. But since they knew me, I would usually go in and see him. So I go through the door to one of the back rooms, and I find Ryan. Pinned against the wall kissing some guy. So I left. Later that night, Ryan came by and we had a long talk. Of course I was very hurt. He said he didn’t think he wanted to be in a serious relationship. So we decided it was best that we break up. We did remain friends (up until just a few weeks ago).
So I started my new job, and I have been there since. I really love working there. The people I work with are great. I’m still single, though I did date this one Japanese guy for a short period of time. I know I’ll meet someone and settle down. Now that gay marriage is legal in California (hopefully will continue to be with the defeat of the ballot initiative in the fall), I really do want to be married, and have a family.
So there you have it. Yes I would say I’ve led an interesting life so far. But I’m sure that others have just as meaningful stories. This was really good for me to write it all out. Of course, feel free to ask me questions. There are other things too, but just all filler stuff I guess.