Confessions of a Cat-holic (175)

Peter Kang and Sei Wook Kim were the only marketing people I knew from Columbia. Everyone else I knew were either bankers, lawyers or doctors. I was glad to finally see someone with like minds. The thing was that I didn't know they were entrepreneurs and founders of a marketing agency. I knew for a fact that Sei Wook Kim was the key builder for Columbia's website. The fact that Sei Wook went to the engineering school had gotten me to take him as another tech savvy guy who specialized in coding and in his case website making. In other words, I thought of him as a programmer not a designer. Now they launched a studio site that was similar to what Wix and Wordpress would offer, then I came to realize huh maybe I overlooked their company when I made a sweeping statement that there were no marketing people in my own school. Obviously I didn't look closer to what they did because I was busy with my own things, such as accelerating my classes to be Eddie's teammate for group project. They didn't look like the stereotypical marketing professionals anyways. It was only through stalking Peter Kang and listening to his podcast that I realized he was a history major and had always had a thing for desktop publishing. Before that, I really thought that he was another coding guy only.

Peter Kang looked like 오진택 from Single's Inferno but of course he was better looking. Korean guys in real life were more attractive than those on TV, remember? But he was not my type. I would say that he was good looking but not my eye candy. I liked 문세훈 type of guys, which was hard to explain. Was that why I found DK Kim attractive? Peter Kang was the chairman of the Korean Student Association when I was a freshman. He was a graduating senior then. By the time I was a sophomore, he already started his career in banking, and at Lehman Brothers specifically. Many people saw my decision to join Lehman Brothers as a big mistake. But to be honest, I didn't go into Columbia with any idea about investment banking. I definitely didn't like stocks and investments that much, and I didn't intend to be a banker for the rest of my life. But I had a lot of 大哥哥大姐姐 from the school who offered me a lot of guidance in terms of getting an internship and landing in the right firm. And Lehman Brothers was a joint decision, I had to say. Columbia was one of the MAJOR feeder schools for Lehman Brothers, for those who knew very little about the finance world except for the league table.

I liked Columbia. I liked my schoolmates. I liked my major. I liked the people who got hired by Lehman Brothers. Naturally, I thought that I should work there, even if they paid me better elsewhere. But the thing was that Lehman paid 20 times my salary had I had worked in Weber Shandwick in Beijing so I was fully content.

Another guy who contributed to my decision to try and work at Lehman Brothers was Robert Mo. Robert Mo had almost gotten me to break up with Edmond because he asked me out on a date on Valentine's Day freshman year. That was just a dinner at one of the cafeteria filmed for Sex and the City. He took me to a jazz club afterwards. I really liked Robert. I even dreamed of him sometimes after leaving Columbia for more than a decade. I really regretted not pushing our relationship forward but I was glad that Edmond had finally considered breaking up with me. I would do all the things he hated to get myself dumped. Nah, I wouldn't dump him to be with another more desirable bachelor. That would just make me look bad. I was more strategic than that.

Robert Mo came from Princeton, New Jersey. He was the first guy who introduced me to Jersey and I fell in love with it and its people immediately. He went to one of the most prestigious prep schools in the states near where he lived, namely Lawrenceville. He even took me to meet his father once. He told me that his dad was from Hong Kong and his mother from Taiwan. A bit like my background too. I really liked Robert. He was one of my favorite guys I met from Columbia.