Hi all,
Here is my first REAL post of the year.
To the evaluators of this blog - this post is of a more personal scope.
The year's just begun, and I'm already trapped in chronic lethargy.
The effects:
1) For the first time in my entire life, I feel sleepy in class (I'm not exaggerating)
2)Somehow, my sleep time is diminished to insignificance.
3)Most dismally, I'm so fraught with workaholism that I would be satisfied with just THIRTY MINUTES of 'ME' time a week.
I am staying back in school till late in the evenings every day, except Sunday, which is no oasis either.
So I decided that I needed a more positive outlook to life (even my sister commented that I looked as if I wanted to murder someone, though I'm not) Because what's the point of living a life of eternal misery and distress? It won't do you any good, less you think that you look handsome with wrinkles or sunken eyes or a droopy mouth, which obviously will not occur to anyone in his or her right mind.
And I found my answer. I decided to formulate a way, or at least a psychological state of mind which would miraculously make me enjoy whatever I am doing. This idea came from a book I came across titled 'The Power of Positive Thinking' by Norman Vincent Peale. It came from my father at a time when the malicious distresses I was troubled with had most unfortunately peaked.
Miracles do happen.
I tried to pry for insignificant minute moments of my everday life when I really can enjoy myself. For example, I enjoy sleeping on the school bus trip to school. And I enjoy the brief table tennis matches played with my my juniors during recess. And I enjoy my PE lessons and sometimes NPCC. And I enjoy my important, though brief, daily sleeping times.
Hence discovered one important principle of life - to cherish life's simplest pleasures. There was one survey held globally in 2009 to find out the source of the world's happiest people. Paradoxically, these individuals came from the poorest regions existent in the world. Why?
I think that schools should have such psychological lessons for their students, given the 'state-of-the-art', superbly advanced and rapidly advancing education system
of today. Many students still do not know how to handle stress, but they are certainly not unable.
This still does not give us an reason to spoon-feed them.
While trying to prepare them for their future career lives, we should still teach our students to enjoy their childhoods, or rather, their school lives as much as possible.
Start enjoying life NOW!!!!!
Cheers,
Zhu Cheng
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Sorry to hear that you've not been sleeping well. same goes to me, since Sec 1. Procrastination, seems to be the root of my problems. The root to yours, as Cheng Yao mentioned somewhere in mark's blog, is over-enthuness.
ReplyDeleteTry doing things you like, try doing things you feel strongly about, like sitting on the terraces, sketching, (that is if you dont mind people staring at you)
Or perhaps you may want to stroll about Hwa Chong and listen to the sounds (thats what i have always wanted to do) such as walking down the river facing Block C.
About sleeping in the bus, try not to do that at all. I have once or twice missed the bus-stop and no one waked me up. Its rather scary, navigating around in an environment you do not really know, and finding a bus stop on the other side. Actually on bus, you can play piano pieces you enjoy in your mind, or just look around, outside, and study the route of the bus/bus journey.
Just as the comprehension passage 房老师 gave us mentions, we take things too fast. Try to slow down (that includes your work: it is not a sin to do work during recess, although it is, indeed against my principles to copy without learning much). I believe that you should try to capture the beautiful, yet unseen and unheard features around us. Try making something out of them. Learn to enjoy.
And last but not least, dont mug that much!
Homework... it isn't a unique problem to us, and for some reason nearly everyone has a post on it. Yes, a few days ago, I also came across the proverbial fact that enjoying something will cause the time to shorten, and thus we will be able to endure it easily. However, looking back upon my life, most of the things I do not enjoy are those which I am being forced to do, like I aren't in LEP, right? Well, I guess habit incurs fondness. Most probably, if you don't enjoy what you are doing now, having newly experienced it, you will soon get to like it. Yet, there are still limitations. Like now, I have been utmostly failing in my desperate attempts to enjoy Chinese. I think it is because I am lagging behind the class, and all I have to lean upon is mugging the night before a test. It is because I cannot catch up with what the teacher is saying that I find no way to enjoy it. Anyway, back to the main point. Although we should do things we enjoy, such may not allow us to excel. That is why parents must cause their children to enjoy learning right at the start. Only then can parenting be a success. The next point you covered all in one sentence. Mugging is bad. It is a cover-up for what you do not know, and does not give the teachers a true estimate of your intelligence. Instead, we should learn the logic, but not the facts. Of course, Chinese has no logic, so I must mug :D Anyway mugging also reduces our time and will cause us to have a hard time in the future. That is why I don't believe in mugging and mugging is universally agreeably bad. And I think that ends my comment.
ReplyDeleteI would like to comment on Mark's comment.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would like to argue (with Mark) that Chinese has logic. You may have no interest at all, but Chinese having logic, is something no one can deny. Even the characters, one of the basic elements of Chinese Language, has an origin. There is no need to see interest in Chinese, but do at least have respect for it.
And also, I don't see what you mean by "lagging in class". If what you mean is the compositions we've been given so far, yes, it IS hard, I am trying to cope with it myself. Otherwise, right now, you should be in a better status than me.
Also, the irony you created saying that you could not enjoy chinese even after a long time (correct me here @ tagboard) was strong. As I mentioned earlier, I am lagging further behind you. I still enjoy it (and I am not particularly interested in it)
Habit incurs fondness? I do not think we would be ready to accept that. That is because there are too many non-examples. I am sure, many people have that one subject that they are not at all interested. For me, I am not interested in IS and to some extent, math. Its just like how you cant seem to get Chinese.
Also, about how doing things may cause us to not excel, you are terribly wrong. The "not excel bit" is when we are so interested that we delay the other work. Of course, this is not true for many cases. Doing things we like liftens our spirit. It is all a matter of self-control and balancing interest and work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Nope, not only dull, Jack will be destroyed. Anyway, since we are talking about Zhu Cheng, we can trust him to be able to manage time effectively or more effectively than us.
Therefore I nearly totally disagree with your views (except the part where mugging is bad)
Hey Zhu Cheng hey. Quite in-depth reflection, I quite liked the "So I decided..." paragraph. I was wondering when you would murder Ling, but that's besides the topic. A most personal writing style indeed (although many others also face the same problem), which made me enjoy this posting.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes-I also feel that short, occassional psychological sessions might help-truly understanding your thoughts is important, for you can shape yourself (and control your stress) when you have control over your thoughts (unfortunately I am an epic fail in this). The brain is a very powerful tool, as there is much power in thoughts. Heed your thoughts for they become your words. And heed your words for they become your actions. And heed your actions for they shape your personality. And heed your personality for that is what you are. So in short, thoughts+time=you
Okay, enough of philosophy and raving. About "life's simple pleasures", I also do have some too-AEP lessons, sleeping, PE lessons, following certain people around during recess or lunch and bugging them... (basically things which don't involve my brain)
Reading the comments, I partially agree with Mark; I have been utmostly failing in my desperate attempts to enjoy Maths. I think it is because I am terribly lagging behind the class, and all I have to lean upon is mugging the night before a test. It is because I cannot catch up with what the teacher is saying that I find no way to enjoy it.
...
I am telling myself to stop detracting and so I shall end my comment here.
Oh wait, since I am in a really lame mood today here are some wisecracks in really bad taste to cheer everyone up :) (and just for humour's sake, DONT repeat them elsewhere!):
-One does not know true happiness until he is married. By then it is too late.
-Everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die. This is called no pain, no gain.(no offence!)
-Nature always makes up for itself. Why do I keep thinking of a small kid in my class with an extraordinarily large brain? (don't tell, don't tell!)