I kept thinking that the convocation was just a pointless event.
Just as a ceremony to signify the ending of a period.
Even for an ending, we did finish our studies about 5 months earlier.
When we were outside the hall and was lining up to get into the hall, I felt like it was primary school again when we used to line up before each class could enter their respective classroom. It was then that I realize there's at least a handful of people that I'm familiar with, and an even bigger lot of people that I recognize and used to study in the same hall with for the past 3 years.
Once I started asking everybody what were they doing now that they already graduated, everybody has gone on with their life, studying, working and even just resting. It occurred to me then that it could very likely be the last time we meet each other face to face. Sure everybody says to keep in contact and to meet up for drinks, but in reality people grow apart really fast.
3 years ago I remember that during the first few days I kept thinking how come people are so different from me. In fact most people are really different with the kind of people I used to mixed with. I was reserved at first, preferring to stick to myself. But after some time you'd realize that different personalities and interest are just that, and deep down we're all the same, we all worry about our results, we all worry about our assignments, we all worry about the upcoming mid term test. Even like the small stuff such as parking or the rain or what to eat, we all go through the same things for 3 years.
In the end when I realized that there was so many people that I had grow fond. There were so many people who were not in my life for 4 months, and it could be even longer until we see each other again.
I guess I'm really gonna miss you guys. I Hope that one day when we do meet each other once more everybody will be successful in their pursuits and happy in their life.
3 years isn't a really long time, but it really isn't a short time too. I guess the convocation was more meaningful than I expected. One thing is for sure, I will miss playing futsal with the bola kaki gang a lot. Playing futsal won't be the same without you guys.
Happy Convocation all my fellow grads~
10/23/12
9/24/12
The price of freedom
Here's an interesting thought, fully credited to my dear friend snoopy.
How much of a pay cut would you be willing to take for the freedom of going home on time and spending more time with your love ones? It is quite an interesting thing for me because, all this time I was thinking the opposite way. I thought that in the auditing line, "freedom" is very scarce, in fact I always thought that if you have too much of it, there's probably something wrong, i.e. your being lazy or your not putting enough focus on your work.
So my approach has always been to get the most out of my freedom. If I am not supposed to have it, I might as well make the most out of it. If I didn't have any freedom, but I have valuable experience that would help me in my career or in the future, then that would be worth it.
A breakdown of my thinking is roughly something like this:
At my age, freedom is bountiful, as they say all you have when your young is your youth. So it is worth less, because if I had all the time in the world, there isn't a lot of things that I can do (financial restrictions). In contrast to that, the youth do not have any experience, making it all the more valuable. So a trade-off of my freedom for stronger experience would definitely be a good thing to me.
But if you look at the other side of the story:
Your family and your friends aren't going to wait for you forever. Everybody's lives moves on. Someday you won't be a part of a friends life, today I am already experiencing that. There isn't anybody else to blame other than yourself if you grow old lonely. I certainly know I am the one to blame for losing touch with many of my dear friends.
There is no absolute answer to many questions in life. I know that I have already made this decision. I sold my freedom, I can't help it, I'm a workaholic. Maybe all the terrible tales of OT-ing for weeks after weeks aren't entirely true, but if it is, I'm entirely ready for it.
I remember a friend used to tell me that it's not the quantity of friends you have, but the quality of friends you have. I'm glad I have a bunch of friends that really put up with me throughout all these years. I can be a lousy friend sometimes.
I can only hope that next week will be a good start for me. After a half month hiatus from auditing, I can feel the rust in my brain, my thinking is a lot more slower and I'm missing a lot of stuff and making a lot more mistakes than I should. I'm really lucky to have two weeks to warm up and prepare~
How much of a pay cut would you be willing to take for the freedom of going home on time and spending more time with your love ones? It is quite an interesting thing for me because, all this time I was thinking the opposite way. I thought that in the auditing line, "freedom" is very scarce, in fact I always thought that if you have too much of it, there's probably something wrong, i.e. your being lazy or your not putting enough focus on your work.
So my approach has always been to get the most out of my freedom. If I am not supposed to have it, I might as well make the most out of it. If I didn't have any freedom, but I have valuable experience that would help me in my career or in the future, then that would be worth it.
A breakdown of my thinking is roughly something like this:
At my age, freedom is bountiful, as they say all you have when your young is your youth. So it is worth less, because if I had all the time in the world, there isn't a lot of things that I can do (financial restrictions). In contrast to that, the youth do not have any experience, making it all the more valuable. So a trade-off of my freedom for stronger experience would definitely be a good thing to me.
But if you look at the other side of the story:
Your family and your friends aren't going to wait for you forever. Everybody's lives moves on. Someday you won't be a part of a friends life, today I am already experiencing that. There isn't anybody else to blame other than yourself if you grow old lonely. I certainly know I am the one to blame for losing touch with many of my dear friends.
There is no absolute answer to many questions in life. I know that I have already made this decision. I sold my freedom, I can't help it, I'm a workaholic. Maybe all the terrible tales of OT-ing for weeks after weeks aren't entirely true, but if it is, I'm entirely ready for it.
I remember a friend used to tell me that it's not the quantity of friends you have, but the quality of friends you have. I'm glad I have a bunch of friends that really put up with me throughout all these years. I can be a lousy friend sometimes.
I can only hope that next week will be a good start for me. After a half month hiatus from auditing, I can feel the rust in my brain, my thinking is a lot more slower and I'm missing a lot of stuff and making a lot more mistakes than I should. I'm really lucky to have two weeks to warm up and prepare~
9/14/12
Short Story
A long time ago, there was a family of three, two parents and a little girl. Both parents worked really hard, the father owned a business in the market and the mother helps out from time to time. The little girl would go to her kindergarten and spend the rest of her evenings at home playing with her toys. Sometimes her mom would be home early to take care of her, occasionally this was not the case.
One day, the little girl came home from kindergarten as usual and started playing with her toys. She was alone that day, but she was used to it. Business was really picking up and the occasional lonely evenings started to become the norm for her. Her parents always told her never to open the door for strangers. For some unknown reason, this had slipped her mind.
As she was playing with her favorite dolls, she heard an unfamiliar voice calling out her name. This seldom happened, as they lived in a small house at the outskirt of town, their neighbors were mostly the wildlife that inhabited the forest. Out of her curiosity, she opened the door and followed the voice into the woods. The voice kept calling out to her and she couldn't resist the temptation of companionship.
Later that day, her parents arrived home, shocked that the main door was left open and their kid was nowhere to be found. They immediately went to the nearby village and mobilized a search party looking for her. The sun was beginning to set and the parents started to panic, for all they knew the little girl may have been kidnap or even murdered. The search party prepared torch-lights and started moving into the forest.
Their search did not bear fruit, it was close to midnight and still not even a glimpse of the little girl could be found. Many of the villagers had given up hope and return to their homes, they still had to work the next day. A number of the parents close friends continue on their search, they kept believing that they would find her even though they were only a few.
It was close to four in the morning, when everybody was exhausted and ready to give up, in their mind they knew that the chances of finding her, dead or alive, was close to none, nobody was ready to admit defeat though. Suddenly, the sound of a little girl crying could be heard. They hurried their pace, running towards the sound, and found her sitting behind a tree trunk, her eyes red from all the crying and her face pale as snow, she was clearly very frightened too. The search party disbanded and everybody went home.
After the little girl recovered, her dad asked her how come they were looking for so long yet they couldn't find her. The passed the spot where they found her sitting at several times, it was under a very distinct old tree and they did not saw her near that area at all. The little girl said that she saw the search party many times, in fact she cried out as loud as she could but nobody could hear her. She was tugging at the villagers clothes but there was no response. It was as if she was invisible.
They decided to move away from the forest and never spoke of this story ever again.
_________________________________________________
I can't remember where I heard this story from. If I remember correctly, it is one of those story that grown-ups told kids so that they would not open doors to strangers. Recently I was reading about the Slender Man, a part urban legend and part fictional creation. It has long arms and a tall, thin body. Sometimes it would have many arms, sometimes it would have tentacles, depending on which story you hear about him. He doesn't have a face nor any hair. He stalks children and appear in their dreams, sometimes driving its victim insane before he kidnaps them. Recent literature suggest that adults are not immune to his interest.
Anyways, Slender Man sounds exactly like the character that adults would use to scare children so that they behave, which is also why it reminded me of this story. But about the story, I don't remember any details about the thing that took her away. However I do know that you aren't supposed to called out the names of those that you know when your close to the forest. They probably aren't related but thought I just shared a story.
A lot of details about Slender Man are, I believe, made up, what I do know that could be true is that he is an old urban legend probably from Germany. I think what he does is that he brings you to the afterlife so that you can avoid a nasty and horrific death. Well, that doesn't sounds too bad, doesn't it? But if your interested in scaring yourself, feel free to download the free game "Slender", links below:
Downloads:
http://slendergame.com/download.php
Official page:
http://www.parsecproductions.net/slender/
One day, the little girl came home from kindergarten as usual and started playing with her toys. She was alone that day, but she was used to it. Business was really picking up and the occasional lonely evenings started to become the norm for her. Her parents always told her never to open the door for strangers. For some unknown reason, this had slipped her mind.
As she was playing with her favorite dolls, she heard an unfamiliar voice calling out her name. This seldom happened, as they lived in a small house at the outskirt of town, their neighbors were mostly the wildlife that inhabited the forest. Out of her curiosity, she opened the door and followed the voice into the woods. The voice kept calling out to her and she couldn't resist the temptation of companionship.
Later that day, her parents arrived home, shocked that the main door was left open and their kid was nowhere to be found. They immediately went to the nearby village and mobilized a search party looking for her. The sun was beginning to set and the parents started to panic, for all they knew the little girl may have been kidnap or even murdered. The search party prepared torch-lights and started moving into the forest.
Their search did not bear fruit, it was close to midnight and still not even a glimpse of the little girl could be found. Many of the villagers had given up hope and return to their homes, they still had to work the next day. A number of the parents close friends continue on their search, they kept believing that they would find her even though they were only a few.
It was close to four in the morning, when everybody was exhausted and ready to give up, in their mind they knew that the chances of finding her, dead or alive, was close to none, nobody was ready to admit defeat though. Suddenly, the sound of a little girl crying could be heard. They hurried their pace, running towards the sound, and found her sitting behind a tree trunk, her eyes red from all the crying and her face pale as snow, she was clearly very frightened too. The search party disbanded and everybody went home.
After the little girl recovered, her dad asked her how come they were looking for so long yet they couldn't find her. The passed the spot where they found her sitting at several times, it was under a very distinct old tree and they did not saw her near that area at all. The little girl said that she saw the search party many times, in fact she cried out as loud as she could but nobody could hear her. She was tugging at the villagers clothes but there was no response. It was as if she was invisible.
They decided to move away from the forest and never spoke of this story ever again.
_________________________________________________
I can't remember where I heard this story from. If I remember correctly, it is one of those story that grown-ups told kids so that they would not open doors to strangers. Recently I was reading about the Slender Man, a part urban legend and part fictional creation. It has long arms and a tall, thin body. Sometimes it would have many arms, sometimes it would have tentacles, depending on which story you hear about him. He doesn't have a face nor any hair. He stalks children and appear in their dreams, sometimes driving its victim insane before he kidnaps them. Recent literature suggest that adults are not immune to his interest.
Anyways, Slender Man sounds exactly like the character that adults would use to scare children so that they behave, which is also why it reminded me of this story. But about the story, I don't remember any details about the thing that took her away. However I do know that you aren't supposed to called out the names of those that you know when your close to the forest. They probably aren't related but thought I just shared a story.
A lot of details about Slender Man are, I believe, made up, what I do know that could be true is that he is an old urban legend probably from Germany. I think what he does is that he brings you to the afterlife so that you can avoid a nasty and horrific death. Well, that doesn't sounds too bad, doesn't it? But if your interested in scaring yourself, feel free to download the free game "Slender", links below:
Downloads:
http://slendergame.com/download.php
Official page:
http://www.parsecproductions.net/slender/
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