Archive for January 2015
All the World's a Stage
Shakespeare quoted one of the most important things shared
to mankind. Your life is a story and you’re the main character.
In movies, when someone is about to die, they usually don’t
go without a fight. Think of humans against a horde of zombies. No matter how
futile their efforts are, they still fight to survive, they try hard to live,
they work together to make the battle easier. Your life is just like that,
everyone’s life is.
Would you believe it if I tell you that your life is just
like a video game, a book, or a film? You’re the player, the main character,
the protagonist. Everyone else are just supporting characters, antagonists, and
stock characters. Think about it for a second, you don’t want to call yourself
the minor character in your life story, it is your life, not someone else’s.
Life is a game, your character is either strong at first or
strong at the end. In the real world, we call them prodigies and late bloomers.
A prodigy is just extremely gifted, born with the skills and talent, gets
special attention while young. A late bloomer is the opposite, a random nobody
until the day the late bloomer begins a series of hard work (quests) to improve
itself. Both, of course, can reach the same pinnacles of the game, the finales
(the boss levels), the best moments in life once achieved. Leaving a mark on
civilization, just like Mozart, Einstein, Disney, Socrates, Lincoln, Da Vinci,
and many others, whether child prodigies or late bloomers, they all reached the
same heights of success. Game is not over, work hard from now on, make a
plan—they all did, successful people owe their success to their hard work.
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| Courtesy of: Matthew Paulson |
Life is a storybook, you’re the main character. The story
can be set in a millionaire’s house, an impoverished country, or the
middle-class neighborhood. A good story requires a great conflict, something
the protagonist needs a lot of effort to beat. There’s going to be drama,
horror, psychological dilemmas, hardships, and sadness as the story goes on.
Also, there will be times of happiness, love, excitement, sentimentality, and
friendship. Your story continues chapter after every chapter, some long and
some short. The story revolves around you and the conflict: could be your
school, peers, family, society, and even yourself. The story only ends when one
force prevails, you must overcome the antagonist, do not try to escape it. Work
hard to achieve success, don’t procrastinate, a good story has no chapter where
the main character does nothing important.
Life is a film, a movie without a specific genre, not just
action, not just adventure, not just drama. Life is a mix of many different
genres, there’s adventure, romance, suspense, comedy, drama. You either aspire
for a movie (life) you want that’s full of satisfaction, or you can aim low and
reduce the amount of possible genre mixings. You may not have control of
everyone, thus you can’t be the writer of your life, but you’re the director,
the one who chooses a vision to follow. Oh, and make sure it’s a cool movie,
you’d be able to leave a mark on society.
Dream for a nice life, but don’t forget that a lot of effort
goes a long way, studying an hour a day amounts to more than 350 hours in a
year. Learning 5 foreign words a day amounts to more than 1800 words a year,
enough for language eloquence. I’ve seen a lot of people get the supermodel
body after exercising daily, within months. Working hard can get you anywhere,
just like when Michael Jordan was in high school, the only thing extraordinary
about him, at that time, was that he played as if every game was his last.
Just remember this: dream then start, then you fail, then
you succeed… and then you improve.
- Angelo
Preparing for University
Changes in life
can seem scary sometimes. Changes can be quick and unnoticeable; while other
times, it’s so sudden and we weren't even prepared for it. That’s why some people describe changes as tornados: they hit without any sign of warning and can turn
your house upside down completely. I usually don’t like changes because I will
have to adapt to the new environment and I’m usually not good at it.
The biggest change
I’m facing this year is to graduate from high school. It will be one of my most
important life events. I think it will take me awhile to get used to my new
life. So I want to prepare early. I asked my friends attending universities and
got some tips that will be useful to adapt to changes in your life such as
moving, changing school and going to university.
Tip#1: Make friends
Engage with
people, converse, ask questions. When you have friends, you won’t feel lonely.
You can have someone to talk to and hang out with. It’s the best to start
during the first week, while everyone is in the same boat. It is hard to make
the first move, but it will benefit you later on. Be nice and just be you. It’s
simple!
Tip#2: Join clubs
There are lots of
activities to do on campus. Take a look at the clubs list and join in. It’s the
fastest way to make new friends. You get to meet many people with same
interests as you do. Don’t be scared.
Learning how to use the library resources is always important because you will be spending lots of time here researching. It will be painful learning how to research because it’s boring. But it will pay off later in the year.
Tip#4: Choose courses you enjoy
You can always go to the first class and see how it goes. If you were bored and didn’t find it interesting, then drop it and find a new year. By choosing a course you enjoy, you will be motivated and willing to learn.
Tip#5: Don’t over commit
Start with a couple classes. Add more if you have the time for it. Do not start your year with 10 courses and a job. It will stress you out! Slow down and take time to learn.
Tip#6: Don’t Wait
If you feel yourself falling behind, do something about it immediately. Reread lecture notes and textbooks, ask a friend, do extra practice or ask your professor. Don't wait till right before the midterm/exam to deal with it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Tip#7: Ways to save money
Work! Working during school can reduce your debt upon graduation. Most
of the schools offer on campus jobs. You can work part-time and save it up.
Universities can be expensive! Also, buy used textbooks! Ask around for used textbooks or buy them online (craigslist
etc.) It can save you A LOT of money. If you don’t write on it, you can re-sale
it next year!
Hopefully these short and basic tips will be handy once you are in university!
- Lu
New is Always Better 2.0
In my first year here in VANITY I wrote a blog about the advantages of newness, may it be technology, traditions or just plain new ideologies in life. However, that blog was too general. So for this New Year, I am writing about few specific changes that have made my life better since I’ve moved here in Canada.
I guess the first thing that has changed in me is being
quieter. Though any people that know me well will say otherwise, I think that
I’ve gotten quieter. Usually, I will be the one who keeps a conversation from
dying, because dear God I can’t stand awkward silence, but now, I seem to be
quite comfortable with it. It gives me peace. Quite antisocial though. I also have
a problem of not thinking before talking which often gets me into icky
situations even though I did not mean any offense or make myself look stupid,
and so being quiet just saves me from this. Being quieter also taught me how to
listen. You
know that moment when a friend tells you something and you tell him/her
something the same from your experiences and you ended up shifting the tide of
conversation and you feel like you are not “empathising” anymore and you just
look like a big ball of narcissism? (or at least, that’s how I feel) Welp,
being quiet once again saves me from doing this. Like I said, as someone who is
talkative and uncomfortable of awkward silences, being quiet has finally given
me the opportunity to just shut up and realize that not
talking isn’t the worst thing in the world and just to drink in what others are
saying and being observant is probably one of the greatest pleasures
that one should experience.
New things in our life can always be seen in a different angle. Sometimes they can be “bumps”, but as I have previously said, try to see the silver lining. New is always better. .. better in some ways we haven’t seen yet!
- Anonymeh
“Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself
from the unacceptable” - Denis Waitley
