しあわせはいつもじぶんのこころがきめる

しあわせはいつもじぶんのこころがきめる

Happiness is always decided by one's own heart.

365 Days, 365 Mistakes

This will be my first post while I am in Japan being in a student exchange programme. I'm having a lot of fun here, although I kinda miss my life in university back in Malaysia. I miss being able to talk and be crazy with some of my bunch of friends. I do talk and be crazy with my newly found friends here too, but it is a different kind of feeling. I guess human are just shitty all the time, they always want something different when the best has already been presented right in front of their eyes. 

It has been a little bit more than two months now in Osaka. Starting to get used to people here. Actually grew fond of a few people that I find comfort with. People that know me should know that I am a slow goer when it comes to people. I don't get attached to people real quick. But when I do, I feel more comfortable talking and making jokes with them. Well but again, not everyone would understand my jokes.

I am very bad in Japanese. I am not sure why I didn't want to speak more often with people in Japanese. Maybe it is that look that I get when I try very hard to understand what they are talking but I tend to look like a super retard deciphering their message. Maybe it is my own ego, stopping myself from looking like a fool when trying to learn a new language. Ugh. 

Sometimes I give up entirely and just say わからない, which means I don't understand, hoping that they would then speak English with me. It sucks. However, my reading and writing are slightly better than my speaking ability. But that wouldn't help me to commute my way in Japan effectively. Which sucks again. 

Seeing and knowing so many people here, all across the world made me feel that there is so much to the world than the people I know my entire life. There are so much of kindness and love that I don't see displayed before. There are so many cultures and contexts that I do not understand but am trying to. It is constantly a trial and error with some of my friends here. Sometimes I get what they mean, some other times I don't. But I do try my best to get along.

While I am still here in Japan, I hope to give my very best to the people here and add value to their life as well. It is important to leave a deep, lasting memory for them as those are the priceless valuables. The drinking parties that we have, the parties RA organized, the movies we watched, the skating crews, the curry nights and studying nights. It all means a lot to me and I hope that I will remember them forever. 

I do sincerely hope that I will continue to enjoy and appreciate every second I have left here and with my friends. Maybe the title don't fit the overall context of this blog, but it doesn't matter because it is what I want to say. That we make mistakes every day but it is okay. Probably till the day we die that we will still continue to make mistakes. 

Comparing and Competing

As an Asian, we take pride in being good in a lot of things. One good example is how good we are in Mathematics and Science. Asians grabbed the five first place of the global ranking in Mathematics in which China is the first, followed by Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Korea in 2013. The Westerns don't call us Asians for nothing. [Source]

While that is true, it's inevitable to see that the competition among ourselves is strong. Gruesome, even. Parents compare our grades with our peers and more often than not, they compare our talents as well. Oh, your son can play the piano? My son can too! What grade is he in? Aw, isn't he a little tad slow compared to mine. There goes more pressure for the kids. 

Since we were small, we were told that we must be number 1 in class. Don't know why, but must get number 1. We thought that that means we can get some form of rewards from our parents (maybe some cool electronics?). We study day and night, concentrate in class, go for extra classes and tuition, spend our supposedly past time to do homework and not to forget our extracurricular activities because you know, they want to make you an all-rounder. 

Nobody cares what you want. Because you're not supposed to know them. 

And because you're Asian, so you do what your Asian parents told you to. 

So the habit of comparing ourselves with our peers and compete to become the best unnoticeably embedded in our minds and souls. Whenever there is some form of interaction, there shall be some form of competition. Taking the same tests? Starts comparing our scores. Handing in exercises? Who got the highest marks? 

I'm not trying to discourage competition. Competition is good. It ensures the species survives. Over-complacent will only retard the advancement of a certain species and/or person. Competition is also good because it drives prices down. But when people starts comparing every single form of assessment or even lives, it gets downright annoying. 

Wake up. No one is supposed to be good at everything. The purpose of school is to discover what you are good at, not how good you can at everything. We are giving the schools a wrong definition. If you're good at Literature, you should study them and create poetry to inspire and be the next Shakespeare. If you're good at Biology, you should study them and be a meticulous surgeon to save lives. Don't just be good at everything, find something you truly have an interest in.

Maybe because we are wired this way, where being good at everything means you have a better chance of surviving thus being able to pass down your genes. Nature got to be blamed on this. Thousands of years and evolution and this somehow unavoidably printed in our DNAs already. 

If you had noticed, my favourite quote on the right hand side of the blog is from Einstein. It is as follows:

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Seem pretty straight forward to me. Don't compare yourself with others because you do not share the same life and talents as them. Create your own path. Shed off the mentality of comparing unnecessarily. Or try.

For anyone, stop judging people solely from what the society picks as a norm. Ubiquitous is too mainstream. Be weird, be uncanny, be enigmatic and be unpredictable. Most importantly, be yourself, because if you do not, no one else will. 

Fill in the some of the points that I did not expand with more thoughts. That way you find it more personal and be able to fit my idea somewhere inside of you. Everyone has different opinions, but it shouldn't sway from the original intended intention. 

Disclaimer: Not everyone shares the same experience that I described above. I am aware of this. And you should know too. No one in the world shares the exact same experience as anyone does. Only a certain groups does. So anything, really, is up to own's interpretation.