Wednesday, 7 March 2012

What I gained in Singapore(blog 4)


What I gained in Singapore
   I have been living in Singapore for almost three months, and I have asked myself for several times what I have learnt in these past days. Nowadays, I finally worked out this question.
   
   Firstly, I learnt how to live. When I was in China, everything had been well-prepared and arranged by our parents. However, we are far away from our families and live in a foreign country on our own now, so I gradually learnt to be more independent. When I was in low spirit, I learnt to do some interesting things to adjust myself. Although the life here was a little bit dull and monotonous, I still took initiative to find joy and pleasure from ordinary life. I tried my best to add more diversity into my life but maintained a simple lifestyle. For example, in every weekend,I would go to swim in the afternoon after a whole day’s tiring study, because I think swimming could make me feel relaxed and exercised me. Everytime I finished swimming, I felt vigorous and I was content that I had gone through a rich and meaningful day. This feeling is pretty good.
  
   Secondly, I learnt the meaning of “You suffer, you learn”. Life is suffering, but we cannot forget we can learn a lot from what we suffer. I still remember what Steve Jobs said: You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. It tells us what we have suffered will benefit us one day, virtually. I have just heard from my seniors that those who can play the instrument or are good at some kinds of sports will have a priority to continue to live in the hall in Year 2. I reminded that in my childhood, how suffered I was when my parents forced me to play the erhu but I didn’t listen to them because I was lazy. Therefore, I cannot play it quite well and it leaves me a great regret. If only I could understand this sense when I was a child, I could have been good at playing the erhu. From now on, whatever I am suffering or I will suffer from, I will never complain it anymore.
  
    I think these two things are far more important than the knowledge text books teach, and they are what I really gained in Singapore.

6 comments:

  1. life is not suffering. life is interesting because we have so much difficulty to overcome and we should learn to enjoy it rather regard it as something miserable.

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  2. try to make your life meaningful by doing lots of things that are worthy to be done,then you will find the inner peace

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  3. I have a similar experience with you in my childhood.The difference is that I have totally forgotten what I learned in a few days.Therefore,I always admire people who can play an instrument or do a sport well.

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  4. You must experience a lot and reflect deeply. Yes,I have similar feelings as well. Intellect and the knowledge from textbook are not important compared with your mental characteristics, such as perseverance. Life is very complicated. We need so many skills. However,the ultimate goal of grasping all these skill is to achieve happiness.

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  5. I really agree with your two opinions about what you have gained, because I have the similar feelings with you. In addition, I really appreciate your deep thinking of " you suffer,you learn", which inspires me intensively. I want to learn from you that find interesting things in the monotonous life. I firmly believe that a positive attitude can convert simple life to a great one. let's enjoy our lives.

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  6. It seems that a lot of us had studied some kinds of instruments during our childhood. When I was in primary school, I was forced to learn violin. The result just like yours, I did not obey my parents' words. So it can be said that I learned nothing from the violin lessons. Life is suffering. And we should learn something from it.

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