Pressure we face

Dear Friends,

We can finally start to relax now, most of our exams are over :) [and people are going around a bit crazy]

And I finally can take more time to do what I Love, writing emails about Life. I hope that you have not been too offended by the previous email, cause I felt that was what God wanted me to do because of the misconstruction of him/her we have today.

Today as I was going to my Jap class, I needed to top-up my card. So I was just behind this girl who just walked in front of me a split second ago. My train (Dr. P.N- We take the MRT train to and fro, it goes around S'pore) was coming in a minute and I really hoped that she would just hurry up. But guess what, because she put her sticker on her picture of the ez link (To Dr. P.M.--Its kind of an Identification Card we secondary students get), and the man refused to top up her card and she took some time before finally removing the sticker. And yea, my train left.

I was just hopping mad but I told myself, it was fate that the train would go and I would just take another one.

The culture of the Singapore society is this currently. We are always terribly embarrassed and always afraid of people laughing at us (because some stupid people always do, more later). We are embarrassed by the badly taken picture on the ez link, we are embarrassed about our weight (always too light--thats for me, or too heavy), we are embarrassed because of our names (I once in Pri. sch felt embarrassed about the Kah Hin part, because it was in dialect). We are embarrassed about our marks when we don't do well.

You get the picture here. We live in a society with so much pressure (that we must be fit and of a certain weight, we must get a certain mark, we must wear ankle socks otherwise its wrong or we are weird) But the fact is that nothing is wrong! Getting a poor mark for your test is OK. Being too heavy or too light, its OK. ACCEPT YOURSELF. I wouldn't trade my body, my name, for anything else! I think its unique. Even with my body having aches or pains sometimes. Its what makes me me. And the fact is that, all these are not important things. As Buddha said, Nothing is eternal except change. Be glad about your weight now, it might get worse in the future [I'm joking :]

Don't let parents stop you from doing what you want [and I'm NOT talking about playing computer games here]

And the good thing is, you can do something about it. Stop calling the poor kid in your class fat. Stop calling the guy who is left out a weirdo. WORK TOGETHER.

I would like to highlight an event which happened last time. Early this year we were forced to attend a workshop by Dr. Ernest Wong. I missed most of his workshop that day (I guess I was lucky :). He taught me a lesson on unity, something I would never forget.

You see, he was making fun of people. In fact, a lot of people did not like him. YET THEY STILL LAUGHED AT THEIR FELLOW SCHOOLMATES BEING TEASED. Then they were afraid of being called up by him and getting teased by him. How silly. If they did not laugh at others, then they would not need to be afraid of being teased. Its that simple. His jokes will lose their power if you do not laugh at them.

So we must learn the lesson of unity. If we are all against him, there is nothing he can do.

So thats all for today, and enjoy your weekend break! You have deserved it.

Aaron

P.S Let me share a psychological principal. From the book of 'Blink' I learnt that we tend to be biased against some musicians. I remember when the gu zheng people were playing today, we did not appreciate their music. Why? Because they weren't wearing their costumes. You see, you enjoy a piece of music also using your SENSE OF SIGHT. Its not about hearing, its also about senses.

P.P.S Do take some time to enjoy nature this weekend. Too many Singaporeans do not know nature. Singapore is a concrete jungle already, and too many Singaporeans spend time being cooped up inside our flats. Go for a walk. Like I wake up early every Sat and Sunday to watch the Sun rise, and then I just sit in my garden doing nothing.


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