Powered By Blogger

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Fourth year's Blastoff

It has been a month since school started and I am still as motivated as I was in the first day of school. I am so surprised with my own determination and motivation. Things were not the same last year. I still remember that I started ranting and complaining after 2 weeks of school. I was drained. But this year, things are different, really different and I hope this sustains until the end of the year.

What is so different here? Less busy schedule? It doesn’t look like that. Indeed, I am working part-time as well. So there is no such thing that I am freer this term. Less demanding courses? Definitely not. Things are accelerating really fast in terms of course contents. Then what? That’s what I always ask myself.

I have been brought up in a family, where I was always taught that even when the world is ending, there is definitely something good to it. In other words, look at the bright side and things will definitely get better. My brother and sis-in-law in Malaysia have always been my role models and their optimism shaped me the way I am now. How would this make my fourth year better than last year? It definitely plays a role, but it is not the main reason.

It all started with a random biking adventure with a friend, who is beautiful in and out. I was very adamant to bike on a route where there is no street lights at night when our bikes don’t have lights either. When the last bit of light from the sun was slowly fading away, I realized that it was such a dumb decision that I made. I felt so bad for forcing my friend to follow me as well and making him to bike in the dark, hoping that we will not hit anyone on our way. Well, I decided based on the fact that it was a full moon that night and supposed to be bright enough for us to bike. Clearly, I have not biked in a full moon night before to know that the light from moon isn't sufficient to light the entire route when there are trees blocking the pathway of the light.

And this became one of those random decisions that I will not regret in a way. So, we passed by one of my favourite spots near UBC and decided to take a break. What a beautiful sight! We sat on the rocks looking at the skyline of downtown, while the sound of waves are slowly breaking the silence of the night. Oh man, it is definitely one of the nights in my undergraduate years that is worth remembering.  We chatted for little over an hour. My friend shared his experience in graduate school, his motivation to keep going and what makes a graduate school different experience that undergraduate years. Some of the things that I still remember are how you have to love the process of progressing and getting end results, but not the end results alone. There would be a period of time, where you will be questioning your decision and how you are making a change in the society, or at least how significant is your contribute to the society and how you tackle those questions. He also mentioned about his ambitions.

For some reasons, listening to people sharing their experience and thoughts on life inspires me. His ambitions reminded me of mine and this reminder was the spark of the determination and motivation I have now. How did all this happen? I am not sure, but definitely the chat was inspiring. Reminded me of my chats with my brothers. Probably it is meant to happen! J So that is the story of me getting my motivation to rock fourth year! It has been a great experience so far! J


P/s: I was a runner and I was trained to end a race with barely any energy left because you have some energy left that means you could have tried harder, but you didn’t. I don’t want to end my fourth year saying that it would have been better if I tried harder.  


1 comment:

Espèra said...

0Great comeback post! :D
I hope you don't end fourth year with no energy left in you, though. Because it's a longer race than that.