Woes (Part 2)

A little personal experience and views about things. 

Singapore is not simply a competitive society. Such an assumption would only be made by mollycoddled individuals oblivious to the fact that it is human nature to be competitive. The strides taken in the path of economic development among our Asian counterparts were not a result of sloth but their ferocity in driving towards better economic conditions. It is safe to assume such spirit seen in a country would have manifested itself into the society and hearts of many individuals. (Or vice versa) The Western world had not been idle either. Perhaps a better way to describe my society would be one which is competitive yet fearful of failure and afraid of trying alternative approaches towards success.

Moving on to the topic of a society who is competitive while sensitive to failure, too often have I seen parents who enforces unnecessarily strict schedules on their children for their education. This is in fact the most deeply entrenched within the memories of my schooling years in my primary school. I could remember the frustrations expressed by the parents as they did their usual 'interrogation' on some of the kids following the release of the examination results only to find out their own children were not performing as well as the others. I have had many childhood friends who were deprived of a chance to play in the park simply for an extra hour or two of revision. However, although I do believe in nurturing other aspects of an individual (Which I would probably talk about someday because it's frustrating to see machines being produced in school), I have no qualms with taking education a little more seriously.

However, often my frustrations lie on the fact that my parents care too little with regards to my education. In my childhood days, while others had parents urging their children on to achieve in their examinations to enter top notch schools in the city despite their poor performance in the examinations, I was simply encouraged to enter the better of the ''neighbourhood schools'' within the region despite being in the top class in the school.

Irony at it's finest.

Not to mention, it frustrates me to no end that as my A levels approaches they have no clue with regards to my education: Not a single clue of my exam dates or the days which I have to attend classes. They could've at least known when my June holidays had started.      

I apologise for this unnecessary post and the irrelevant content before expressing what I wish to say. Nevertheless, this is not an essay which we have to cut to the chase.
 
Nowadays I often find myself ranting about life more than I am writing about interesting facts of our world, the latter of which I personally enjoy doing so. However to live our insignificant lives as a useful human being is indeed an endeavour that contains just as much complexities as the world around us and is on its own a fulfilling topic to discuss. I will rant to allow myself some reprieve from my frustrations. However, I will also do so so that I am able to look back some day and perhaps find answers for my frustrations.

Assembling the puzzle of life (Part 1?)

There are so many ways to live a life. In this post, I would like to share a part of my revelations with regards to life. The points are numbered 1, 1.1 and 1.2 since I believe that the second and third point are simply derived from the first.

1. There are too many factors which contribute to a single outcome, many of which are beyond our control. Trying our best for something might not guarantee the expect outcome, (although we can actively increase our chances in achieving our goals). Therefore, do not despair in the face of defeat, accept the fact that we do not have the ability to control everything in life.

1.1) Since unexpected outcomes do happen in life, there is little need to gloat over achieving better than another individual. Obtaining better results than your rival in a single examination or project is certainly not a direct result of superior skills.

1.2) While unable to control every factor that would lead to success, we have the ability to control as many as possible to increase our probability of success which we should actively do so. While Heisenberg's uncertainty principle suggests that any measurement involves some degree of uncertainty, that never hinders scientists from obtain the most accurate results as possible in any experiments.

A brief summary of the points would simply be 'Do not be afraid of setbacks, try your best and be humble'. There are so many ways to live a life. I'm glad I've figured three of them out, not because I think they're the right way of doing things, but simply because it's my way of doings things.