On my way from the subway to work today, I realized I haven’t found the time to reflect on what’s been happening since the last time I blogged. Granted, my life might not be as chaotic or exciting as it used to be, but still, there are life lessons to be learned.
So, below are 3 things I’ve learned in the past month (yes, I purposely chose 3 to continue my “3″ motif!):
9/7/09: On this lazy Monday evening (Labor Day), I decided to order fried rice from a Chinese restaurant called Chopsticks. I’ve had plenty of bad Chinese food, so I really didn’t think twice. Oh trust me, I should have because at 2am (a few hours after I went to bed), I awoke with a piercing pain in my stomach. Next thing I knew, I was face down in the toilet bowl puking my guts out. For the next 8 hours, I continued to heave out everything I had (and didn’t have). Actually, after the initial hour of regurgitation, I had no more food in my system, but my body refused to believe I was done for the night. Thus, my body decided to vomit bile. Oh how I wish I wasn’t lazy that evening! Unfortunately, the pain didn’t stop there. My body stopped sending signals for me to puke, but it started aching instead. I thought I was dying. After 2 days of puking, having a fever, aching, resting in bed, not eating, just drinking lots of liquids, and sleeping, I recovered from my case of bad food poisoning. So what did I learn from this episode? Parents are amazing, especially when you’re sick! In that moment of distress, I couldn’t help but remember how my mom would make me amazing chicken soup when I had the stomach flu or how my dad would wipe the sweat from my forehead when I had a fever. Damn my independence now! Why did I have to move so far from them?! Damn it!
9/17/09: Everyday or so, I would have to traverse between floors via the staircase at work. Normal action. No need for brainpower. But then on this fateful Thursday, as I was walking up the stairs to my floor, I noticed something… the staircase is designed in a zig-zag pattern (obviously, since my building is 39 stories tall). There was no way for me to see past the first series of steps. And then… it dawned upon me. Life is very much just the same—a series of staircases leading to a final goal/destination, but you can’t get to the end without trusting that each step will lead you in the right direction. Basically, you have to have faith that though you cannot see into the future, the staircase of life will lead you to your ultimate goal. (Yes, for all you pessimists out there, this only works if your end game is a positive outcome. But, who the hell would want to write about a staircase leading to hell?!?! So, pessimists, stop denying yourself the sweet embrace of optimism and accept some light into your life!)
9/28/09: One of mankind’s biggest problems is our fear of change. When we get into a habit of monotony, we actually get comfortable. Thus, we order the same food at the same restaurant. We perform the same task at the same time. We take the same path to work everyday. Through habitual use, we learn efficiency. However, when we must change and do something different, we freeze and we stop. We start recalculating the net gain/loss from the change. After some quick calcs, we probably come to the conclusion that by taking the risk, we can reap the rewards later… but how much risk is good risk? The more we try to figure that out, the more fears we dig up and eventually, we just go back to monotony and succumb to comfort. BUT, PEOPLE, that’s not always the right mindset! If you’re young, take the risk! Embrace change because you never know where that can lead you eventually. Plus, if you mess up and end up failing, you can always pick yourself up and restart.
Well, that’s my 3 pieces of lessons learned… hope it helped in some way… ‘Till next time!
oh how very cliche haha. miss ya! yes change is good! scary but good.