1. If you want something, go get it.
If you want breakfast, go wake up early for it. 'Cause mommy's not there to do it for you all your life, and also 'cause the early bird always gets the century egg porridge from the dim sum stall that sells out by 10am. Also, refer to point 2.
If you want your first class, go ahead and be nerdy and get your revision done. Go for your lectures, go for your seminars, and go to the library. The difference between Poly and Uni has taught me a great deal on this. I'm a lucky girl, and I always have been. In Poly, my unmotivated and complacent self was saved by the grace of my very diligent and/or intelligent friends. I was never the best at attending lectures, so I always relied on the rest for notes. I've literally started from the bottom (GPA 2.9 in Poly year 1) and now I'm here (GPA 3.8 and director's list in my last year). It's nothing big to brag about, but I must emphasise on how the people I've known in Poly have changed my attitude towards academic work. The level of independence required from Uni comes on a whole new level, not just academically, but also because I know I'm not necessarily blessed with the same advantage as I was in Poly. I try to rely on no one else but myself and when I say that I work hard, I really do with a 'first class' target in my head. I think I'm coping fairly well.
If you want someone, man up (or should I say, woman up) and go chase after him. Because someone once told me, "
Good things come to those who fight for it, not to those who wait," and I surely have waited long enough.
If you want to grow up, start learning how to be a grown-up. I think everyone's afraid of doing adult-ish things, like making an appointment with the bank, settling the bills, getting your own phone repaired, or going down to the police station alone when you actually need help. You've to do it one day anyway, so might as well learn how to do it now. Also, because you don't have a choice when you live without your parents.
2. Seven hours of sleep is all you need.
Sleep used to be my best friend until I realised how much sleep time I could've used on far more purposeful things in life. It's been a few months since I've refrained from sleeping in past 9-10am and more often than not, it's been a choice than an obligation. I've never liked the feeling of losing half my day whenever I slept in till the sun was high in the sky, plus I always feel groggy for the rest of the day from sleeping too much. I set my alarm early every morning even if I don't have a reason to wake up early for, because I could always use the spare time to defrost my meat in time for lunch, to vacuum the floor, or to watch an episode of Game of Thrones.
3. Nobody will wait for you, so catch up or suck it up and move on.
A year ago, I asked a friend how she could bear to leave everyone here to study abroad if she were in my shoes. She said so unhesitantly, that I can't expect people to walk the same path as me, nor can I expect people to wait for me. A week ago, I was so certainly eager to be home, yet just a day before I was home bound, I knew that I was more afraid than I was excited, because I knew for sure that everyone and everything has changed. And is there anything I can do about it? Nope.
4. Take a walk whenever you want to and with whoever you want to.
If there's a storm raging in your heart, take a walk. If the sun's shining and the skies are blue, take a walk. If you're feeling like a bum at home, take a walk. If you just feel like it, take a walk. It's okay to leave the house to take a walk, for whatever reason or no reason at all, and alone if you rather. There is nothing a walk can't solve.
5. Racism is real, but learn how to shake it off.
Some of us aren't very pleased with the foreign population residing in our country for various reasons, but guess what? It's the same elsewhere. Nobody likes "intruders" in their homeland, especially not when they come in and "inflate" academic standards. I've had a few occurrences of people sarcastically "ni hao"-ing me and receiving judgemental stares in the club and a honk with two middle fingers from a passing car. But guess what again? It will only affect you as much as you let it. So, shake it off and move along. And trust me, it's not intimidating at all. In fact, try replying them in proper English that we are all well equipped with and leave them speechless because they wouldn't see that coming.
6. Life does not get any clearer as you age.
I am turning 21 in four more months and I still don't know where I'm headed to. I believe I'll never really know until the day I graduate and actually start working to know what I really want, and I always tell my sisters that it's okay to not know. (I'm not the best role model huh...) If you don't know what you want, work your ass off to open up your choices in life so at least you'll be entitled to more things that you can want when it actually comes to choosing your path. I may not the most ambitious or forward-looking person, but I'm still working on finding my point of compass.
7. The importance of education.
This year, I fell in love with learning. I never truly appreciated education until I've allowed myself to be deeply involved in it, not by commitment but by sheer curiosity. It's not just the fact that I'm paying more than thirty grand a year for my tuition fees that made me realise how important education is, but the fact that education opens up so many doors to the future. I am taking a degree that's almost exact to my business studies diploma, with the same accounting / marketing / finance modules, but somehow or rather, these modules seem to pose a different level of difficulty as to when I first took them on. I don't quite think it's just because I've had prior experience and knowledge in business, but because I've allowed myself to actually understand what I'm learning this time. I claim to hate Sociology and Work Psychology because memorising citations for an essay-based paper isn't the most enjoyable thing to do, but it actually stimulates a way of thinking of how people behave according to various stimulus and how a management should react to an array of these behaviours, and it's really not that dull of a module. I think I still retain a few citations here and there in my head because some facts are so interesting, like how procrastination can be cured with self-forgiveness. (Wohl et al, 2010) I'm also oddly in love with Finance and Management Accounting, which comes as a surprise to me because I wouldn't count it as my thing. I'd like to think I'm smarter than I give myself credit for, so this time I'm giving myself a second chance.
