Write, write
I thought of leaving this post until the end of the year or probably never write it. The urge is too strong tonight. I think I will write it.
This year has been great. Results are fantastic. Research project is going superb. Flatmates, no word can define their awesomeness. And yeah… brilliant friends along the way. So yeah… why complain? I don’t know… I’m having too much thoughts in my head lately.
It all started a few weeks ago. My research went pretty well and I presented my findings to the company. It is most likely I will be landing a job with them or perform a post-grad research for them. All is not possible without my supervisor in his 60s. My supervisor is probably one of the man who I will remember for the rest of my life. He is a father figure. He could have chose to do nothing to assist my research. Yet, he took all the trouble on doing things like getting the right people to assist me and arranging the meeting with the company. All done without anything for him to gain. Being told by him that I’m one his best students in his academic career certainly gave me much belief in myself. I always know encouragement is good, but that was really something very special. Meeting people like him gave me a lot thought and made me recall many memories - people who changed my life.
There is one teacher who I always looked up to. She was a strict disciplinarian. I used to obey and respect out of fear. But I didn’t realize until these few weeks how her words actually changed my life. I always remember this short story she always told me:
When she first joined the school, her pay was peanuts. Yet, the principal would ask her before she collected her pay every month, "What have done to deserve this paycheck? Do you think you have done enough to deserve it?"
The pay was meagre but yet she was questioned. I’m pretty sure life lessons like this (if taken positively) would have an implication to the integrity which she possesses. And I always look up to that.
All these reminded me of integrity and virtue. I think that’s the reason why I will decide to drop the offers in New Zealand and fulfil my honour or scholarship bond. I will go home. 
Home, not just the four-walls-with-the-roof, but a place where I think I’m needed more than anywhere else.
That’s a very good life lesson.
And no matter what your stand is, kurapig is behind you, cheering you on! =)
Comment by shuey — July 17, 2009 @ 11:11 pm
=)
Comment by Ka-Mun — July 17, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
Dear Ka-mun,
I am sure you would believe me when i tell you that i have gone through that phase of thoughts. I shall not convince you otherwise, but only to point out one thing:
Integrity and virtue are what’s in you. No one, no one can take away that from you. Breaking bond is an act of ungratefulness? Perhaps - if you run away without trace. But if you appreciate the opportunity present, and the fate (yuan fen) to work with your current professor who actually notices your abilities - then it may be rash to come to a conclusion so soon. Life is short and life can be daunting when it is uncertain. But above all, your decisions in times of the uncertainties are what define you.
Perhaps also consider, what you may be possible to be if you have taken the road less travelled. I would love to convince you more - but of course, you probably smarter and already found the answers. I leave you by sharing a piece of my favourite poem:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The Road Not Taken - by Robert Frost:
Comment by kam — July 27, 2009 @ 6:55 pm
lam is DA mAN!!
Comment by tengkuk — September 23, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
cheers man. haha.
Comment by Ka-Mun — September 24, 2009 @ 2:50 am