~At the End of the Tunnel~

At the end of the tunnel is light. Everyone goes through the tunnel in some stage of their life; this is a test of your determination and willpower. It doesn’t matter if you are merely hanging on by your fingertips; you will return to your immensely thrilling life sooner or later.

In winter you may be losing hope, but when that happens, remind yourself that in spring, you will regain your confidence. Your life will burst into full bloom and you will return into the adventure of life. Compare this to a game. You are trying to obtain a holy scribe from the East. In the middle of the game you are losing badly. If the situation doesn’t turn around you’ll soon find yourself as a wonderfully nutritious meal for some random animal. But then you find a pearl to keep you going, and soon afterwards you reach your destination and get your scribe. If you had given up, you would have been dead by now.

With hope, anyone can achieve anything. Hope gives you the burning desire to do something; without desire, one will never accomplish any goal, no matter big or small. Hope gives us the motivation to complete a goal; it brings to us the satisfaction of completing something.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind? This motto teaches us that hope fills in the dent that disaster has formed; it lights up a burning candle in our heart that give us desire. Thank you, hope.

~Drawing Without an Eraser~

With your own pencil, you sketch out your life. Watercolours bring out the quiet and peace in your life; poster paints give you the thrill and delight. Anyhow, your life is painted by yourself. However, like all artists, life is not just glamour. You make mistakes. You need a rubber to erase that protruding line, to rub out that underlying tone. But you don’t. You simply haven’t got that eraser.

Yes, you made a mistake. But it has already been made, and nothing can be done. You have a choice. You can either try to cover it up with more layers of paint, sometimes resulting in making the situation even worse, or just let it go and focus on the positives. Everyone makes mistakes. I wouldn’t believe you if you said you haven’t. Mistakes are just a part of life, like chances and dreams. Without mistakes, you’ll never learn to survive.

In life, there is no undo button. You have to strive to get that friendship back after having an argument, and you have to strive to get those marks back after messing up on a test. You will have to try to get back into stride in life after every single mistake. But it doesn’t mean you have to disregard your mistakes. No, your mistakes must mean much to you. They remind you of what you should and shouldn’t do, and they constantly tell you the consequences of things that shouldn’t be done.

You may think that you cannot live without that eraser. But you must learn to. Mistakes are part of life – if you cannot live with them, you will not be able to live with life. Every artist makes mistakes. You will too.

The canvas is your life. You can smear on rich colours and vivid tones, or you can dab on light shades and pale hues. It’s your life and you can do anything with it. But mistakes have to be made, and it’s not a choice. Mistakes must be made, and one must learn to live without an eraser to have life. JC

The Only Living Thing

Denying someone is not a form of pleasure. It is merely a way to see people become embarrassed, a way to make people suffer. However what I mean here is not to follow other people’s wishes all the time blindly. The point I am trying to make here is that one should deny someone tactfully if it is absolutely necessary.

If you don’t understand, imagine this. A boy wants to go out and watch a film with a nice girl. However, the girl’s not having a good day and rudely denies. He feels bad and it ruins his whole week. All because of one word: No. If this word simply didn’t exist, so many more lives would be happier and jovial! Conversely, the word “Yes” brings joy to so many lives. It helps people rebuild their trust, their confidence and their lives. The word “No” can destroy a life within seconds, but the word “Yes” can rebuild it again. If refusing is necessary, even the word “maybe”, or “perhaps” will give that person some hope! The word “No”, in most people’s ears, sound blunt and rude. This is mainly because, I imagine, that this word has been misused far too much.

The younger generation (us) is already used to this kind of reaction. Nick is used to being refused ALL the time because of his ability to annoy people (!) I am not making a pointed statement here; just so to prove that the word “no” is becoming very common especially in the younger generation. This is good, because while we cannot simply just block out a word from the dictionaries, we can encourage them to bounce back and recover after being crudely refused.

So everybody, join in the upcoming fight against the word “no”, or simply add into the support of the word “yes”! Don’t you want to block our younger generation’s confidence from being destroyed by this awful one-syllable word? JC

Controlling Your Day

It’s your choice. Not mine. Wake up in the morning and ask yourself, “Will I run today, or shall I let today control myself?” The answer, I believe, shall always be “I will run today.” But can you actually do this? It sounds easy, but it’s harder than you think.

Imagine this: you’re struggling with your stupid Math homework when the sun’s blazing outside. It would be a perfect day to hang out with your mates; yet you have to do this tedious homework. And then one of your best pals comes along and asks if you’ll join them in a game. Oh sure you may think, “It doesn’t matter. I’ll play with them, then I’ll come back later and finish the homework.” Let me tell you now. That does not work. You’ll either forget the time playing outside, or you’ll decide that you’re having way too much fun and just completely abort the homework. Temptation. You have just been tempted by the beautiful weather outside and your friend inviting you for a playdate. However you have also lost a perfect chance to gain more knowledge, to learn more. In other words, you have let your day, or simply the circumstances, control you.

Think about it the opposite way. If you had refused your friend and continued studying, you would firstly gain more practice, secondly perform well in tests, then gain acknowledgement from classmates, instead of just receiving two hours of play. This way, you are controlling your day; that is, your day is going to plan and you have not let the turn of events affect your daily life.

This quote tells us, in a sense, not to waste away our life. Gaining control of our life means making good use of it, and therefore this warns us not to waste time, a significant part of life. Again, it’s a choice. You choose to waste time by unresisting temptations, it’s your choice. JC

LIFE

What is life? Being born, living, and dying. If you could never die, then you are not living. You are simply being a miniscule part in this colossal universe. You are only existing, no longer living a part in the wheel of life. You watch loved ones live and die; but you will never be able to join them. You can’t have any friends; nor family. You won’t be able to find the person you really love; you won’t appreciate life’s pleasures. In other words, you won’t have a life. In our life, we have two adventures: the first when we live, the second when we die. Every day that is lived is another day till the next adventure. Tomorrow is another day; if you live for eternity, there is no tomorrow.