Something is wrong!!

Could our smart n tech savvy computing frenz pls tell me why, just why, does blogger appear all in chinese to me? Add to that, google as well. Everything else is ok.

Ok.. I acknowledge that i'm a chinese. And not forgetting I have chinese oral next week, if I don't understand these chinese words, most probably I can forget about passing oral. However, I just don't feel good looking at this chinese words staring at me in the screen. Not to mention I don't understand half or them. Oops. yah, so pls help me. :D

Oh did you all see the speech by that Apple guy, which Gi sent to us via email?
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Yes, no doubt, inspiring I must say. However, I feel that Gi should not be letting us see this as he is contradicting what he is actually trying to implement.

The number 1 point of this speech that hit me: To be different.

"I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. "

If Steve Jobs did not drop out of college, he probably would not have the freedom to pursue his own interests and would not have made it so big.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. "

Well, this statement is very true. We are following social standards. People say going to college and then to Uni is the best path. Following that we have Masters, PhDs and whatsoever. This is of course, the tried and tested route. But we only have 1 life, why live somebody else's life, and follow the tried and tested route, instead of making it YOUR life, YOUR decisions?

So, we must be different, shouldn't we? Why is Gi asking us to stick of conformity, to the extent that we must follow rules so strictly, such as wearing the uniform ever so properly? We have to be forced to attend lectures and tutorials which we have no interest in. But yet, we have no courage to drop them. We have no courage to stand up to authority for our own beliefs. Yes, discipline and uniformity in an organisation will make it a successful 1. But to be a successful individual, you must be dynamic, and different. It is the age for individualism. Let us be more daring and passionate in what we do, which brings me to my next point, or the next point of the speech.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. "

Ok.. so we are convinced college is the best route for us. We dare not be different because we are still exploring our way around, we don't know what we really want. College gives us the most, though perhaps not always the best choices. But when we're here, do we just while away our 2 years studying for A levels? Whose passion is studying, may I ask? Unless you want to become a teacher, you'l unlikely be stuck with notes and TYS all your life. While we're at VJ, let us use the opportunity to do something great for ourselves that we can remember. It can be changing the school, getting a medal, winning competitions, just creating a positive impact. At least we won't live this life in vain.

But I have yet something to add, what does it mean not to live in vain? Consider this:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. "

There is just one thing, just one, I feel lacking in his speech, to make it complete. But its a big thing. It answers our existence. So what if we make it big? So what if we make billions? So what if we change the world for the better? It doesn't matter since we're all going to get cleared away, we are all going to die. Think about it for a minute, what does death mean to you?

Does it mean we cease to exist, our mental faculty will not be working no more? We can't see, hear, taste, touch.. we can't feel.. we can't even think? Even if a million years pass by. It'll be of no matter?

Its a scary thought. That's why people believe in the afterlife. Thats what religions are here for. We seek meaning for our life.. we want to believe that we live for a purpose. Or rather, we want to know, that we do live for a purpose. That's why I believed in God (even before I became a Christian or knew about God), it was the only logical thing to believe, that this Universe did not pop out of nowhere and Someone had created it. Something that is so great that our minute human minds would never be able to comprehend. (A thousand light years - we can only appreciate that. The distance light travels in a thousand years. But our physical ability disables us from even witnessing how light even travels. It is far too quick for us. The distance, of course, we can never picture it.)

In fact, if there is not God, there is no meaning to life at all. Because we can all just commit suicide now and it makes no difference whether we die now or die later. As I became a Christian, mysteries of life just became to unravel itself. I do things now, knowing that I have a destination, a purpose, for everything I do. There is.. an eternal perspective to my life now.

So I urge all of you, to live this 1 life that you have, without regret. Do what you want to do, strive for what you can do. Never give up. Most of all, find your purpose in life. Have an open mind. Search for God, and you will find him. I can't bring God to you. I can't show God to you. No one can. But I can tell you that God really exists and he loves you so, he demonstrated his love by sending his only son to die for you. It is up to you, whether you want to search for this meaning in life.

After all, this is your life.


- Wilbur - (feeling inspired, somehow. heh. :D)