It’s not really difficult to be me.
If someone were to write a book on me, it will only be 1 page thick.
For the many rules and notions that I spurt out from my mind, it all basically stems from one basic concept.
Be true to yourself.
ALWAYS be true to ourselves.
I often tell people that I am a forgetful person.
I tend to not remember about things.
Which is why I suck at History and Geography because I can't remember the names of kings and emperors or the location of their kingdom.
Remembering stuff is kind of an up hill climb for me.
I need to be inspired to remember them.
It needs to be meaningful.
There needs to be substance.
It wasn't always like that of course.
It used to be just plain hard to pass the subjects.
But a teacher of mine showed me a different way.
He wielded the power of the story man.
Yes, he was definitely a master bullshitter.
He can paint something out of nothing.
I think he was the reason why I took up my university subject.
When most of my other friends hold a Bachelor degree in Business Computing, I hold a degree in Bachelor of Science (Computer Science).
Yes, to the un-initiated, you might ask what’s the difference?
It’s just a different name and some different term papers to be passed up.
Well, in reality is more than that.
A Bachelor of Science on any subject means we are supposed to know everything of the subject matter.
Something like a jack-of-all-trades.
I know that it’s not how the universities are practising it now, but trust me, it used to be like that.
It’s much harder to take up a pure science degree than a more focus degree like say "Business Computing" or "Information Technology".
A lot of the classes overlapped but it’s the science degree holder that is suppose to know EVERYTHING not just a niche part of it.
Anyway, I digress as usual.
My teacher was a degree holder on Bachelor of Science (Physics).
When he first said it, he had added a slur to the word science.
It made it sound very sinister.
Thus making it very interesting to me.
He spouted so much information in the first 1-hour that it basically clobbered my brain to pulp.
And then at the end of the whole briefing he said this.
"Knowing you all, you will either be in awe of me now or have discarded me as an old fart who has too much free time on his hand and have read the whole Encyclopaedia Britannica (Note: What people used before we had wikipedia) to pass my remaining years"
"Well, sorry to disappoint you all but I don't like to read. But what I do like though is to learn. What I just dumped into your last 1 hour was only one subject of the first semester of my university years twelve years ago."
"Its ok for you to have no interest in physics. It’s even ok for you to have no interest in reading all these textbooks we force you to buy. But it’s not ok for you to hate learning."
"In the world we live in today, information is the key to survival (note: This was before the word IT was a common noun in our daily conversation). You must know what you are talking about before you even know you are GOING TO BE talking about it. And the only way to do that is to constantly learn. Constantly improve ourselves."
"Even if you want to be a business man, you need to understand the dynamics in the business world and how it works. You need to know what economics are. You need to understand how it flows and the practical approach to solving problems. Without knowledge of that, you are nothing but a bug on a windscreen when you step out into the world."
"So no. I am not going to tell you to read books and pass exams. I am not going to tell you that the world is going to be your oyster. Because frankly speaking, its not."
"I should say it would never be, unless you pick up the sword and wield it or be prepared to be cut down."
"No one is going to protect you from the harshness or the temptation to fail. And trust me, you will be tempted and you will fail many times before you ever succeed."
"But it does not mean you have to take it lying down. You can fight back. You can make sure you are prepared for it. You will strengthen your mind and fortify your resolved. You can armour your eyes and ears from falsehood. But most importantly you will wield the strength of truth."
"Always be true to yourself. Never lie or compromise your integrity. Even if it means that you will sacrifice that which you hold dearest. Because only in the truth will you be able to survive the onslaught that comes."
"Some of you might remember this. Some of you won't. For those that do, I pray it is enough. For those that don't, well, it won't matter anymore."
He was the only one that said that.
No other teachers ever mentioned the kind of reality that will come.
He basically shoved a compass into our hands and hoped we could tell which pointy end is north.
And how did his speech make me remember stuff?
Well, the fact that I still remember what he said in essence even if not in all its original wordings, makes it an important clue.
In order for me to prepare myself for the world, I needed to be good at what I do.
And during that time, it was to be the best student that I can be.
Finding ways to understand how I work internally gave me insights on how to manipulate my own mind to do what I needed it to do.
I took his advice and I prepared myself.
We can't prevent ourselves from falling.
It’s an integrate part of the whole living mechanism.
The only thing we can do is to learn how to stand up after we fall.
That and to have faith in all that we do.
That’s what it means to be true to ourselves.
Just so you know, physics is one of my favourite subjects.
