The Art of Living
Living is an art, because art is about knowing what mistakes we need to learn from and move on, and what mistakes to keep.
I guess when they say this, they are talking about the artistic process of a painter, when he (well, most famous ones are male) dabs a little too much of that awfully bright pink paint on those….clouds and presto! We have given birth to a some new neo-classical chapter in the “Art Appreciation for Beginners”. Perhaps that’s also how Gaudi came to have all those wavy patterns on his balconies and marzapine-like houses. My own version would of course be in a more musical sense, so it would involve a flat sounding C note on the sax, which stumbled on to a series of chromatic scales downwards, missing a few notes here and there.
Enough on romantics…
Mistakes. Here is my two major ones in the last 5 years which I am keeping:
Mistake number one: Being totally blur about my future at the age of eighteen and submitting it to whatever that comes. This is a mistake I intend (and am forced) to keep. I was capricious, moving from genetic engineering (because it was a really new thing and sounded cool), medicine(because I liked my Biology teacher and the sweep of inspiration to make a change by serving as a overworked underpaid civil servant….yeah well, Hui Woon was like that since then), actuarial science, management, business administration(the last ones came because I knew I have a tact and interest for management and actuarial science was deemed to make more use of my toils in the science stream). Above all, I knew very strongly that I wanted to study abroad. But since I was like a fallen leave getting swept down by the river flow, I found myself staring at the gates of UTM in no time. Entering those gates, I remember vividly how I made a pact with myself. I was going to learn as much as possible, make the best out of everything no matter what. So as a mistake I kept, I am who I am today.
Mistake number two: Next mistake is like a Jengga block of mistakes. How the final blow was built slowly on one circumstance on top of another, and eventually if you took out a piece of it recklessly, it would just topple mercilessly. I took Orchestra as Ko-Q without registering. I dropped a subject or two. I went on lucrative adventures in the management faculty. I took the word of someone too easily. This is how I broke perhaps another record….one of the few Chinese students who are taking a sixth year in Chemical Engineering. This eleventh semester however gave me a lot of time to think, to contemplate, to question myself, to plan and execute my next move. I’ve found what I needed, and it is indeed a very blissful feeling to have the conviction of knowing the “what” and “how” of your life.
I guess when they say this, they are talking about the artistic process of a painter, when he (well, most famous ones are male) dabs a little too much of that awfully bright pink paint on those….clouds and presto! We have given birth to a some new neo-classical chapter in the “Art Appreciation for Beginners”. Perhaps that’s also how Gaudi came to have all those wavy patterns on his balconies and marzapine-like houses. My own version would of course be in a more musical sense, so it would involve a flat sounding C note on the sax, which stumbled on to a series of chromatic scales downwards, missing a few notes here and there.
Enough on romantics…
Mistakes. Here is my two major ones in the last 5 years which I am keeping:
Mistake number one: Being totally blur about my future at the age of eighteen and submitting it to whatever that comes. This is a mistake I intend (and am forced) to keep. I was capricious, moving from genetic engineering (because it was a really new thing and sounded cool), medicine(because I liked my Biology teacher and the sweep of inspiration to make a change by serving as a overworked underpaid civil servant….yeah well, Hui Woon was like that since then), actuarial science, management, business administration(the last ones came because I knew I have a tact and interest for management and actuarial science was deemed to make more use of my toils in the science stream). Above all, I knew very strongly that I wanted to study abroad. But since I was like a fallen leave getting swept down by the river flow, I found myself staring at the gates of UTM in no time. Entering those gates, I remember vividly how I made a pact with myself. I was going to learn as much as possible, make the best out of everything no matter what. So as a mistake I kept, I am who I am today.
Mistake number two: Next mistake is like a Jengga block of mistakes. How the final blow was built slowly on one circumstance on top of another, and eventually if you took out a piece of it recklessly, it would just topple mercilessly. I took Orchestra as Ko-Q without registering. I dropped a subject or two. I went on lucrative adventures in the management faculty. I took the word of someone too easily. This is how I broke perhaps another record….one of the few Chinese students who are taking a sixth year in Chemical Engineering. This eleventh semester however gave me a lot of time to think, to contemplate, to question myself, to plan and execute my next move. I’ve found what I needed, and it is indeed a very blissful feeling to have the conviction of knowing the “what” and “how” of your life.
posted by Hui Woon+~*'*'*~+.._.. at 11:22 AM
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