The Brighter Side of Life

I had a long talk yesterday after cca with two friends - one the same age and the other younger than me. One of them will be leaving soon for a boarding school overseas, but now as the moment draws nearer, she isn't so sure that she's ready to leave. She asked the other friend and I to convince her not to leave, which got me thinking - why shouldn't she?

Everything she said made me realise that there really is a lot here that can make one want to go away. In school, especially in a girls' school, I realised, there's a lot of "cat fighting". Not literally, but more of the passing of snide remarks, rumours. There's discriminating, outcasting of fellow schoolmates, sometimes with no real reason why. There's competition, be it friendly or otherwise, stress under our tough education system. School is a drag most of the time. We hardly get enough sleep, for one thing.

I didn't say anything for a while because I was trying so hard to come up with a really good reason for her to stay, and with all the above thoughts running through my head as she talked, I truly couldn't think of anything.
Too many negative thoughts can be bad for you, so I decided to extract myself from the conversation for just a while and shut myself off to rethink everything in a more positive light.

And it worked.

So why shouldn't she go? Well, why should she? Or anyone of us for that matter?

Looking at my surroundings, school was the first thing that came to mind. Sure, it can be tough, especially with our - can I please say this - horribly stressful and taxing education system. The amount of homework we get is amazing. All the various school activities pile up like nobody's business. The teachers don't always seem to understand us, our friends aren't always there for us, the gossip always seems to spread like wildfire...but hey, think about it. I guess it's true that our education system, being so harsh, prepares us for society later, which I'm sure is going to be really hard to survive in. And who said the teachers don't try to understand? Sometimes we just make it so much harder for them to do so. There are some really wonderful teachers in our school who actually make their lessons enjoyable for us, and it's blatantly obvious that many of them do work hard to ensure that we pass our exams with flying colours. And not only that! They mould us as people and develop our characters and potential as best possible. We really should be thanking them and working together with them, rather than leaving them to do it alone. As for our friends, I'm confident that when we find those special few who we're able to really connect with, everything will just seem so much brighter.

Then there's the family. I know I'd probably never ever be able to study abroad because before I even board the plane, I'll be bawling my eyes out. Imagine being all by yourself, friendless and without the warmth of home and family in a foreign land. I guess some amongst us would pounce on the opportunity, calling it adventure. To me? It'd be my biggest nightmare.

I suppose at the end of the day, it's what really makes you happy that matters most. Thanks to yesterday's conversation, I now know what really makes ME happy. And that's just to be here with all of you - family, friends, teachers, classmates, living a life that will make God proud.