good acdemics results = successful???
dont know since when, this equation has been instilled in the brains of many of us. it might be applicable in the 1970s to 1990s. but how applicable is it to us in this day??

i remembered when i was young, my parents forced me to study hard. “if you dont study hard, u end up collecting garbage”, i’m sure many of us had heard this “infamous” phrase from our parents. for those who have not, i envy you… i came from a rather traditional chinese background. as traditional chinese, its not a good practise to praise yourself too much, however, we tend to overdo this practice. since young, i have not gotton any praises or support from my parents other than acdemics. everything they wan to see is As in the report book. during primary sch, i’m very interested in science. during that time, there is a programme called “young scientist” or watever which i couldn remember. its a programme where primary school students were tasked to do a number of projects relating to different science field and once its completed, the student were awarded a bade and a certificate. there were 12 badges in total. me being an enthusiatic student in science, completed all 12 badges in 1 1/2 years… however, due to too much involvement in this projects, i flunked my exams. my parents were so furious that they tore up all the 12 certificates…

i excelled in sports during my primary school. during primary 4, i won a 2nd position in the 400m race during sports day and its my 1st ever trophy in my life. i bring it home happily and showed it to my parents. without any praises, they made the comment “玩就这么厉害，读书又不见得你会赢奖”. i’m dishearted and heartbroken… is acdemic really so important to them? and why do they like to find faults in our success?? not only my parents, in fact, most of us like to find faults… no matter how good something is, people are bound to find fault in it… and people remembers the mistakes we made more than the right things we did. i somehow agree wat my friend had said. he being a teacher, sometimes purposely made mistakes during lessons to make students remember. because being human, we tend to highlight on mistakes people made… it sounds rather logical in fact. so… when your lecturer or teacher makes a mistake during lesson, it may not mean they are lousy… they could have done it on purpose.

back to the acdemic issue. the mindset of our parents can be understandable as during their generation, they saw most people around them excel in their career had good acdemics qualifications. but now it might not be as applicable anymore. A degree back then is a fucking big piece of paper (not in terms of size, but in terms of value). but now, 1 out of 4 people have a degree, so what so big fuck abt that? being a slave of that piece of paper which costs 24k…