Benjamin

Creative Writing... Entry 5-7
Haven't been blogging for awhile, because been really packed with school work... Anyway this are the last 3 entries i did for the past week. 3 more to go over the week ends! I'm tired! I'm going to sleep now! As i know sleep is GLORIFYING GOD! =)
Enjoy reading... if your tired...JUST SLEEP too =)

8/6/08

Time management

People rushing from place to place, squeezing themselves into packed Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains. Especially a scene from the interchange of the red line of Dhoby Ghaut to City hall, I was there a couple days ago in the morning rush and it was as though it was crossfire of humans just dashing like it’s the end of the world. It’s amazing that I didn’t see any clashes of human beings. These are scenes that many go through or experience if they take the public transport in the morning on working days.

Just being in that scene really make me ponder, why do people always have to rush all over the place, can’t anyone just learn to mange their time better and discipline themselves to wake up earlier. Isn’t it so much better to be able to take your own time just walking to the train and not to exhaust oneself while they “fight” for a place in the train, just because you are late? Isn’t the world already fast paced enough?

Anyway to be honest, I do feel I’m also caught in this “rush syndrome too, it seem to be one contagious habit that I hope to change. So far I have noticed that, in life everyone’s like always rushing and always busy. Especially for many students now, besides school work we have so many other commitments like co-curriculum activities or for me church commitments too.

And our time has become so tight and precious that we have to drain ourselves overnight doing school work to cover up for lost time. Personally I have gone through that many times, and it’s quite tiring and draining especially when it takes out most of your sleep.

Anyway hope to share some insights which I heard from a preacher once, I find it quite practical and something which anyone can follow. Since in life our schedules get packed so easily immediately and there are so many things that we keep doing and doing till it drain us. It’s good to take note the things that drain us, for example, doing work? And also to note the things that fill us up like sleep or doing something you like.

After knowing what drains and fills you up, plan your schedule for the week in terms of putting in the rest times first. As inevitably your schedule can get packed so easily that we lose the time for rest as well as times of break. I hope I don’t portray that you become a slacker, but personally to me, in life we can’t always work and work. If we carry that on for the rest of our life, we might actually die of working. Thus, we need a good balance of sleep and work. Just think about this, if we have enough sleep as well as do things that fill us up, won’t we have the energy to do our work more productivity. And we don’t have to always have that “rush syndrome” anymore?

Basically, at the end of the day, I believe one can be successful in life if they know how to manage their time well. Sometimes saying “No” to good things might actually help you if you are overly committed to doing so many things. You will never know, the more time we have to spread, the more productive one may become.

10/6/08

A Smile

I’m an optimistic person, thus smiling is one of my favourite expressions. A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing those muscles most notably near both ends of the mouth. The smile can also be found around the eyes. Among humans, it is customarily an expression denoting pleasure, happiness, or amusement. Scientifically, it takes less muscle to smile than frown.

Smiling is one of the easiest forms of enforcing your positive outlook, even in down times; if you smile it just bring your spirit up. In fact, personally I feel it’s the best facial expression anyone should put on.

Not only that, you may never know, but a simple smile you give to someone can actually make someone’s day. Smiling can help yourself as well as having a positive effect to the people around you. Personally, I like being around people who are always happy and joyful, their presence of them smiling just make your day. When I smile, and someone returns with a smile, I receive acceptance and recognition. Isn’t that awesome?

Many people have ask me before, while do I always smile, always so optimistic and happy. Well, my answer would be simple, like shared in my earlier entries as Jesus Christ is my centre focus in life, everything would inevitably lead back to Him as deep down in my heart I have this inner joy in me as I’m being assured that Jesus Christ is in my life and somehow all my deepest needs are met in my heart.

Anyway a practical way I can share of how to smile is as simple as to be happy. In fact you can be happy all the time, you can think happy thoughts instead, as funny as that sounds. To me I would think about something or someone that I care about, or think about a funny moment that happen. Remarkably, when you're feeling down, smiling can help cheer you up, even if you have to coax a smile out at first.

Another thing which I realize, do you know if we smile with our mouth, we can smile with our eyes too? I remember once, in a public speaking class we have to speak many times in front of a class. And my lecturer told me that when I speak there is a kind of “smiley eyes”. I didn’t really understand what that means until I research more about it. Well, we think of smiling, we think of the mouth, but the eyes may actually be more essential to a genuine smile. It makes your eyes somehow twinkle. To get a feel for how to make your eyes smile, get in front of a mirror and practice smiling, but concentrate only on your eyes.

Another thing I feel is important to take note, although I have been sharing about my thoughts about the importance and benefits of smiling. We should never fake a smile. As it can make you look phony or nervous, maybe even dangerous. So don't just try to put on a smile without first practicing it.

Even just writing this entry makes me smile as I reflect and talk about the power of smiling. So I really encourage everyone out there to smile too. =)

12/6/08

I'm dedicating this post below to my Dad...

My Dad

His smart, wise, decisive, a manager in his company, the head of the house and the family, well that’s my dad. Reflecting back about the past, I can say without hesitation that his the one that played a major part of bringing me up to whom I am today, from my interest, my hobbies, food that I like to eat and even my character and passion.

I would say I have an interesting relationship with him. Although he played a huge part of my life when I was much younger, now I hardly talk to him. One main reason comes from the many things happening in my life right now. School work alone practically takes up the most part of my time followed by other commitments like church and school activities and not including personal time try to run and gym to keep fit. And when ever I get home, I would just continue doing school work or other commitments that need to be done, and the only time I would talk to him is if I need to ask him something.

Writing this entry, make me relive the times when I was very young, where he taught me drawing, taught me how to play table tennis and introduced soccer to me when I was seven years old. And it’s amazing how because of that fateful day, now soccer is one of my greatest passion. Actually reflecting back about the many things that my Dad uses to do and taught me in the past, one thing I’m most grateful for him is he introducing Christianity and bringing me to church. Like shared in my past entries, I used to be very apathetic about my faith and I would always make excuse not to go church or would only reluctantly go because of my parents dragging me along. But if not for all those times where they had to dragged me to church, I would never had been expose to Christianity so easily. In fact I would never be what I am today.

Now a days, I can see my dad trying to actually make the effort to talk to me, I can see his intentions, but to be honest I find it quite hard to talk to him, as most of the time the conversations are about unimportant things and just replying when I’m tired is a very hard thing for me. Well I appreciate his effort; I guess I’m still learning how to work out this issue. For now, I just take what ever chance I have in the car to catch up, a good excuse for me to get car rides.

Well, imagining my dad when he was young is quite amusing after all the stories that he shared to me when he was younger. One story which I can recall was how he used to sit in his dad shop house and read comic books at the display. And I can imagine him doing all other kinds of weird things which not many would do. I guess his one that you can call “a happy go lucky” boy when he was young.

So after all that I have shared about my dad and that interesting relationship I have with him now, at the end of the day, I would say his a great dad and it’s timely that I’m writing this entry when Father’s day coming too!

Happy Father's day in advance! =)