Diary, my old friend…

Once, it was a familiar word to me. I used to write diary since secondary school. It really helps me to recall many memories. I wrote when I was happy, or when I was unhappy. After moving to Kuching, I wrote about my marriage life. When I was expecting, I wrote about everything of my little ones. Diary acts as a platform between me and the baby.

Anyway, having two children and taking the long distance education now, the diary lies quietly most of the time in the drawer. Twenty-four hours a day sometimes seems short to me. The busy life has “train” me to finish the tasks on hand in a given time so that I can handle well the roles of a teacher, a mother, a wife and a daughter-in-law. The result is, I prefer to take the time to rest rather to meet with my diary.

Somehow I missed the diary too. When I felt depressed or isolated, I took out the diary. It seems like an old friend, telling stories to me in a calm manner. And I like to listen to it. After enjoying the secret moments with the diary, I felt that I’m energetic again. I became strong and confidence to face the reality.

Oh, my diary. I shall back to you soon.

Letters

There are two letters by John Keats in the module. The first one is for his beloved Fanny Brawne, and the other is to his poet friend, Shelly.

Letter writing was an art form at one time. Letters reveal much about the writers. But nowadays, few people write letters. Emails are probably more popular and common. Most people enjoy sending emails. Since emails are functional, people can make use of the extra features like adding pictures, songs and greeting cards. Email is one of the easiest and fastest ways of interaction. Although email is becoming wider these days, writing letters did not lose its originality. Generally letters are used to convey state of being as well as to share ideas, thoughts and emotions. A friendly letter is a way of communicating between two people who are usually well acquainted.

I used to write letters before. When I first transferred to Kuching in 2003, I received many letters from my students in primary school. They wrote to tell me about their new life in secondary school. They shared their experience as well as problems. In return I gave my advice or opinions to them. Normally I received a letter a month from them. After three years, there were only two girls continue the journey of letter-writing. I am happy because they still remember me and willing to connect with me. They are now in colleagues. Although I do not receive their letters for a year now, I could still connect with them through email and facebook. I do appreciate the modern technology that provides another platform for our interaction. However, I like the surprise feeling when I saw letters lying in the mailbox. Moreover, I miss the step of opening the letters and read it aloud of what my students wrote to me.

Death of a friend

The death of an old friend a week ago reminds me of a play by Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman.

This play is based on the brink of the 1950s, a decade of unprecedented consumerism in America. The main character is Willy Loman, an insecure and self-deluded traveling salesman. He believes wholeheartedly in the American Dream of easy success and wealth, but he never achieves it. Nor do his sons, Biff and Happy fulfill his hope that they will succeed where he has failed. Willy considers the promise of the American Dream—that a “well liked” and “personally attractive” man in business will unquestionably and deservedly acquire the material comforts offered by modern American life.

He is a dreamer of epic proportions. He dreams of material success and freedom. In the end of the play, Willy’s blind faith in his stunted version of the American Dream leads to his rapid psychological decline and finally to his suicide.

The death of Willy Loman is due to his inability to distinguish his wild hopes from rational realities in the present. He is unable to accept the disparity between the Dream and his own life.

Back to our real world, we are all given the time and plenty of opportunities. We should consider our dreams and ability when accomplishing them. In the meantime, we should show our love and caring to our dearest family members.

The healthiness of mental is as important as the healthiness of physical. Take care of our body as well as our minds. There are ups and downs in daily lives. Challenges and uncertainty create fear, doubts, anxiety, pressure and even depress in us. Sometimes look the problems at the other angle will make us find new ways. There is no use to hold tightly on something until it harms our heart and mind.  There must be some conclusions to the problems. Sometimes all it needed is time. Sometimes we need to make a stop. Rest for a while and reflects on what we have done. Think about our progress and plan for the journey.

As long as we have the time, we should not be afraid of the problems we face. Thus, manage our time wisely. “Play well” and achieve what we want in a healthy way.  The most important is appreciate the time we have. I believe a wonderful and healthy long life is ahead of us.

Our “play” continues; our story proceeds; but not the friend of mine. His “play” has been taken by a sudden disease. His story ends at the age of 32years, 3 months and 13 days. Rest in peace, my dear friend…

An enlighten from newspaper

I read some paragraphs from a newspaper this morning. I found it reflects me sometimes and like to share here.

A little rat is always anxious, because it is very afraid of cats. The God have much sympathy for what has happened, so cast the rat into a cat. The rat turned into a cat but is then always afraid of dogs. The God change it into a dog, but it began to fear for the tigers. The God turns it to a tiger, however it worries all day thinking of it would be catch by hunters.

Finally, the God had it changed back to a rat, and said, "No matter what I do could not help you, as you have only the heart of a rat.”

People often want to change something bad in their lives. In fact, the external environment and conditions are not what we need to change, but it is our inner heart and mind. Let us use our wisdom and be courage to face the challenges firmly.

My Position……

Finally, the position paper is finished and submitted on 27^th March.  My thesis statement is “Fantasy ruins Mathilde’s life” on the story “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant.

          According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word “fantasy” carries three meanings. The first one is “a pleasant situation that you imagine but that is unlikely to happen”. The second is “a product of your imagination”. The third is “the act of imagining things”. Fantasy happens for everyone.  It cannot be denied that we always have the state of fantasy. We dream of the things that we do not have. We hope for the situation that we long for. It sometimes helps to relax oneself when enter to the state of fantasy.

          It is not wrong if we sometimes fantasize something or “daydreaming”. Anyway, when we back to reality, we have to do something to make our dreams come true.  We should put on effort; try our best and luck to achieve what we dream for. We should consider our situation and the unpredictable challenges, and at the meantime appreciate for what we have while attempting our goals. 

          If we continue to make unrealistic grand dreams, I am sure there will be more examples of “Mathilde” that only emphasize on physical appearance and material possessions.

The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things

The girl in this story was unsatisfied with a life that is as ordinary as other girls in her village. She is too particular in things in her life, so as to find a perfect person to be her husband. She has complaints about the young men in her village. For her, appearance is far more important than other things. Thus when she first met with the handsome young man, she was attracted by his outmost appearance and decided to go with him even in the night.

                I think many people have the same problem with the girl in this story, always judge people on their look and appearance. Appearances can often be deceptive. Sometimes, judging by appearance can be misleading. If we need to maintain good relationship with others, the inner beauty of mind and good behaviour is far more important.

When the girl found out that the handsome man is actually a horned serpent, she was thinking of a way to run away. The girl is conscious for her mistake and is brave enough to escape from the serpent. With her courage and dedication to an old man’s advice, she saved herself and helped the old man Heno, the Thunderer to get rid of the serpents. My thoughts on this: do we really notice our mistake and failure that we made? Are we strong enough to make the things better? Are you able to repent from your wrong decision and amend the consequences of the decision? The girl is the lucky one. She was provided help and guidance. Do we really seek help from others when we face problems?

“Back at home, the girl put her experience and the power that she had gained to the good of her people.  But she always advised the younger ones to be satisfied with simple things. Not everyone listened to this advice, of course. ”

We should always listen to advices and be wise to make decision before something bad happens. We should also share our experience with others as to prevent them from making the same mistake like us.

This story is useful to advice our students to be satisfied with simple things and be mindful of the little things in life. We should always appreciate for what we have, especially the love of family.   

“I Have a Dream”

A 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on Augus 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

I found the speech very powerful and effective because of its words and expressions which are very persuasive. The rhetoric in the speech never fails to move the audience. Martin Luther King had delivered the speech amazingly and amusingly because it stems from heart.

After listening to his speech, I found that he was excellent at using the verbal elements of delivery, which are pronunciation and enunciation, projection, inflectional, cadence, and the pause.

The speech showed not only what a great speaker Martin Luther King was but also the depth of his spiritual awareness. He was a great man. Together with other brave men and women, he transformed American society from a fake democracy into one in which all people can participate and achieve. The miraculous aspect of his great work is that he transformed an openly racist culture into one of tolerance almost overnight and led a spiritual transformation of the nation.