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On Friday, I hied myself over to my favourite local comic bookstore in search of entertainment. I had had a hard week, you understand, having locked myself away in the library for hours at a stretch trying to comprehend my readings.
I should have done some reading this weekend, by the way, but I didn't because I was a fool.
I have been collecting the Sandman series recently, one by one, slowly but surely, because I buy other things as well, and everytime I come out of that store I have purchases totalling CAD$60+, which is unnatural for me since I used to be extremely frugal. That, and that's about how much I spend on groceries in general.
Anyway. So, Sandman by Neil Gaiman. If you're not aware of it, I suggest you pick up the comic, because it's a lot of fun. It's a lovely surrealistic story with incredible characters, questions, dilemmas, answers and life philosophies. Death as a chirpy, optimistic goth chick? Gimme.
!!
Not much, and it's really only a minor story, so I'm not exactly giving away anything.
The latest tradebook I bought was the sixth one, a series of stories in which Morpheous / Sandman / Dream plays a role in any capacity. The first one was Fear of Falling in which Todd Faber is going to release his first play and suddenly, he wants to run away. His leading lady comes to talk to him about her character, and he tells her he's leaving and that he had cold feet. She gets angry of course, but he's not going to change his mind.
So he has a dream, and he's climbing a mountain, and meets Dream. Except he doesn't know it's the dream-king himself, of course. And he tells Dream why he's afraid of heights, and how he feels afraid because if he falls, he wakes up because he knows he's going to die.
And Dream says to him, "It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. But is it really so bad, to fail? If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? Sometimes you wake, and sometimes, yes, you die."
Then he says something very important, "But there is a third alternative."
I found this short piece very inspiring. Where I grow up, children are constantly pushed to excel in school, then at college, and perhaps university. They are pushed never to fail. Even if it means being mediocre, at least one should not fail. Parents treat failing as it is a mortal sin. My mother did. I had terrible handwriting once and got 80% in English as a result. My mother freaked out to the point of crying. She had such a terrible fear of my failing in school, that when I actually did, she screamed at me, clamped down on my co-curricular activies - the only activities that were keeping me happy in that house at the time - and shunted me off to extra classes.
The Asian culture I grew up in is excellence-driven, or else driven by mediocrity in that we never really study hard, and never really try, because it's easier not to be disappointed that way. Many people have a fear of falling, and once they reach their high place, from which it is more precarious to carry on, the cling to the cliff, fearful of climbing any further, or else, they begin climbing back down in order to lead a less risky life. Or they keep climbing and are fearful of falling anyway, and once they fall, they never get up again. Prides are shattered like that. Shame seems to be bred into us at a young age.
When I was seventeen, I read a book my mother was selling in her shop, called "Dare to Fail" by someone whose name I cannot remember. But it was an incredible motivational book. It is only through failure that someone has the ability to start completely from scratch.
Like my mother did, honestly. In 1992, my mother was fired from her job at Glaxo (now Glaxo-Smith-Kline) where she used to work as a chemist. My brother and I, who had moved to Singapore to be with her, returned in 1993, and she looked for work as a pharmacist. Eventually, she decided she had enough savings as capital for her own shop. She is her own boss now, although she is still afraid and has to keep up appearances. But she is a successful businesswoman. Would she have been one if she had not been fired? Would she have been one if she had taken the promotion she refused to take (for the sake of us, her children, the bind that she holds over us continually as a form of blackmail) and never gotten fired? I really don't think so.
I fell once, in my last year of HS when I failed Malay and Math, - two subjects to pass if one wants to get out of HS. Fortunately, it was still early in the year - when I got back my results from the major examination all HS students have to take, I passed with 5 As out of the 9 subjects I had taken. (Stupid me. I should have gotten 6 As; I'm still sore about that B in Tasawwur Islam. I'm still proud of it though.)
When I went to college, I was sort of mediocre. I shone in a few classes, and that was that. Especially Families in Society. I wrote a 12-page paper. I'm so sorry I lost it and all the research I did for it, because that was something I was truly proud of. I mean, 12 pages when the prof wanted 6? I did amazing on that.
That's when I met the "never climb, never fall" people. Students who thought that the passing "C" was enough to get by. I thought, "that's ridiculous. Why come to college if you're not even going to try? Especially when you're so smart?" Just, honestly. Come on.
So, I came to university. Where I met even MORE of these people, and I sort of ignored them and had fun in classes, made friends with my professors and actually started doing well.
Last year was especially good, because I had some major papers which I'm not used to writing, and I did well. I was proud of myself.
I am still a little afraid of falling. But then I remember that I fell down once, and I didn't hit the ground. The tip of the mountain is always ahead of me, and then I don't know - maybe when I reach the top I'll jump. Maybe I'll die. Maybe I'll wake up.
But I'll stick with it anyway. And I'll take the third alternative.
I should have done some reading this weekend, by the way, but I didn't because I was a fool.
I have been collecting the Sandman series recently, one by one, slowly but surely, because I buy other things as well, and everytime I come out of that store I have purchases totalling CAD$60+, which is unnatural for me since I used to be extremely frugal. That, and that's about how much I spend on groceries in general.
Anyway. So, Sandman by Neil Gaiman. If you're not aware of it, I suggest you pick up the comic, because it's a lot of fun. It's a lovely surrealistic story with incredible characters, questions, dilemmas, answers and life philosophies. Death as a chirpy, optimistic goth chick? Gimme.
!!
Not much, and it's really only a minor story, so I'm not exactly giving away anything.
The latest tradebook I bought was the sixth one, a series of stories in which Morpheous / Sandman / Dream plays a role in any capacity. The first one was Fear of Falling in which Todd Faber is going to release his first play and suddenly, he wants to run away. His leading lady comes to talk to him about her character, and he tells her he's leaving and that he had cold feet. She gets angry of course, but he's not going to change his mind.
So he has a dream, and he's climbing a mountain, and meets Dream. Except he doesn't know it's the dream-king himself, of course. And he tells Dream why he's afraid of heights, and how he feels afraid because if he falls, he wakes up because he knows he's going to die.
And Dream says to him, "It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. But is it really so bad, to fail? If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? Sometimes you wake, and sometimes, yes, you die."
Then he says something very important, "But there is a third alternative."
I found this short piece very inspiring. Where I grow up, children are constantly pushed to excel in school, then at college, and perhaps university. They are pushed never to fail. Even if it means being mediocre, at least one should not fail. Parents treat failing as it is a mortal sin. My mother did. I had terrible handwriting once and got 80% in English as a result. My mother freaked out to the point of crying. She had such a terrible fear of my failing in school, that when I actually did, she screamed at me, clamped down on my co-curricular activies - the only activities that were keeping me happy in that house at the time - and shunted me off to extra classes.
The Asian culture I grew up in is excellence-driven, or else driven by mediocrity in that we never really study hard, and never really try, because it's easier not to be disappointed that way. Many people have a fear of falling, and once they reach their high place, from which it is more precarious to carry on, the cling to the cliff, fearful of climbing any further, or else, they begin climbing back down in order to lead a less risky life. Or they keep climbing and are fearful of falling anyway, and once they fall, they never get up again. Prides are shattered like that. Shame seems to be bred into us at a young age.
When I was seventeen, I read a book my mother was selling in her shop, called "Dare to Fail" by someone whose name I cannot remember. But it was an incredible motivational book. It is only through failure that someone has the ability to start completely from scratch.
Like my mother did, honestly. In 1992, my mother was fired from her job at Glaxo (now Glaxo-Smith-Kline) where she used to work as a chemist. My brother and I, who had moved to Singapore to be with her, returned in 1993, and she looked for work as a pharmacist. Eventually, she decided she had enough savings as capital for her own shop. She is her own boss now, although she is still afraid and has to keep up appearances. But she is a successful businesswoman. Would she have been one if she had not been fired? Would she have been one if she had taken the promotion she refused to take (for the sake of us, her children, the bind that she holds over us continually as a form of blackmail) and never gotten fired? I really don't think so.
I fell once, in my last year of HS when I failed Malay and Math, - two subjects to pass if one wants to get out of HS. Fortunately, it was still early in the year - when I got back my results from the major examination all HS students have to take, I passed with 5 As out of the 9 subjects I had taken. (Stupid me. I should have gotten 6 As; I'm still sore about that B in Tasawwur Islam. I'm still proud of it though.)
When I went to college, I was sort of mediocre. I shone in a few classes, and that was that. Especially Families in Society. I wrote a 12-page paper. I'm so sorry I lost it and all the research I did for it, because that was something I was truly proud of. I mean, 12 pages when the prof wanted 6? I did amazing on that.
That's when I met the "never climb, never fall" people. Students who thought that the passing "C" was enough to get by. I thought, "that's ridiculous. Why come to college if you're not even going to try? Especially when you're so smart?" Just, honestly. Come on.
So, I came to university. Where I met even MORE of these people, and I sort of ignored them and had fun in classes, made friends with my professors and actually started doing well.
Last year was especially good, because I had some major papers which I'm not used to writing, and I did well. I was proud of myself.
I am still a little afraid of falling. But then I remember that I fell down once, and I didn't hit the ground. The tip of the mountain is always ahead of me, and then I don't know - maybe when I reach the top I'll jump. Maybe I'll die. Maybe I'll wake up.
But I'll stick with it anyway. And I'll take the third alternative.