“I used to roll my eyes every January. But then I remembered something that one of my mentors, a computer science professor, told me in college.
He said he was jealous of me as a student. “You get to start over fresh every quarter,” he said. “That doesn’t seem like a big deal now, but when you get older, you’ll wish you could start over fresh.”
I didn’t really get what he meant until I was about 25. Suddenly, I had all these work projects that had been going on for 2-3 years. I had the usual holiday obligations I had to start planning for. And oh yeah, that apartment lease paperwork I’d been meaning to send in…
I finally understood what he meant. If I could just start over fresh, man…things would be simpler.”
– by Ramit Sethi – Best selling book author of New York Times and business coach
2016 is a new calendar date, not a clean slate.
Though my school doesn’t officially start yet, I started receiving work mail this morning, (disclaimer: fear creeps in every time I feel the reminder on the tasks I need to cross off my list). I had a difficult conversation with my family yesterday. Well, not a conflict started off, not even close, but the kind of conversation that brought up the issues you didn’t want to dive in before, not because you disagreed with your family, nor because regretted on something that can’t be reverse. The conversation was hard because the issue was tough, but most importantly because the issue was real, and because it was time to admit the existential pain, and face it with bravery.
That stage of life finally strikes: too much instability to be made predictable.
School is a fun journey, and I’m feeling fortunate of having the opportunity of “Starting anew”. Most of the time in real life, you can’t. But at the same time, I feel something unauthentic. I’m happy that I know where I’m heading to, and stop trying new things with relative impunity. Everything has a price. I started not taking every encounter, every person for granted, since some missing opportunities can never be retrievable.
Though still love traveling, I had stopped using road trip as a means of escape. After the road trip, your bill is still sitting there, your work backlog still stares at you on the computer screen, your unsolved relationship quarrel still entangles you. Don’t run away from it. Solve it. Do yourself that favor, not only to expect that uneasiness to pass but also to give your heart a release it deserves.
If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be a human being. You’d be a game show host. — Veronica Sawyer
To a calm, composed and resilient self of 2016.
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To my readers: in 2016, expect to have more articles on several more business/technology aspects of music, and maybe some tips on how to keep your study-abroad living cost to minimal? (including some DYI stuffs, which I realize how much I love!)
