79. A Meaningful Life

Some people go through life living according to other's wishes and some live life through their own ways. But, if you really get right down to it, or the pessimistic way of thinking, we are all living life according to another person or persons' wishes. For example, a small group of elitist who hold all the power in the world. But, I won't be going there today. Instead, I'll be concentrating on what I believe will make a meaningful life, or at least how I want to live my life.

First things first: never waste time. Although it might be intangible, it is nevertheless valuable. I am big on time. I dislike wasting my time, and I hate it even more when other people waste my time. That's right - hate. "Oh, such a strong word" is probably what you're thinking, but that is just how much I treasure my time. The life expectancy for me, according to boring statistics, averages around 81 to 83 years old. But, because of society today with its processed food and lack of time and energy to properly exercise and take a break from working continuously, that expectancy is probably a bit more optimistic. Nevertheless, if I were immortal (God forbid), I would still get pretty annoyed if my time were a-wasting.

Secondly, have a positive outlook on life in general. Don't always think about negative things or let your mind wander off to places of no return. It is not good for your health, and certainly a waste of time. A good way to achieve this would be to make a bad situation, good! This will help lower your blood level and make you a more fun person to be around. Also, since we're on the topic of being around people now - surround yourself with people you actually like. Sure, connections are important, but with Facebook these days, the most connecting you'll be doing with these people you hardly know would be to like their profile picture or share their video. So, in real life, away from the World Wide Web and those superficial online relationships, step out into the sun and find people you enjoy the company of! There's some type of saying that if you surround yourself with beautiful people, you'll become beautiful as well. I'll let you think about that.



Last, but definitely not any less important, is to always be thankful with what you have. Although this might be difficult to do at first, it is definitely feasible. I remember when I was always scrolling through my Facebook and being overly jealous at what other people have and/or doing, and I would start to get annoyed at my own life as I compare the two. It really brought me down and I wasted a lot of my energy on it. But, after thinking about all the things I already have that some people don't have, I was gradually able to step out of that never ending black hole. For those people that are having a hard time with this, here is a little trick I used that I was able to apply to get myself out of that self-loathing-ness. I simply compared what I had that most of the other people on my Facebook didn't have (in a way, sort of like bragging, but doing it internally so people won't think of you as an ass, excuse my French). It can be the smallest things, something that other people may find insignificant, but others may never have. For example, an understanding family, funny parents, your creative skills, ability to keep yourself organized, a clean room - like, all the time, or maybe how you're always on top of things and always getting stuff done before others so you have plenty of time for other things (perhaps a social life!). Anything that makes you happy is definitely something to be thankful for. But, something that annoys you aren't always what you think - that they're just out there to get you, rather they're trying to tell you something or guide you. Maybe that bus you missed was a good thing because then you could have met the love of your life on the next one, or the next bus' fare machine was broken so you didn't have to pay bus fare. The littlest things in life are the things that people should be most thankful for, because when it's not there anymore, it'll be even harder to get it back, and you'll always feel something is missing. This is similar to treasuring what you have  in a way.

These three points are the most important things that I believe in will make me live a meaningful and happy life. I hope I was able to share some useful things that you can take away and given you an inspiring moment. There is also a book, called The Secret similar to what I have shared, but elaborates much more (and more well written for sure) that really gives you an awakening experience. If you have the time, or just happen to come across it at the bookstore or a friend's place, definitely flip through it and take a look at what it says - it might just change your life. They also have a website and a section where you can read stories of people who have used The Secret (I read some of them and some sound really doubtful, but hey, who I am to judge). Another (amazing) blogger, whom I am a fan of, also goes into a lot of detail about this book and its ideas and concepts, as well as her real life experiences. Her name is Xiaxue and she is a famous blogger in Singapore (quite funny and individualistic as well). If you have time, do check out her post as it got me thinking quite a lot about how I have been going about in life and really allowed me to introspect my ways of being. Deep stuff, I know.

(P.S. This post is not sponsored by anything or anyone. Though, I do wish I was able to make money off this thing. Maybe I should try out The Secret sometime.)

78. Campus Walk

Since I haven't blogged for a bit nor gone on any exciting and fun outings, I decided to take my camera with me on the way to class today and snap a few pictures as I walked. The autumn weather was really nice today so I didn't do any editing to my pictures (partly because they are already so pretty looking, and partly because it would take too long... okay, mainly because it would take too long). Usually, I bike to all my classes because it's just so much more convenient and faster, and I get some exercise in my day as well. But, because the weather was just too nice to pass up the opportunity and I had lots of time to spare before my next class, I took a casual stroll to the campus. 

In this day and age of technology, you see everyone walking without direction with a phone in their hand texting, surfing the web, or playing with some phone apps. No one really stop and smell the roses along the way anymore and I feel that it is really unfortunate because there are so many little magical things to discover along the leaf-covered roads. I remember walking and biking up this one route next to a building many, many times where there was a waterway with some tall stalks of what looked like leeks built alongside the building. But, I never really paid any attention to it and just thought of it just another useless University installation and just continued my walk and minded my own business... until one day, with nothing to look at, I stared down at the waters and saw two bright orange goldfishes with long tails. I wanted to take a picture of it to show my friends, but before I could do that, they slipped underneath a drain. I guess it's little unrecoverable moments like these that are the better moments as it gets you thinking of what other little magical things you have missed because you were merely too busy staring down at a dumb device.

(This wasn't where I saw the little goldfishes, but it's similar to the long "water leeks" I was talking about)

After that encounter, I have begun to notice other magical things around the University that I have never noticed before or taken the time to, and through these pictures, I hope I'll be able to share some of these little bits of happiness or thoughts with you. Maybe they will inspire you to do the same!

What appears to be a boring, gray building has a fun side to it as well!I spy with my little eyes, something that is orange and is all the rage right now. 

This little park filled with stones that I often see young children with their parents playing at. I saw a family with two little kids playing with a telescope with their dad's help one time. It was really cute, but I wouldn't advise doing that in the daytime.

Look at these beautiful trees with the gold-coloured leaves. I wish gold apples grew on it as well!

 
These hills that I think would be pretty fun to roll down as they're not too steep. Or just run around on. That seems pretty fun too.

Then I saw these trees which didn't look like trees but just long pieces of branches stuck in one place in the ground. But, I think it'll look cool if something hanged from it, like garlands of hearts or something like that. Or maybe in the spirit of Hallowe'en, little ghosts dangling from the branches.

Then, I walked up to an on-campus college with this cool building that I always see half of when I pass by, never really going up the stairs to see the whole thing. I'm glad I did, because it is really cool. It'll be neat to sketch it as well!

Then at the same location as I turned around, I saw these cute benches with these overhanging things (not sure what they're called). I think you can hang just about anything here: ghosts, pumpkins, spiders, spiderwebs even. Or hearts. Hearts are nice. Oh, flowers would be really pretty! It could be a mini rose garden!

And then as I continued further onto Campus, I see another construction going on... as usual. But, this deserves a post entirely for itself as there is just too many things to say about the continuous construction, which I probably will not do because it's just not worth my time.

Then something reminded me of a reading I had to do in one of my classes called "The Garden of Forking Paths" as I saw that the University had many, many paths laid out on its campus, each leading to different destinations or point of destination. I thought it was pretty interesting.

And as I laid my eyes upon its golden wings, I stopped and stared as time seemed to stop for me to simply admire its grandness in all its beauty.

After admiring the grandness of nature, I took this picture of the building of where my next class was to be held, and noticed how I had never realized that despite the building looking old and dirty, the trees inside under an "open rooftop" looked really enchanting. I guess it's the gray, concrete material of the building contrasting with the sunlit nature inside its "womb".

Anyways, that was my walk. It was pretty fun, and I hope I'll be able to do it again as this isn't even a quarter of the size of the University. No wonder I bike everywhere.