Imagine doing a marathon. Your calves are burning, your breath shortens, fog starts floating in your head. Still, half of the distance is not whatsoever pounded yet and quitting is not an option. You know you must touch the finish line. Dead or alive.
Well, the opening line subtly indicates that this will not be my usual cheery-kind posting. However, it is not also supposedly to be a very weighty one (am considering it for a nicer publication, not in my tralala blog, I guess…). I kinda bumped into the mood to write this post thanks to the ghost of upcoming midterm exam.
A little background: I am currently studying a quite heavy-loaded mathematics engineering course for graduate students. No engineering background possessed and the closest thing to math I ever did in the past seven years is basic addition, multiplication operation.
Hence, I have lurked in my lab for the past few days, enduring every single problems and formulas. Neither excuses like “This is not my field of interest” or “Impossible to master those concepts in a very short time” is valid. Just go to the class obediently every week, do the bloody homework and submit it punctually, while study the basic lessons yourself. And when the time comes, join the other engineers for the examination.
Similar problems seem to be encountered by fellow foreign friends in our Korean class. Basically we must attend an intensive language course 2 hours per day, Monday to Friday. All beginners in the same class. However, soon there is a wide gap in terms of learning progress between the once-mutual-beginners. And the ones who get left behind began shrieking for help: “We are done chasing you. No more running, let us have slower pace and some peace.” Just like in the marathon, you are so done with all the excruciating physical stress and sick of seeing people passing you.
Then I accidentally passed this quote that soon became my favorite. It is from Thomas Jefferson (late president of USA):
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Some people say that luck is the number one ingredient in succeeding exam. Well, now I have something nearly adequate as a response to that statement. I observe that luck tends to come abundantly to me in the form of recognizable mathematics problem pattern and formulas popping out of nowhere, if AND ONLY if, I have packed them nice and neat in my head. Reading and solving problems over and over and over again.
There are surely some ugly voices regarding persistence to keep striding forward. For example, I have been suggested one day to study less and rest more, since lack of rest will surely damage my health sooner or later. Despite of many researches concerning that subject, I still believe that I can be the “deviating data” in the curve of relationship between sleeping hours and health. Rest, for me, is when I feel contended of having done what I do, seizing the day, and basically just making everyone whom I love proud of me.
I am going to close this post soon. Just bear with me a little more, since I am going to launch the punchline pretty soon. Well, I told the friend in Korean class (the one who aspires to have one special class in accordance to some special students’ needs) that many other students had experienced the same difficulties and also started from zero. They coped with the class by studying in their own free time, communicating frequently with native speakers, and also maximizing time in the class by asking questions. The friend cut me short by saying, “I don’t need to hear any successful stories.”
beigesubmarine 