You go Taylors!

All these years, Taylor's Uni has been asking us to do reflection as part of our assignment, they even gave us 10% free marks just so that we would do it, they shouldn't have to since it's suppose to be our personal development. Some people do it for the sake of doing it, some do it coz it free marks, some just don't bother doing it at all. For me, I used to hate doing it, imagine 7 subjects, and each subject requires a personal reflection assignment, workload not enough ke? (Individual assignment + group assignment + reflective learning assignment) x 7 = 21 assignments to hand-in. Though I hated it and didn't see the importance of it back then but nevertheless I placed my whole heart into doing it, slowly reflecting on the lesson based on the questions that were used as guidelines for our reflection.

Fast forward 2 years, and now I finally understand the importance of reflection and I'm really grateful that Taylor's actually forced us to do it. I can see it all coming to use now...

I got this quote from a friend's status update who in return quoted his lecturer ''Experience doesn't make you stronger, wise and smarter. Reflection does.'' So true man..so true..

What would it be like to be blind?

I think most of us are guilty for saying "oh, I don't really see the face, it's the heart that matters." , but how many times do we really see a person for their heart and not their faces? Like it or not, we do see people at face value; and if you have a pleasant looking face somehow half the battle is done for you. For example, if a pretty looking girl were to suddenly come up to you and ask you for your phone number, you are more likely to give her your number; but if someone who has a disfigured face were to approach you and ask you for your number, I think most of us would hesitate to give out our numbers.

So, back to the question, how many times do we really see a person for their hearts and not their faces? Because the face is what we see before we are willing to give the heart a chance. And then I thought, being blind has it's benefits too, because I think the blind see much more clearer than we who have sight. They "see" the true heart of a person. To the blind, the social world is equal (for the people who approach them). They don't give chances just because you are pretty/ handsome, and they get to know you for you. I don't see it as the blind has to accept whoever that comes their way just because they are handicap and if they don't accept them then nobody wants them, but how I look at it is that they genuinely get to know you for who you really are inside without prejudice or judgement based on physical appearance.

I appreciate my ability to see and am grateful for it (though my eyesight isn't perfect), but sometimes I wonder, what would it be like to be blind for a day?  To be able to feel the love of the people who help you on your journey, the love of your family, things which we take for granted; and to get to know people for who they really are, and I suppose people could really be themselves around blind people coz the blind is not gonna frown at your fully tattooed body, or frown at you for being dressed like a prostitute. To the blind, we are all humans who have needs and deserve to be loved and be heard. I believe it would be a wonderful experience to see people through the eyes of a blind person.

Haih...very naive of me I must admit, to think that being blind is all that wonderful, I'm pretty sure they would trade all the money in the world to regain their sight...all the hardships they go through....I just wish that people or for that matter, myself, could be blind to physical appearance or to skin colour, but somehow i think it's kindda impossible to do unless you're completely blind -.- WORLD Y U SO COMPLICATED!!!   

Off the bucket list!

Running a marathon is off the bucket list! Though it's only 10km (maybe i'll join a full marathon one day) but it's still an achievement to me. I've never ran 10km before, but after this experience, 10k isn't so hard after all. I'm usually the person who chooses to sleep in instead of going for morning walks with my mother..so being able to achieve this is a fantastic feeling. My main goal of this race was to win a finisher's medal...I was in only for the medal. Nothing else. I'm glad I managed to finish the race within the stipulated time or else all my training would be sort of wasted. So my next goal would be to finish better than my current timing if I were to join another marathon.

It's amazing what the body can do, and sometimes it all just boils down to mental fitness. If you think you can finish, you can..it's whether the brain is willing or not. I think the environment helps too, seeing other runners run, it's like peer pressure making you wanna run too..I've never ran so much in my life...even when I was training, the most was just running 1.5km continuously....today was epic.. No wonder people say if you train, train with other people. I think it helps give you motivation. So yea another item off my bucket list all thanks to Houyi who invited me to join in this for FREE!! coz her company was the sponsor for the event.

  

On another note, I can't help thinking that my puppy came out from a comic book. How to be angry at this rascal la? He drives me up the wall, yet when you scold him, he gives you the most sorrowful eyes...

I learnt something today.. Something that was repeated so many times, came across numerous times, read about countless of times, but nothing beats experiencing it for my own.

We will never really know what a person has gone through and sometimes little actions that seemed so insignificant to you speaks volumes to the other person who receives it, and I'm glad she acknowledged it and told me. I never knew just acknowledging what she said spoke volumes to her and impacted her, which leads to opening up of other things in our lives. I don't find it easy to share my personal problems, but one thing leads to another and we confided in each other, all because she said "thank you" for something I deemed insignificant. The wonders of how God works... 

That being said.. People may look fine on the outside, but you don't know what goes on deep down in their hearts. We are all great actors and actresses on a stage, and it feels good to be able to remove that mask and just be yourself.