團訓

Every Friday night, Joshua fellowship goes through the usual "ritual" (please allow me to use this word because I don't know what other word to use) of reciting our theme verse:

這 律 法 書 不 可 離 開 你 的 口 ， 總 要 晝 夜 思 想 ， 好 使 你 謹 守 遵 行 這 書 上 所 寫 的 一 切 話 。 如 此 ， 你 的 道 路 就 可 以 亨 通 ， 凡 事 順 利 。
我 豈 沒 有 吩 咐 你 麼 ？ 你 當 剛 強 壯 膽 ！ 不 要 懼 怕 ， 也 不 要 驚 惶 ； 因 為 你 無 論 往 那 裡 去 ， 耶 和 華 ─ 你 的 　 神 必 與 你 同 在 。

And even though I've been reciting this verse once a week for almost 2 years, sometimes I don't give much thought to what I am saying (tends to be the case for a lot of church-related stuff eh? songs, verses, creeds...). Until last night, I was doing my devotions and reading from The Message when I came across it in...ENGLISH!

And don't for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you'll get where you're going; then you'll succeed. Haven't I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don't be timid; don't get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.

And having finally finished reading the first five books of the Bible (i've actually never done that...I always get stuck halfway through Exodus), this verse suddenly makes a lot more sense in terms of its context and the amount of "meat" that it has. And having finally digested it instead of just licking the surface of it once a week, I think I finally understand why someone decided to pick this verse to be our theme verse.

Jet Lag

It's 12:17am and I just heard a bird chirping outside: the kind of chirping that usually occurs at 4:30am just when the sun is ready to rise.

Either that bird is majorly jet-lagged or this has something to do with global warming/urbanization/deforestation/whatever.

Flip Flops

Today, for the first time in 2010, it was warm and sunny enough to wear flip flops and not risk freezing your toes off or have to wade through puddles.

And it felt awesome.

A (temporary) Farewell

I've been in school since the age of 2 and today, after 19 years, I will no longer be going to school anymore (except for my two finals and to hand in my paper next week but that's not important).

I will no longer get to experience the excitement of first days back to school in September, or be completely blown away by something the prof/teacher just said in lecture (yes, sometimes those do happen). I will no longer have a legitimate excuse to stay up on a computer all night in the name of 'finishing a paper' or bring home a dozen library books in my backpack (and, if necessary, whatever plastic bag I can find). I won't ever get a piece of assignment or paper back and think: wow I totally lucked out with this one or be extremely upset because I thought I did better. And so much more.

The really peculiar thing is, I know I've grown in the last 19 years (of course) but now that I'm supposed to be all prepped up and ready to face the real world, I don't feel that ready at all.

Example: I went into UBC almost 4 years ago armed with an IB diploma (I thought that meant I was a genius), feeling oh-so-confident, ready to take on anything and anyone. I thought i was going to graduate with a BComm (because that was just the most useful thing to graduate with) and basically be set for the next 40 years of my life. I honestly thought that University was probably the last hurdle of my life and once it's done and I have that piece of paper with my name printed on it, employers will come flying at me and I will miraculously end up with a job that pays well, is stressless and live like I'll never have to work hard again.

4 years later, I am graduating with a BA in International Relations (no obvious job connection there), feeling like I spent the past 4 years scratching the surface of something that is oh, so much more vast than I can possibly imagine and realizing that University isn't the last hurdle of my life at all. There are no jobs flying at me and in fact, for (arguably) the first time in my life, I have no idea what's going to happen to me in half a year's time (would've been next month if it wasn't for my vacation and LSAT).

But yes, I did gain something and just might have managed to learn something about myself too.

I've learned in the past 4 years, that I am not really that practical afterall. If I were, I would've stayed with a BComm. I've also learned that I'm seriously really interested in China. I knew I liked learning about China in high school but once here, I realized that I don't ever want to stop learning about this place or experiencing it in various ways. I'm also not as confident in my ability as I thought I was and that I do like to crowd myself with doubts. I've learned that there is nothing that can be gained or earned in this world that can guarantee a safe, happy, stressless future (no, not even a BComm my friends). I've learned that I am a person driven by my interests and not by a need to do well in everything (i.e. I do well in courses that I am really interested in but if I am in a course I detest, I cannot convince myself to put my mind into it). I've also learned that there is no way you can finish learning. More recently, I've learned that, if given a choice, I'd much rather spend my life learning and staying in school.

So long, my formal education. Till we meet again. I hope this isn't the end of our bitter-sweet relationship.

no pain, no gain

And that goes for booking my flight to NYC with air miles too.

Because I've been flying to and around Asia so frequently in the past few years (YVR --> HKG x3 (06, 08, 09) and HKG --> NGB (09)), I only need to use $120 CDN to "buy" more airmiles in order to get a "free" ticket to NYC this summer.

Of course, since CX is technically only making $120 CDN off of me out of this transaction, there is no possible way that they will make it easy for me.

But again: no pain no gain. I've presevered through and defeated the site tech errors, the inconvenient flight times, the constantly-busy "24-hours help hotline", the pestering parents, the $100 Canadian airport tax and have now (I think) booked myself a vacation to NYC.

Keep Calm and Carry On

A few weeks ago I was up at SFU, perusing the bookstore when I found a cool 2011 agenda book (ya they're selling those already!) and the cover was based on this British propaganda poster that was designed during WWII. According to my best friend (aka Wikipedia) the poster was designed in 1939 (the beginning of WWII) as a "last case scenario" should the Nazis succeed in invading Britain. However, none of the printed posters were distributed and the design was not rediscovered until 2000 in a British bookstore.

I think this is a good reminder for a lot of us today as we face random(?) disasters (manmade and natural), problems (self- and others-generated) and hardship. As the Bible says, none of us get to add a day to our lives by worrying.

And to fit with this general idea of not worrying and having things solve themselves, I've changed my welcome picture-banner thing up there to a historical photo of the Yalta Conference starring Churchill, FDR and Stalin that was intended to rebuild the Europe post-war. Of course this whole thing lend to other issues but that's something else...

the first signs of summer

You know summer is around the corner when the buzzing sound of the first house fly that is separated from its freedom by your bedroom window prevents you from napping.

I looked at the annoying pest and thought:
1. The weather JUST warmed up. How did it manage to hatch, learn to fly, accumulate such enormous mass AND get into my bedroom in such a short period of time?
2. How did it manage to get into my room? Surely it couldn't have pulled its fat self through the tiny pores of my window screen...
3. Most importantly, how can I make it leave?

I guess groundhogs tell you when spring arrives. House flies tell you when summer is almost here.