Posts Tagged ‘gamsat’
Courage is self-created
Posted on: September 13, 2020
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Courage is the ability to feel bold and brave, to stand up and keep walking and keep doing something that others might feel daunting. In today’s society, one needs a lot of courage just to strive through their days because of our extremely busy and stressful lifestyles. Therefore, we cannot depend on anyone to encourage us, but ourselves. Without courage, we might be defeated easily. Moreover, everyone has their own problems to solve, therefore, no one will actually care about our problems and obstacles. Creating our own courage is easier than most people thought, though it includes adjusting your mindset and lifestyle accordingly.
From the moment we are born, we can only depend on ourselves. Without courage we might be defeated easily in life’s brutal reality. I recently have a lot of problems at work. Life is a problem-creating machine that never let you down. Even when you think your life is going smoothly, something out of nowhere will surely come and present itself, inflict its burden on your life and demand you to solve it. I love my job, but the amount of drama that I have to deal with recently has been hectic and pushing all my mental limits within such a small amount of time. Moreover, the world is going through a pandemic crisis and personally, I have been gaining weight and not at my best fitness level due to lack of motivation for exercise as well as the inability to leave home. I am, by all means, not at my best. I feel defeated and I feel like a total loser. I realised how fragile our mental health is and a little bit of a ripples on the calm surface can sway us to have such negative thoughts. I need courage to keep solving my own problems. The only way to solve this is to break all the problems that makes me feel bad down into smaller pieces and deal with them one by one. I can only depend on myself, and if I don’t find the courage to wake myself up and keep going, I will be defeated, also by myself, for sure.
Expand our view out, everyone has their own obstacles and issues to deal with everyday. Therefore, even though they might listen (or pretend to listen), no one actually care about your problems. A counsellor is paid to listen to your problems. A doctor is paid to treat you. A psychologist charged you money for their time. There’s always a catch. You might argue well a phone with a friend might be genuine, but at the end of the day, only we can solve our own problems. After an hour phone call with three different friends, I sit in my room and realise the problem is still there. I do feel a bit better, but tomorrow is a new week and I still have to go into work and face it head-on. It is difficult to find the courage to tackle these. However, once you have the right independent mindset, you will start to change your own life.
How do we find our own courage and not depend on others for this? When I exercise today, I feel that I’m not as fit as I use too. I am heavy and my weight has increased. Nevertheless, I told myself to take small steps and keep going slowly with the exercises. Even though I am out of breath and the world seems to spin around me, after some gulps of water, I feel better. My heart is pumping faster and my mood elevated. I feel invigorated and alive again. Exercise is one of the most effective method to combat mental health problems such as depression. Once your mood is elevated, it is easier to find the courage to solve other problems. When you have a talk with a friend about your problems, don’t just rant on about it. Take this opportunity to discuss with them the answer to our problems. Most of the time, the issue weighs us down because we focus too much on the issue’s characteristic instead of the solutions. Break the issue down into smaller steps and solve one by one. Once you solve each step, it will give you the courage to continue to the next one, and the next one.
Today, I told myself that I will create my own courage. I realise that I am alone in this life (not in a lonely meaning) and I need to stop being a loser. I will start to find my own courage. It will be hard sometimes, but whenever life gets hard, just remember that courage is inside each of us, you just have to dig it up under all the depressing messes that you bury your own courage. Be healthy, live a good lifestyle, help people, make yourself feel good and never forget to rest when your body required. These things will make sure you have the strength to keep going tomorrow.
(Completed in timed 30 minutes)
How not to be an ignorant idiot
Posted on: August 16, 2020
The answer is simple: Read more!
Today I want to explore an issue that I think I might not be the only one who face it. Upon studying for my GAMSAT, I have met with several issues that I was never aware of before. I think I need to write this blog so that anyone else who are in the same situation as me don’t feel so much pressure. Besides, it is also a way to share my story with the world.
I feel out of dated several time during the last few years. I have been living in Australia since 2006, but for the last 14 years I have never felt out of dated as such. I think to understand this, I need to recap my background.
I was born in Vietnam, I lived there until I was 17, which is after I finished my year 10 and then came here to study. I feel the immediate culture shock but for the first 6 year of VCE and university, I barely have a dull moment to realise this lack of knowledge can be a problem. The education system in Vietnam involve learning verbatim facts and say it back outloud or writing it down on the exam paper as the mean way of exams. For the 10 years of education in such way, I have become the lazy student that was spoon-fed by teachers. I have no imagination or critical thinking skills. “Brainstorming” is a totally new concept to me. In fact, when I first met this concept during English school when I first came to Australia, I have no idea how to do it. My mind went numb and I felt hopeless and useless, almost disabled because my mind could not think of a single ideas when meeting a prompts.
The other result of the Vietnamese education system is the lack of awareness of social issues. Vietnamese students back then almost never know social issues. We did not have time to care about such things as our compulsory 12 subjects during day school plus extra classes during the rest of the day exhaust us. When I came here, I still carried that attitude with me. Partly, I think it lies in the asian culture as well of trying to be the best at school and care nothing else about social issues. Issues such as crime, mental health, social justices, racism, discrimination, etc mean nothing to me. I had zero idea what was going on around the world beside what was in my university lecture and how not to fail a subject at uni.
I started preparing for my GAMSAT exam since 2014. I have not been able to ace it and still unable to do it. I know I am getting closer to the goal I want. However I made minimal progression, partly because I am working full time. Saying that, I realise part of the problem is my lack of social knowledge still. While I am a much more educated person than my own self 14 years ago, there are a lot of issues I don’t know. I attend a few online free workshop for MMI, the medical school entrance interview workshop. I realised how much I still don’t know. For example today, I spend the whole morning reading about Royal Commissions, a term I heard often on radio and podcast but never know what it is and somehow being an ignorant idiot and tell myself I don’t need to know. Until the topic came up in the workshop and everyone seem to know (for granted) what is it about and each of them have such a solid opinion and arguments on it that I have to slap my ignorant inner self across his face and tell myself, from now on, Read more!
I do read a lot, I read on various books and topics and eventually read more because I realise knowing one issues or field does not help you to understand society. Nevertheless, I still feel left behind. It is like people here have been exposed to these issues since they study high school and I only started after university. I feel left behind no matter how much I read and there is only so much time to read throughout my work days and weekend.
Then I tell myself it is ok, as long as I don’t give up. It is obvious that if I start later, I have to be slower than other people. I have decided to not taking the September exam and wait until next March. Firstly because I hope next March will be better in term of COVID and the exam will somewhat can operate normally. The other reason is allowing myself to breath and take my time to explore more issues. I am happy that I attend these online sessions to get to know what is happening in interview. Whether or not I will get an offer for interview this year, I am doing something to get closer to my goal. I also decide to start my Master in Clinical Pharmacy next year as a way of advancing my career and maybe boost my GPA for medicine in the future. Let’s hope everything will go as planned.
The answer is very simple: Not only read more, but realising what you don’t know and read on those areas as well!
A business man in suits, a student in her clean and neat uniform, a doctor in business attire and white blouse, what do they have in common? The answer is appropriateness and professional. It is important to pay attention to your personal appearance as it greatly reflect who you are to other people around. Moreover, if your image is poor, you cannot blame others for judging you down, especially it does not cost much to dress nice nowadays.
When a person dress professionally, it is like a silent recommendation, as Publius Syrus said. There is a reason why companies want their workers and staffs to dress professionally. Uniforms is not only a sign of equality between staffs but also an image that the business wan to portrait to the community. They say that when you dress nice to a job interview, 50% you already get the job. Furthermore, a neat person is simply a nice sight to the eyes. It is true that a Vietnamese proverb goes “The teeth and the hair reflect the root of a person”.
We dress to impress. Do not blame the mirror if your face is faulty. Personal appearance is essential in today society, especially as a first impression, while the others have not known anything about you yet. Who wouldn’t frown when seeing a person walking down the street or into a shop barefoot? It is a dirty image, which reveals laziness and no self-discipline. When we dress fine, we tend to get more attention from others who have the same qualities.
There is no reason a person cannot wear appropriately as it does not cost much to buy clothes nowadays. Clothes are cheap and you can easily get a suit for just over a hundred dollars. Dressing nice does not have to be extravagant and luxury, but proper and connected to the occasion. Using the wrong dress code can, in fact, reverse our effort to dress nice and have a negative response from others. NO one would wear a party dress to work or wearing a suit to the beach neither.
It is better to overdress than under-dress. Some children nowadays lack the ability to make their own decisions as a result of being spoon-fed all their lives. Children need to be taught in school, just in case they did not get it from home, the importance of personal appearances as this will hugely improve their chance of success later in life. Clothing manners can be learned, and it needs to be taught early from the root!.
(30/07/2018)
“All I know of you (Vietnam) is the sight of war. A film by Coppola, a helicopter’s roar” – The sweet sound of Quynh Anh’s singing “Hello Vietnam”, originally in french,”Bonjour Vietnam” by Marc Lavoine, is echoing in my mind.
What is war? I always picture it as people fighting each other on a vast field, either by shields and swords, or by guns and cannons. As a person who was fortunate enough to be born into piece, the significance of war has never really make sense in my mind until I become mature.
When I was small, I only see wars through movies and documentaries. It has never been my interest since wars come with history, my least favourite subject at school. Just like any other kids, war also come about through old stories from grandma and my parents. War was days and days of hardship, of men and husband fighting on battlefields, of wives and lovers waiting at home hopelessly, of love songs about parting each other. War, in a kid’s mind, have all been sugar-coated and honey-dipped to protect our naive minds from tragedies, sadness and loss. For me, war was as normal as the daily forecast on TV with a few people died in Iraq followed by a couple of rains in Saigon my hometown.
As I progress through life, my perception changed and I have a better understanding of war. Through reading and stories, war is now a horrible word. It is the lost of a loved ones, torn of families and sometimes an ironic romance that never been fulfilled. After the war between the North and South of Vietnam ended in 1975, thousands of Vietnamese left the country by boats. Some made it to the other end, but a large number never reached the freedom harbour. Reading “The kite runners” by Khaled Hosseini and seeing the fate of children in war-torn countries, I came to realise how these barbaric events affect people around the world, especially children. I realised how lucky I am.
War is waged by men, not by gods. How good will this world be if we can all negotiate through disagreements by talking. War is the way countries showing power to one another and it is also an inhumane way to make money through selling weapons. Since Donald Trump became the president of the United States, he has made a good amount of controversial decisions and created several conflicts with other nations. Recently is the economic war with China. Who know if these will later lead to World War III? It is painful to think that war was created by a few political leaders, who claim to represents a whole country’s people. This need to change, from the way countries are dealing with one another.
The power game between nations need to stop. To think that one day, in human progression where war will become morally impossible, like Charles Harpur said, is a bit idealistic. Nevertheless, It is possible to follow Sun Tzu’s advices: “The supreme excellence is not to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles. The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies your enemies without even having to fight them”. How? By love! Think about love when you’re about to start a fight. Children need to be taught love, not hate. They need to learn to love not also their family, but also for human kind; because after a war ends, we will all be asking ourselves “What are we even fighting for? We are all human”.
Sunday 22/07/2018
“The grass is always greener on the other side” – my Mom always said when I was small. She keeps reminding me every time I compare my life or my job with others’. As I grow up, I slowly realised and learned from experience how true this saying is. However, I need to be told from time to time so that I refrain from comparing myself with people around me. Self-awareness is an important quality that everyone should pursuit in life. No one can make us feel inferior if we do not allow them to.
It is hard to always be ware of what we already have, especially when the world is filled with people who constantly brag and show off about their luxury lifestyle, whether it is real or just an instagram illusion. Social media is drowned in magnificent pictures of self-obsessed individuals who are trying to compete with each other for virtual ‘likes’ from other same strangers. We think we know someone just by looking at their facebook profile. People feels inferior and trying to boost their egos in the next social media post. Nonetheless, one self-awareness is acquired and strengthened, self-validation comes with it. The right to validate one’s life does not remain in another’s hand but our own. “Empty vessels make the greatest sound”. Once we are content, we have no need to brag about our lives anymore.
Self-awareness is, however, different from being judgemental. Dwight Morrow has said “we judge ourselves by our motive and others by their actions”. People failed to see other’s motives in their actions. I used to hate my managers until I become one. Only then, I feel the pressure from the upper level managers and I understand why all my former bosses were being harsh on their staffs. A new lesson has been learned. Constantly thinking twice or a few times before judging is important. It is hard to fit ourselves into someone else’s shoes but we do not know it is uncomfortable until we do. Maybe they also feel the same.
I still see the greener grass on my neighbour’s lawn everyday. However, something new has emerged inside: I do not care! I am content. Only being this way that can help one be happy. “Everyone has their time in life” is another reminder from Mom. Be aware and be happy!
(Thursday 28/06/2018)
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