Intimate friends
and family members who speak frankly to me often say that I have a tendency to
work too hard on achieving my goals.
Earlier in my life, I would ignore such advice and even scoff at the
idea that I was working too hard. In my
mind, I was actually not working hard enough in order to achieve my goals since
they were so important to me.
Only through the
passage of time and with the coming of age have I learned to become more
observant of the world around me. Regardless,
it still has taken me many years to begin accepting the advice of others in
certain situations. If a person wants to
try for their dreams then they must try in order to prevent holding onto a
lifetime of regret. When someone truly follows
their heart even a logical argument opposed to their dream will have no effect in
persuading that person to do something else.
My time in China
leaves me feeling fulfilled because I have the opportunity to study Chinese
every minute of every day while I am here.
I have already said that I have a proclivity towards focusing my efforts
towards reaching one specific goal in life.
My goal-oriented life has had the effect of leaving some people feeling
jealous of my ability to focus so exclusively on one thing at a time. As I grew older, I learned that this power I
possessed was both a gift and a curse.
It did not take
me too many years to realize that if I was going to have a happy life I was
going to have to find a more balanced way of living it. As I previously mentioned, a central part of
my life has been focused on reaching goals.
Since I want to live a more balanced life, I was aware that some changes
would be necessary in order to find the balance I was seeking.
In my life I
have always enjoyed drawing, reading, writing, discussions with other people
regarding interesting topics, and exercise.
One of the benefits of studying Chinese to me is that when I am writing
characters I feel as if I am actually drawing them. This shift in thinking allows me to feel my
artistic side being engaged while studying which is a feeling that I enjoy
having.
I have taken it
upon myself to read at least one chapter a day in any book. Since I arrived in China I have read "The Horse Whisper"; "Gun, Germs, and Steel"; "The Hound of the Baskervilles";
"The Call of the Wild"; "Nazi Germany"- Jane Caplan;
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"; and I am currently half way
through reading "Factory Girls". Keeping my mind engaged on a topic outside of
studying Chinese has allowed me to keep my mind exploring other topics.
I have continued
to write my blog throughout my first semester in Beibei. It is my goal to maintain my blog throughout
my time in China as I feel that writing is a crucial part of the reflection
process for me. I think that the art of
introspection is becoming lost in the fast-paced twenty-first century we live
in.
If I am to remember
my time in China then I would be wise to keep a clear accounting of my time
abroad. I also feel that having to
transform thoughts into prose is a good intellectual exercise for me. I need to keep myself sharp if I am going to
have a chance to achieve the goals that I have set for myself in the future. A third benefit which comes from writing is
improved awareness of my thoughts and the world around me. Sometimes, I can see solutions to problems
more clearly after putting them into prose.
In rare cases, this reflective transparency allows me to even see
problems which I had previously left unimagined.
I have found
that discussing things with people in China has recently become more
interesting for me. This newly
discovered insight has come from my increased ability to communicate in
Chinese.
I now find
myself talking with people in Chinese who I would have previously only spoken
to in English. Being able to discuss a
variety of topics with friends and students in Chinese has made my experience
here much more colorful. Although it
makes me happy that the majority of my time now is spent communicating in
Chinese; nonetheless, I also enjoy speaking with friends and family in English. One of my recurring fears is that my English
will get worse the longer I am living in China.
I want to make sure that this does not happen to me; therefore, speaking
with those who cannot speak Chinese is also important to me.
During my lifetime,
I struggle the most with finding a way to balance the amount of time I exercise. If I want to exercise in a responsible manner
then I need to set a time limit for myself to keep; otherwise, I have
discovered that I could keep working out for hours if I do not have a time
restriction in place.
During the last
couple of weeks in Minnesota I began to notice that my right-hamstring had been
overused and needed a break from running.
Once I returned to China, I began to focus on biking, exercising my core
muscles, and doing push-ups in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Doing these types of exercises have been
perfect for me since they allow me to stay healthy without taking too much time
to complete.
Keeping a
balance in my routine has been the key to my success during my first two months
in China. The fact that I am busier now than
at any point in my stay in China has had no bearing on my constitution. I attribute this feeling of equilibrium to the
balance that I have found in my daily routine.
I will focus the next blog on some of the more interesting experiences
that I have had during my first two months in China.
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