Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Life is...

"The most important things in life aren't things." - Anthony J. D'Angelo

When you were younger, did you ever think that growing up would be filled with happiness and joy? That there was no pain or suffering that could possibly ruin your path to adulthood? Well, you were dead wrong.

It's hard to find a teen out there that can be so happy and so carefree about their life at this moment in time. If you're one of those lucky teens, then keep going at the happy. If not, try to enjoy the happy.

Unfortunately, we all must face the suffering, the pain, the hard times. Friends come and go; boyfriends/girlfriends can't always be there for you; families have their own troubles. Everyone has a different life and they can't always be there for you. Arguments may happen. The sudden drifting and abandonment creeps up at you. Are you lonely? It's okay because you're really aren't alone. Everyone feels this way sometime in life. It's natural.

So appreciate the pain because it's the only way for you to know what true happiness means. To know that after the pain, there's a moment when you could laugh your butt off and smile non-stop - that's happiness. To sit and eat chocolate and ice cream all day with someone you care about and end up watching your favorite show/drama/cartoon/anime/movie/series... wouldn't that be fun?

Happiness comes in many different forms. It could be hanging out with friends, eating a quiet dinner, maplestorying, spending the day with family, being with your lover, etc.

But really, what's happiness? what's pain? what's loneliness? what's life?

Life is questions. Life is unanswered. Life is inevitable.
Life is pain and suffering so you can feel the joy and laughter.

Life is... whatever you want it to be..

Monday, October 06, 2008

Asian Parents

For the first time in my life I got lower than an 85 on a math test. In fact, I got a 65. The first thought that came to my mind was to hide it from my parents and just try to make up for it with better grades in the future. But what does it mean to a parent when you don't know what your child is struggling in?
This is how my parents raised me. They taught me that life was a dog-bite-dog society where only the strongest and toughest make it to the top. So I grew up as a cynic - one that prided academics over much else. In high school, I started losing it. It became hard to survive just with a competitive frame of mind. Grades are everything to my parents; grades are their top priority next to money. So I grew up hiding bad tests in my bed sheets, pillow covers, in between textbooks, heck even inside tissue boxes.

I can also truthfully say that I have never had a real conversation with my father. Whenever I tried to talk to my father about something not science-related or academic, he would tell me to "stop wasting time" or "do my homework." OF course, I rarely get the chance to talk to my father anyway, since he has around a 13 hour workday. My mother told me everything I know about my father. I learned that he swam across a river in hopes of finding a good job, was used by a young woman to pay for her college and then dumped when he came to America. If it weren't for my mother's stories, I would know nothing about the man who so fondly reads newspapers at the dinner table.

So what has the idea of parenting among Asian American parents come to? To get your son or daughter into an Ivy League? Is this what the Asian-American dream is?