Stress in the City
Here's a quote to start off this entry:
I’m an old man, and I’ve had many troubles, most of which have never happened.
- Mark Twain
To me, the clarity of this quote's meaning is unquestionable. Very often, we find ourselves in the midst of confusion and chaos. Yet, when asked, we all too often give the reply of, "Just stressed I guess". And if someone were to try to probe further by asking 'Why so?', again we are quick to reply, "Don't know. Just stressed. Hard to explain." I, myself have been asked this same question numerous times. And the truth is I really don't know what I am stressed or pressured about. All I seem to know is that I am unhappy; that I want to break-free from all that is going on around me. It would be much easier if I knew what exactly is the problem; and then again, maybe not.
It's hard to say whether we truly do not know what the reasons are. I cannot not deny that our subconscious mind might actually be doing a good job at censuring whatever that may be upsetting us. Reflecting on it,we cannot help but see the absurdity of such a situation. Why trouble trouble when trouble does not trouble you? As the quote implies, it would seem that all this trouble raging within us would seemingly be coming from nothing at all!
Now, let's talk about stress in our education sector. My parents often lecture me on how I need to learn to manage my time. How I need to sleep early and not stay up so late. Each time they give me this same old lecture, I always say this,
"If I am the only person losing sleep and lacking time because of school, then yes, I need to learn to manage my time better. But if almost all the students in Singapore are facing the same problem, then it must have something to do with our education institutes. Right?.."
I would be lying through my teeth if I told you that ALL students have "time management problems" like I do. It is true that there are a number of students who seem to have all the time in the world to complete all their studying, projects etc; not only within the time limit, but also with seemingly total ease. Now these students can be separated into 2 distinct groups.
Group 1: consists of students who are extremely extremely smart. Somehow, all those theories, studying, are as simple as pie, to them.
Group 2: consists of students who are extremely hardworking. They do nothing but study. Other than time set aside for meals and for sleep, they do nothing but study.
Me?! I belong to neither group. I may have some smarts (well I've got to have something, to have come so far), but nowhere near what these people have. As to being extremely hardworking, I am not. Cripes! These people are not Human!! I could never do that; I could never lock myself in a room and study the day away 7 days a week. I get distracted much too easily; I get restless!
My parents never cease to remind me that whatever pressure I have, is brought upon myself on my own accord. Maybe so. But that is only because the school pushes us in so many aspects. So much so that the need to stress ourselves for productivity is already beaten into us. No matter how stress-free the environment may appear to be, it is definitely not so. People often think that University students seem so free. They do not have to study 5 days a week, since the time table is planned by themselves. This, to them, would mean that we have all the spare time to rest and study too. But they tend to overlook the fact that it is no more just doing the coursework set for each module; we have tons of projects too! Of course we try to do these projects as early as possible. But there are so many other determinants that we have to consider. Let me just name a few obvious ones.
Firstly, having the project requirement given to us early does not mean that we can start the project early. Many of these projects require us to have knowledge of what the module encompasses, before we can go about taking care of it. There's only so much we can learn from reading the text; it would not be adequate, and we most probably would not be able to comprehend what the text is saying.
Next, doing group projects means that one works in a GROUP. But since each individual student could plan their own timetable, it is difficult to find groupmates with the same schedule as you. Inferring from this, it also means that one would have difficulty planning out the time to meet up. We must not forget that each module requires us to do at least one group project. Not forgetting that there would be at least one member of the group who's very busy with their social life; so much so that they put it at top priority, over completing the projects. And of course there are your typical free-riders.
So many problems, so little time, so much to do. My java tutor told our class that we have to put java as our top priority, over all other modules. That we have to spend most of our time on jave. Oh for Chrissake! For one, I do not like the tutor much (in fact none of the students in my class seem to like her, even remotely). Also, I have so many other modules. Some of which have very high grade weightage for projects and coursework, as opposed to the weightage for the examination. Such like my business communication class, where the coursework is 100% weightage, with no examination. We barely have time to absorb whatever it is we learn in the lesson proper. In addition to that, we have so many projetcs. You do the math. How much time can we allocate to ourselves. There is virtually no way that I could miraculously make myself so free when there's so much to do.
Parents, the next time you lecture your kids about having bad time management, maybe you would like to confirm if the reasons for this tight schedule that they possess. Times are no longer the same as yester-year, during your era. Times have changed, and so has the amount of workload dumped on the students. The workload is much too immense. With such a condition, how is it even possible that us students abstain from any form of stress. Now, that would be ridiculous.
Reader, if at any one time in your life, you find yourself wondering WHY you are stressed, and yet drawing a blank, let me tell you that you are not alone. Stress is something that we cannot do without. Without stress and tension, we would not strive for excellence, and we would not progress. The way I see it, stress/pressure is a double-edged sword. It can work against you or it can work for you. It is not so much about whether we are stressed or not, but how we embrace this pressure, and make it work for us. Stress is too much a part of our lives. There is always a certain element of stress in whatever we do. What really differs is the extent of this stress.
I’m an old man, and I’ve had many troubles, most of which have never happened.
- Mark Twain
To me, the clarity of this quote's meaning is unquestionable. Very often, we find ourselves in the midst of confusion and chaos. Yet, when asked, we all too often give the reply of, "Just stressed I guess". And if someone were to try to probe further by asking 'Why so?', again we are quick to reply, "Don't know. Just stressed. Hard to explain." I, myself have been asked this same question numerous times. And the truth is I really don't know what I am stressed or pressured about. All I seem to know is that I am unhappy; that I want to break-free from all that is going on around me. It would be much easier if I knew what exactly is the problem; and then again, maybe not.
It's hard to say whether we truly do not know what the reasons are. I cannot not deny that our subconscious mind might actually be doing a good job at censuring whatever that may be upsetting us. Reflecting on it,we cannot help but see the absurdity of such a situation. Why trouble trouble when trouble does not trouble you? As the quote implies, it would seem that all this trouble raging within us would seemingly be coming from nothing at all!
Now, let's talk about stress in our education sector. My parents often lecture me on how I need to learn to manage my time. How I need to sleep early and not stay up so late. Each time they give me this same old lecture, I always say this,
"If I am the only person losing sleep and lacking time because of school, then yes, I need to learn to manage my time better. But if almost all the students in Singapore are facing the same problem, then it must have something to do with our education institutes. Right?.."
I would be lying through my teeth if I told you that ALL students have "time management problems" like I do. It is true that there are a number of students who seem to have all the time in the world to complete all their studying, projects etc; not only within the time limit, but also with seemingly total ease. Now these students can be separated into 2 distinct groups.
Group 1: consists of students who are extremely extremely smart. Somehow, all those theories, studying, are as simple as pie, to them.
Group 2: consists of students who are extremely hardworking. They do nothing but study. Other than time set aside for meals and for sleep, they do nothing but study.
Me?! I belong to neither group. I may have some smarts (well I've got to have something, to have come so far), but nowhere near what these people have. As to being extremely hardworking, I am not. Cripes! These people are not Human!! I could never do that; I could never lock myself in a room and study the day away 7 days a week. I get distracted much too easily; I get restless!
My parents never cease to remind me that whatever pressure I have, is brought upon myself on my own accord. Maybe so. But that is only because the school pushes us in so many aspects. So much so that the need to stress ourselves for productivity is already beaten into us. No matter how stress-free the environment may appear to be, it is definitely not so. People often think that University students seem so free. They do not have to study 5 days a week, since the time table is planned by themselves. This, to them, would mean that we have all the spare time to rest and study too. But they tend to overlook the fact that it is no more just doing the coursework set for each module; we have tons of projects too! Of course we try to do these projects as early as possible. But there are so many other determinants that we have to consider. Let me just name a few obvious ones.
Firstly, having the project requirement given to us early does not mean that we can start the project early. Many of these projects require us to have knowledge of what the module encompasses, before we can go about taking care of it. There's only so much we can learn from reading the text; it would not be adequate, and we most probably would not be able to comprehend what the text is saying.
Next, doing group projects means that one works in a GROUP. But since each individual student could plan their own timetable, it is difficult to find groupmates with the same schedule as you. Inferring from this, it also means that one would have difficulty planning out the time to meet up. We must not forget that each module requires us to do at least one group project. Not forgetting that there would be at least one member of the group who's very busy with their social life; so much so that they put it at top priority, over completing the projects. And of course there are your typical free-riders.
So many problems, so little time, so much to do. My java tutor told our class that we have to put java as our top priority, over all other modules. That we have to spend most of our time on jave. Oh for Chrissake! For one, I do not like the tutor much (in fact none of the students in my class seem to like her, even remotely). Also, I have so many other modules. Some of which have very high grade weightage for projects and coursework, as opposed to the weightage for the examination. Such like my business communication class, where the coursework is 100% weightage, with no examination. We barely have time to absorb whatever it is we learn in the lesson proper. In addition to that, we have so many projetcs. You do the math. How much time can we allocate to ourselves. There is virtually no way that I could miraculously make myself so free when there's so much to do.
Parents, the next time you lecture your kids about having bad time management, maybe you would like to confirm if the reasons for this tight schedule that they possess. Times are no longer the same as yester-year, during your era. Times have changed, and so has the amount of workload dumped on the students. The workload is much too immense. With such a condition, how is it even possible that us students abstain from any form of stress. Now, that would be ridiculous.
Reader, if at any one time in your life, you find yourself wondering WHY you are stressed, and yet drawing a blank, let me tell you that you are not alone. Stress is something that we cannot do without. Without stress and tension, we would not strive for excellence, and we would not progress. The way I see it, stress/pressure is a double-edged sword. It can work against you or it can work for you. It is not so much about whether we are stressed or not, but how we embrace this pressure, and make it work for us. Stress is too much a part of our lives. There is always a certain element of stress in whatever we do. What really differs is the extent of this stress.
posted by Raelin at Saturday, February 26, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home