Hey everyone, i know emo and chinks do not go together, but i've been taking long bus rides lately and been thinking quite a lot. Today, I took the usual bus home, but i noticed many old people and i began to ask myself, gosh come to think of it, we'll all grow old like and be just like that, sitting on the green seats in the bus, digging our noses without shame, wearing asadi slippers. And i began to ponder, what is life all about? I know, for religious people, it's about touching lives and showing love to everyone on earth,. And for some, it's about enjoying company with family and friends, up till the very day we leave this earth.
I know it sounds melodramatic and after all, we're 18 (or 17) years old and how can i be preaching to you all about cherishing your youth? Take a different perspective and you'll see how precious life is now. The average human lifespan is around 75 years old, and 18/75 gives us about-whip out my newly conjugated GC with polysmlt2- about one quarter of our lives. In the blink of an eye, we have already walked a quarter of our lives and have never bat an eyelid.
What i have come to conclude, after this week of emo busrides and seeing lots of old people, is that our first half part of life is like a moulding and learning period. We learn skills, meet people, become wise, become fit, make girlfriends/boyfriends. And for the second half of our lives, we'd put our skills to use: impart to children, use them to serve society, inspire others to follow suit, etc. That's an ideal case, but how many people have actually done that? Al Gore, Einstein, Michael Jordan, just to name a few. Whereas many others spam fun things in their youth, pick up the bare minimal skills, and grow old, not knowing how to contribute to what, and eventually walk their last stretch on this earth, doomed to oblivion and footsteps on the sand washed away by the swash.
All that talk brings me back to canoeing. We joined canoeing with all that enthusiasm and eagerness to try something new, to feel the wind in our hair when we do that 30 stroke burst, to balance in a k1. But now we've already done all those umpteen times and the enthusiasm fades. We've did a lot in canoeing: made friends, learnt how to balance, got strong, became hot(esp llj), but ultimately, do you want that all? We're going to grow old and fat (sorry lj), lose our balance, forget our strokes, so what's the greater purpose in this CCA? Resilience, tenacity, discipline, passion. These are the qualities which i expect to see in myself and in everyone here, at the end of our walk in canoeing. These are the qualities which will see us through, all the way till we die, and which will make the difference in our lives as we go to work, have children, move on to inspire others. Let this upcoming NJCC imbue us with a winner's attitude; we're going in to show them who's going to rape ass.

"A true champion is someone who wants to make a difference, who never gives up, and who gives everything she has no matter what the circumstances are. A true champion works hard and never loses sight of her dreams."
---Dr. Dot Richardson

And one from Spiderman

We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero, people line up for 'em, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to HOLD ON a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble. And finally gets us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams.

-Aunt May

Let us not be that mediocre canoeist, always rowing just enough to keep jiaolian happy, or just to finish the race. We want that medal and we want to shove it down our opponents' throats so badly. So why not start making the effort to do so, one inch at a time.

Updated@10:34 PM