Sixiang Chen
International Editor
If you are used to observing, you will find that the outside of dormitory buildings are full of crushed cigarette butts, and the CVS near the school seems to be running out of beer.
On the day this publication goes to press, there is only 45 more days until the new year. It’s time to take stock of what you have accomplished, or not. But that can be a challenge.
Imagine a day in 30 years when you have just finished work and drive your car home. Then, you meet an evening peak traffic for an hour. Suddenly, you stop worrying about life, listen to the music that you want, light a cigarette, and drift into a daze.
This is the most comfortable time for many middle-aged people at the end of the day. In China, it is called “Parking lot moment.”
The parking lot is surrounded by with performance appraisals at one end and daily demands at the other. Occasionally, hiding in the middle of the parking lot can offer someone a breathing space, so that they can continue to muster the courage to hold on for the next demand.
Middle age people often feel lonely, because they are surrounded by people who rely on them and no one they can rely on.
But stress and demands have increased so much that even teenagers now have countless worries and annoyances too.
After school, I would always listen to music on the way to my dorm room. Sometimes, I would rather stay in the gym than go home to face all kinds of project and study pressure. I felt the only time when my mind was blank on the treadmill and I didn’t need to talk with others.
On the weekend, I was habitually lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. Or I would play video games for a while. It didn’t matter whether I was winning or losing, I just wanted to get out of the reality of immersion. The rest, tomorrow.
I didn’t know when I became unwilling to communicate with others. My life was always solitary, and when the study pressure was over-heavy, I would be away from the keyboard for a while, silently smoking a cigarette outside of Cashman Hall.
I thought I had depression, until I saw a new term on the Internet: Prematurely Senile, which means due to the work/study pressure or the compact life, the mental age of people is growing faster than their actual age. Unconsciously, when they are young, they begin to face the signs of old age.
In macroscopic lives, we naively think that if we study harder, we do not need to take much time to find a job after graduation; we think if we’d be working our way through, and the bank card would soon be full of down payments; we think if we have good looks and moral quality, we can date the one we love. Unfortunately, it’s not easy.
No matter how reluctant we are, 2018 is really less than 45 days from now on.
How many people suddenly freak out, “none of the goals set at the beginning of the year have been achieved!” And how many are nervous that “It’s only 45 days left, and I haven’t improved much.” Finally, how many will have to admit, “Oh well, I screwed up again this year.”
Many of us are a bit far from the goal we set at the beginning of the year. We felt regretful and anxious for doing nothing in 2018. Look at it from a different angle and tone: there are still nearly 50 days left in 2018!
We have time to accomplish the unfinished goal and to improve ourselves.
Rather than jealousy, take inspiration from those who succeed. In short, what I want to tell everyone is that it is never too late to start.