Journal Entry #11

What do you think about the people who camp out for new technology (e.g. iPhone 5s)?

I personally think that it is pointless to camp out for new technology. We always learn about being happy with what we have, and hey, I used an old Nokia for many years before finally getting a old smartphone in Grade 9 (my brother’s old HTC Desire). Besides wanting to be an engineer, technology, and especially Apple technology, does not spark me to camp 15 days to be the first to sweep up tons of new phones to use them and raise their prices in the market (in Chinese we call it “frying prices” (straight translation)).

Driving away from the smartphones for a bit, I feel like trends are a destructive force. Trends seem like those generic “appealing traps created by Satan”. And it is true. Those who follow trends waste tons of money buying things that they won’t even use for more than a few months. I know of someone (no names) who always followed trends and at one time bought the iPhone 4, then the 4s, then the Samsung Galaxy SIII, then the iPhone 5, and now he wants to get the 5s. I don’t want to be offensive, but there are many like him that wasted lots of money on trends and still think they gained.

My second argument against smartphones is striking against the “frying prices”. I see it absolutely horrid that people buy 20 new iPhones and don’t use them, but sell them at a much greater price, hence the frying prices. One of the greatest problems in Hong Kong is the housing issue, which is intertwined with the gap between the rich and the poor. Because the rich people could afford to buy many houses (such as Li Ka Shing), they buy many apartments and raise its price high so they could profit much from just a few houses. When they get more money, they buy more and sell more, and fry more housing prices, and in the end they become very rich. However, these people are viewed as the evils of society. They pay the government so that the government will have more money for its purposes, which mean that the government can’t and won’t do anything about this issue.

The housing issue is much like the smartphone issue (trends and prices), where many people sit and wait for the new phones to come out either to brag about it (not a lot of people do this as a primary purpose) or fry its price to the extreme (many people do this). I think that it is not worth it to wait for new phones, because it only wastes our time, marks us as inconsiderate people, and wastes lots of our money if we fail to “fry” the price well.

If we don’t tackle this issue soon, the world will fall into a chaotic realm of trends and prices, which is just what Satan (the devil) wants for us: The devil wants us to indulge in these trends (fashion, technology, etc.) which makes us more distant from God our Father, and many of us are falling into Satan’s traps today.

Journal Entry #5

“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”

– Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

Note: If you don’t want to read a lengthy and boring story, skip most of the first paragraph. Also, this entry is kind of long, but please read it and bear with me.

This quote greatly relates to me and sparks thoughts as well as emotions inside of me. I totally agree with Miller’s quote. As a so-called “Asian” student, I suffer great pressure from my parents to get straight A’s and to excel at music, both of which I have accomplished with almost no praise or encouragement (only a few rewards occasionally, not that I’m not grateful) in return. Even though I am thankful for my parent’s push, I do feel greatly pressured. Once upon a time… well, one day, I received a B on a test. I was immediately afraid and almost wanted to cry because I didn’t know how to face my parents when I got home. I received a lengthy lecture from my father and a harsh scolding from my mother, both of which I felt were deserved. However, did I really deserve the scoldings? Should I live up to my parents’ expectations all the time? My father, a strong Christian who is more lenient on me, believes that if he didn’t achieve straight A’s in his younger years, there’s no reason for me to do so too. However, I still received a lecture just so that I would remember not to leave the test early next time and million-check my answers (even if I didn’t know how to do the question).

This pressure all adds up, and many “Asians” end up committing suicide or harming themselves/their parents to escape this prison of expectation. If the whole world were all straight-A students, it would be pretty boring. Everyone would be equally smart/dumb and there would be no innovation or meaning to life.

Are we all A-students? Do we all have the potential to achieve straight A’s? I believe not. Instead of molding others into what you want them to be, I think that we should stop expecting another person to be a robot and see them for who they truly are. For example, if LeBron James were molded into a piano prodigy, we won’t see him as the NBA star he is today. But, he might have been a basketball star in his piano years (Note: this is an example story, not real-life facts), and we would have never seen that because we expected him to be a piano performer.

This also applies to situations other than grades and academics. In the context of schools, students become friends with the person that is more trendy and “cool”. However, I believe that the not-so-cool outcasts also may be very nice and friendly; it’s just that no one accepts them or even takes the time to glance over them because they are so obsessed with this mold of trends. If we don’t fill into the social trends and molds, we may become outcasts. But I don’t think that the social trends and molds defines who we really are; our actions and interests are the factors that show who we really are to the world.

Okay, we can be who we want to be. But can we accept other people with different traits and talents? We actually can! Even if two people have opposite opinions and interests, they should share those interests with each other, collaborating so that they both will come to a common interest (or not) and begin to have fun together (or debate nicely, if they have opposite opinions).

As a student, I do not have enough social status to advise those above me, but being myself and a human being like everyone else, I advise all people of all ages: Do not be what the world wants you to be. Be who you really are, and find that interest that sparks your joy, and share it with other people, no matter who they are or where they’re from. If we all follow this moral and belief, the world will become a friendly and cozy place without harsh conflict and the isolation that causes grief and loneliness; we will never be alone.