Two things: Mr. Simple and life. Recently, my friend sent me a link to a music video of the song Mr. Simple by Super Junior (I’m shameful because I’m Korean and my non-Korean friend had to tell me about it). For those of you who just hum along and dance to it but don’t actually understand the lyrics, the song basically talks about hardships. We all go through hardships and far too many times do people give up on their dreams and settle for something less. The song tells us that good things take time and people should not abandon their dreams because they’re stressed. Quite deep for a kpop song, hey?And the second thing I noticed is that even though the song contains meaningful advice, it may not be all that truthful.
Does that make me a hypocrite? After all, I did write a blog about the benefits of optimism. But before you make any judgements, let me explain.
When we’re little we always tell ourselves that we can be whatever we want. Prime minister, princess, doctor, neurosurgeon (quite ambitious for a little kid), astronaut, etc. But we grow up and we learn about our talents, our limitations, and of course, our society. I may be coming from a completely biased point of view, but the society is one of dog-eat-dog. We aren’t inherently bad people. But society makes us competitive and selfish. There will always be a number of people who are the best, who are the worst, and many others in between. It’s natural to think about what’s best for ourselves, not others.
Take med school, for one. There are so many students who want to become a doctor but the brutal truth is only about five per cent of those students get accepted. All those students want to get accepted just as badly as the next. Each one of them is going to think “As long as I work really hard, I’ll get in.” But the amount of effort you put into your work does not matter if you don’t have the grades and credentials! I don’t want to discourage any of you med school prospective students; what I’m getting across is that if you want something, you have to want it pretty bad (note that this is merely a secondhand opinion; I’m not a med school student nor am I a prospective one.)
But I mean, it’s good to be optimistic. We tell ourselves to stay positive so that we can carry on with our lives. But being 100% optimistic may not be a good thing either. We need to consider everyone around us, not just our own hopes and dreams. So can you be a doctor? Of course! But you’ll need to commit to it like no one else will. Optimism is especially critical when it comes to failures. It may be hard to continue working towards our goals, but if we give up, that’s the end. So please please remember that nothing worthwhile in life is going to come easily.
Before I go into a complete rant, let me summarize what I hope to get across. Life is tough; the people in it are going to be even more tough. But just keep in mind that in our society, our success is determined relatively. And even if you should make some mistakes now and then, don’t abandon what you’ve wanted for a long time.