Compassion

Jue-Yeah-So instructed us to show compassion. But deen guy gum laan gah? Ever since my work-terms began during the school year (i.e. last winter and this fall semester), people have been commenting how I live such an "easy" life: I work for 8 hours at a government job that pays me oodles of money to sit around and surf the internet, then come home and sit on the couch and watch TV or do aboslutely nothing while they have to study and stress over papers and exams. Those sorts of comments really irritate me because it is completely untrue. Of course, you are jealous of me because I don't "do anything school-related", but please don't accuse me of not doing anything.

I had a little squabble with one of my roommates this evening about dishes. I'd wouldn't even say it was a squabble but rather a reminder. I like my dishes to be left alone in the dish rack to dry, but living with gwai los, it's rather hard because they seem to think that's rather odd that I don't towel-dry my dishes. I told her that I would like to have my dishes left in the rack to dry. There was ample room for her dishes to put there too because all I had in there was a plate, a bowl, and my Nalgene bottle. Yet she had to take my clean dishes and put them on a dirty counter and the mouth of my Nalgene was against the dirty counter! EWWWW. So I told her that I would greatly appreciate it if she could just leave my dishes in the rack, especially since there was a lot of room left for her dishes. Then she said that she had a lot of dishes and needed room. So I asked her why couldn't she spare 5-10 minutes to do her dishes every night, then she wouldn't have a problem of taking over the dish rack. Her response: "Well, I don't have that time to do that because I don't come home from work and watch tv for 8 hours!". I just ignored that comment.

Seriously, what boggles my mind is that she's a neat freak but never does her dishes so they sit in the kitchen for days and the food scraps just dry up. 5 minutes. That's not a lot. That means 5 minutes less of Facebooking. 5 minutes less of talking to her dad. 5 minutes less of talking to her boyfriend (who already text messages her every BLEEPing minute). 5 minutes less of Sudoku. I mean, if I could spare 5 minutes out of my time during the school year to do my dishes, then I think everyone else can. She complains that we don't have a dishwasher. Why do gwai los complain when there is no dishwasher? They should live in China where we use our hands to do everything. Jue-Yeah-So created hands and fingers for us to use to do good things. So if that is the case, then probably washing your dishes on a daily basis would be a good thing for everyone in this apartment.

Okay, so I guess I strayed off topic a little there, but the point is, it's hard to show compassion for people who don't understand what I have to go through both during the school year and during a work-term. Just because I'm having a little 4-month break here doesn't give you the right to put me down. Everyday, I wake up at 6:30am (even before the sun rises), come home at around 4:15pm, make dinner at around 6pm, watch some tv, wind down with a shower at around 9pm and head to bed at around 10:30pm. So essentially, this leaves me with not a lot of time to do things. Of course, I would love to head out to a mall, a movie, a museum, but considering my brain is dead by the time I come home, I would like to rest. So rest = tv. Perhaps some nights I watch more tv than other nights because there is a hockey game or good shows on, but other nights I'd rather just sit at my desk and catch up on some news via the Internet. Other nights, I have to call people from Elijah to remind them about upcoming events. I also have to think about my work-term report, which I should get started soon because I don't plan on doing it during the Christmas holidays. Add the activities of MSNing and Facebooking, my evenings could get a little tiring. If I had a family, like most of my co-workers do, I'm sure my evenings would even be more hectic.

Anyway, that's during a work-term. During the school year, I have to work hard to keep my marks up. Although some employers do not look at the CGPA to determine if you're good enough, I believe it still plays vital role in determining if you will get an interview or not. So while maybe getting a B (6.0) is good enough to stay in co-op, I like to always aim for an A- (8.0) in all of my courses. My current CGPA is 7.7, which is a little higher than a B+ and slightly below an A-. How do I get those marks? That's because I work my ass off. I manage my time wisely. I pray to God to give me the strength to complete my tasks. He guides my way. Therefore, while the 4-month work term may seem like a walk in the park, the other 4 months are spent with my head in books and papers. There are only 30 other Political Science co-op students that are in my current year. And with only about 15 poli-sci specific jobs, it's best to get the higher marks and I know that because half of the people are on the Dean's List.

So to whoever reads this: PLEASE DO NOT COME UP TO ME AND COMPLAIN HOW I LIVE SUCH AN EASY LIFE. Seems easy to you but if you can manage your time wisely, you can spare 5 minutes to do your dishes.

Thanks for reading :)