How often do we take the things and the people around us for granted? Our natural resources, our parents, our loves ones, our circumstances. Is it just human nature that we do not know a good thing until we lost it? Or that we never treasure what we have until it is gone?
For instance, someone manages to get a very good and understanding boyfriend / girlfriend who may be so into her / him. Yet these good people always finished last as they got dumped for someone more “exciting”. It is like the more obliging a person is, the more exploited he / she will be.
People also take their parents for granted and expect their parents to always be there for them. Nobody can always be there for anyone, not even parents. Some people think that because they are parents, so should support them financially, even well into their adulthood.
If it is just normal allowance here and there because the parents love the kids so much, it is still fine and I will love nice parents like these. But to just not work and live off the parents is another matter altogether.
Some also take their friends for granted, like expecting their friends to do this and that for them. No doubt as friends we all try to go all out and help each other, but it is irritating that some are just freeloaders, and always taking and taking yet not giving anything back. When situations like these crop up, I feel like telling that person nobody is obligated to help him / her.
People help each other out of their own free and good will. We can have a choice. Most people are nice, but when it comes to fair-weather friends, sometimes we have to let them know where we stand, otherwise they will forever take us for granted. Call me mean or whatever, but if one expects me to help only for his / her own benefits, yet stab me in the back, then I do not see why I need to put up with people like that.
Some people also take their qualifications for granted. For instance, those who entered university through the “normal“ route will tend to look down at those who entered university after a polytechnic education. Actually, not everyone who chose to do a diploma instead is academically-impaired. Some could be from the best schools with the best results, but just chose the diploma route instead of the ‘A’ level route.
A smarter choice actually, since three years in a polytechnic earns a diploma, then another two to three years for a degree after that. So the years they take are less than those who went through the normal ‘A’ levels then university.
But because the general opinion is that diploma-holders are those who could not enter a junior college in the first place, thus they would be forever labelled as “not as smart” or “academically-inclined” as the ‘A’ level holders.
But because diploma-holders know just how tough the world outside is if they have no degree, especially for those who have gone out to work before going back to school, they are normally the ones who really work hard and do their best to earn a good degree, whereas those ‘A’ level holders tend to take it for granted that they are already “smarter” in a way.
As a result, a lot of the first-class honours in some university courses used to be diploma-holders, whereas some ‘A’ level holders could not even make it to honours. I was guilty of that too. I thought I was studying subjects I like and rather proficient in, so although I did my tutorials and assignments, there was never an inclination to go out of the way to achieve better results. Which explains why I never made it.
It took me a few years and a tough working experience to realize just how valuable one is if one has a good degree, and how dispensable one is if one does not. Thus I have to make up for lost time now and achieve what I could have achieved in the past if I had not taken things for granted.
There are also some who took their religions for granted. My friends told me that those who converted are actually more pious than those who were born into the religion. I guess it may be because those who were born into the religion had it too easy, whereas those who converted knew it was what they wanted, all the more so if they went through disapprovals and difficulties before finally converting to the religion.
These will be the people who knows just how much they have gone through to believe in a certain faith, thus will really take their beliefs seriously. If I had been born into the religion, perhaps I would have backslided, given up or not deem it as important. But because I went through a few trials before finally able to have my upcoming baptism, I know this is what I want to belief in.
But the worst thing people take for granted is the environment and world they live in. People rig oil, waste petroleum, waste electricity and water, burn forests (granted some forests caught fire on their own due to the hot and dry weather), develop modern technology to make everyone’s lives comfortable but in the end became a threat to the environment.
Although more and more people have realised that the Earth is slowly dying, there are still many others who take things for granted. They let water run in the bath, do not bother turning off the electricity, drive everywhere even if it is a five-minute walk away.
Of course I am not saying we should stay off all these because people have to survive using these, but just not waste the precious resources, as the Earth can only be saved if everyone makes an effort to do something, instead of taking its natural resources for granted. One of these days all these will be gone, then how are we going to survive when that happens?
For instance, someone manages to get a very good and understanding boyfriend / girlfriend who may be so into her / him. Yet these good people always finished last as they got dumped for someone more “exciting”. It is like the more obliging a person is, the more exploited he / she will be.
People also take their parents for granted and expect their parents to always be there for them. Nobody can always be there for anyone, not even parents. Some people think that because they are parents, so should support them financially, even well into their adulthood.
If it is just normal allowance here and there because the parents love the kids so much, it is still fine and I will love nice parents like these. But to just not work and live off the parents is another matter altogether.
Some also take their friends for granted, like expecting their friends to do this and that for them. No doubt as friends we all try to go all out and help each other, but it is irritating that some are just freeloaders, and always taking and taking yet not giving anything back. When situations like these crop up, I feel like telling that person nobody is obligated to help him / her.
People help each other out of their own free and good will. We can have a choice. Most people are nice, but when it comes to fair-weather friends, sometimes we have to let them know where we stand, otherwise they will forever take us for granted. Call me mean or whatever, but if one expects me to help only for his / her own benefits, yet stab me in the back, then I do not see why I need to put up with people like that.
Some people also take their qualifications for granted. For instance, those who entered university through the “normal“ route will tend to look down at those who entered university after a polytechnic education. Actually, not everyone who chose to do a diploma instead is academically-impaired. Some could be from the best schools with the best results, but just chose the diploma route instead of the ‘A’ level route.
A smarter choice actually, since three years in a polytechnic earns a diploma, then another two to three years for a degree after that. So the years they take are less than those who went through the normal ‘A’ levels then university.
But because the general opinion is that diploma-holders are those who could not enter a junior college in the first place, thus they would be forever labelled as “not as smart” or “academically-inclined” as the ‘A’ level holders.
But because diploma-holders know just how tough the world outside is if they have no degree, especially for those who have gone out to work before going back to school, they are normally the ones who really work hard and do their best to earn a good degree, whereas those ‘A’ level holders tend to take it for granted that they are already “smarter” in a way.
As a result, a lot of the first-class honours in some university courses used to be diploma-holders, whereas some ‘A’ level holders could not even make it to honours. I was guilty of that too. I thought I was studying subjects I like and rather proficient in, so although I did my tutorials and assignments, there was never an inclination to go out of the way to achieve better results. Which explains why I never made it.
It took me a few years and a tough working experience to realize just how valuable one is if one has a good degree, and how dispensable one is if one does not. Thus I have to make up for lost time now and achieve what I could have achieved in the past if I had not taken things for granted.
There are also some who took their religions for granted. My friends told me that those who converted are actually more pious than those who were born into the religion. I guess it may be because those who were born into the religion had it too easy, whereas those who converted knew it was what they wanted, all the more so if they went through disapprovals and difficulties before finally converting to the religion.
These will be the people who knows just how much they have gone through to believe in a certain faith, thus will really take their beliefs seriously. If I had been born into the religion, perhaps I would have backslided, given up or not deem it as important. But because I went through a few trials before finally able to have my upcoming baptism, I know this is what I want to belief in.
But the worst thing people take for granted is the environment and world they live in. People rig oil, waste petroleum, waste electricity and water, burn forests (granted some forests caught fire on their own due to the hot and dry weather), develop modern technology to make everyone’s lives comfortable but in the end became a threat to the environment.
Although more and more people have realised that the Earth is slowly dying, there are still many others who take things for granted. They let water run in the bath, do not bother turning off the electricity, drive everywhere even if it is a five-minute walk away.
Of course I am not saying we should stay off all these because people have to survive using these, but just not waste the precious resources, as the Earth can only be saved if everyone makes an effort to do something, instead of taking its natural resources for granted. One of these days all these will be gone, then how are we going to survive when that happens?
2 comments:
If "all those" are no longer around, will it still be worth surviving?
not worth surviving of course, since nowadays people can't do without those. I guess just use in moderation.
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