Day-off at Antie Lydia's Place

Nothing nicer than going to antie Lydia's house on my day-off. Yesterday was one of the good days there. They prepared BBQ dinner for me and one of her friends and her friend's 2-year baby. Simple but nice and warm. They are so generous and always makes me feel like home every time I go there. I always worry that going ther might bother them and give Lydia too much work though.

Carmen, their daughter is a growing-up girl of 14 now. As a high school teenager, she is now more aware of her academic results than she was 5 years ago, when she was still a primary kid. Competition among schools, comparison among classmates, ranking in the same grade, so on and so forth, all kind of these signals reminding her that this is a world she has to race with others everywhere. Life is not as easy as thoes days. I can feel the pressure she is feeling now actually. Back then, many many years ago, I was one of the teens who experienced the same tough times anyway. Luckily though, she has got considerate parents who support and look after her health and well being. Being a elderly friend, I just want her to know that everyone has their own strengthens and weaknesses. Some are good at music, some are poor language, some might have talent in sports, some might afraid of speech. No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. So what one to make the most out from life? How can I passes all the tests that are lying in front of me? In my belief, should make good use of their strengthness and take the given advantages to benefit the community. In other words, we should try not to compare our weakness with somebody else's strengthness. There is no point doing it. On the other hand, we should try to work on our strenthness to build up our self-confidence. For our weakbnesses, we only have to reach the bench mark to fullfill the system requirement. Last but not least, we should not let worries eat away our present days.

I feel I am an old grandma talking about all these. I just want her to know, as long as she has tried her best, she doesn't have to worry too much about the result. And sometimes, it is the process, but not the result, that teaches and gives us the tastes of fullfillment and satisfacations.

She will sooner know that life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get.