Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise

The extensive measures humans have done, are doing and will do to cave into social convention or in other words, the norm, simply baffles me.


In sociology a social rule refers to any social convention commonly adhered to in a society. These rules are not written in law or otherwise formalized. It is argued that these rules are socially constructed, that these rules act upon every member of a society, but at the same time, are re-produced by the individuals.

In order to gain societal acceptance, mankind are succumbed to uncalled-for social issues, such as peer pressure, racism, discrimination, physical abuse, emotional negligence,moral declination, prostitution, poverty and many more. 

Even right now as we are living in the twenty-first century, we are nowhere close to addressing all these issue yet somehow, one way or another, we manage magnify them. 

Oh well, this adds on to another incredulous never-ending cycle. 

Like what I said, it baffles me, and I am certainly still struggling with this. How I wish, how I wish sometimes that I am Sheldon Cooper. I will have more reasons to be inconceivable at implausible times.

 

 "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise"

Stay away from fools, for you won't find knowledge on their lips.

Proverbs 14:7

Shadow proves the sunshine

I noticed how my blogging pattern has a monthly cycle. I could lament on my busy schedule of being a Medical student, my endless preparation for the upcoming 34th Asian Medical Students' Conference in July which include tonnes of meetings and appointments and how I just do not feel the need to blog about anything at all and that I have no idea on topics to blog about. 

I have nothing to complain about, because this is what I want and I chose to be. I will save the reasons for me to be a health care professional for another post.

As unhappening things might seem to be for me, I have a good feeling that my end of semester break this coming July and August will be indeed a fruitful one.

First of all, in early July, I will be involved as the organizing committee of The 34th Asian Medical Students' Conference Malaysia. It is a week long conference involving 450 international delegates from 25 countries in the world. I am excited about it. Together with the rest of the team, we have spent nearly 18 months (by July) of sweat and tears to make this happen. All our hard work in preparing and organizing this conference will bear fruit in the end through a wholesome experience and knowledge gained by the delegates regarding community medicine; and through every single friendship made among people from every continent when they are all gathered here for this conference.

Then I am hoping that in early August, I can be part of the Malaysian Medical Fellowship mission team to visit either of these three countries, Sri Lanka, China and Thailand. I have just submitted my application as seen above so now all I need to do is to wait for the committee to screen through my application. 

I came to know about this organization and its program through a friend. I should say that I was quite moved after scrutinizing through its webpage three days ago. I wanted to submit my application to be a volunteer instantaneously but I held back. The fear and worries of visiting a third world country suddenly came flooding me. I have been overseas, but to developed countries such as the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Bangkok(the developed city of Thailand), Manilla. I know that I am a lucky girl because I had all the great stay, food and sightings in these comfort zone.  Rural villages at any of the countries of my choice are associated with words such as "poor", "grief-stricken", "under-developed" etc.

I prayed about this for the past few days, asking God to give me the courage to overcome my fear. I know that this mission trip will be a meaningful and blessed one, not only to me, but mainly to the less unfortunate people I will come across with during the mission trip. Plus, I really feel the need to step out of my comfort zone and if I am really doing it, by benefiting and helping others, why would not I do it?

I did just complete and submit my application about an hour ago. I am really looking forward to this.

I am glad that I have God to guide me through this right now and much later.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

Philippians 4 : 13

THE GIANT CATASTROPHE

that did not happen literally on the 21st of December 2012 but rather here on rachelramblebabble that lead to a moment of silence and stillness here.

Well what should I say, year 2012 ended while year 2013 started arduously with endless of papers and evaluation to assess all the necessary clinical skills or medical knowledge I should have as I am already halfway through my second year. That by all means should suffice to justify my month-long of blogger silence even though my semester break began bout five days ago. 

 As I am typing this, millions of thoughts started to rummage through my mind while I am trying hard enough to figure out what should this post be rather than allowing my first post in 2013 to really be a piece of rambleblabble.

Hmmmm so far year 2013 has been pretty decent to me, there is not much of daily shocking hoohaa drama neither many days did passed by without being tad bit happening. Perhaps, a better word to describe my daily living will be "mundane". Please do not get me wrong, I am not complaining that life is boring or uneventful for me right now on the contrary, uneventful is good, it is really good indeed in the medical world. I am glad and comfortable when things fall into routine, it is good, to me; routine enables one to be organized and well-planned; routine will lead to this re-assuring, calming feeling which once again is something good for someone hot tempered like me.

I wonder what new year resolutions you all have in mind? I do not have a lot of big plans for year 2013, knowing that it will really be a taxing year ahead. All I want and ask for would be for God's wisdom and peace to be upon me as I journey through each day. With God's wisdom bestow upon me, I know that all decisions I make, no matter how gargantuan or minuscule they seem, will be align with the plans He has for me; with God's peace granted on me, I know that no matter how demanding, disappointing, rewarding, exciting my days would be, I have Him to count on, I have Him to be my faithful listener.

 I guess from this post you can clearly tell that I began my year with lots of thanksgiving though Thanksgiving Day is really still 876318467816871 days ahead in 2013, but I strongly believe that is how it should be, one should count his blessings everyday and of course all the credits will go to our Father in heaven.

In the beginning of year 2013 as I was tumblr-surfing, this post flooded my dashboard:

“Start on January 1st with an empty jar. Throughout the year write the good things that happened to you on little pieces of paper. On December 31st, open the jar and read all the amazing things that happened to you that year.”

I have yet started on this but oh well, there are about 10 more days to go for the month of January, and you have February, March, April MY BIRTHDAY MONTH AND I TURN 21 ZOMG yada dida until the month of December then POOF IT WILL BE YEAR 2014 ALREADY ZOMG so I guess I am not late at all to start this, would you be joining me in this?

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

21.12.12

is the day the ancient Mayans once predicted that earth will come to an end.

This is not the first time mankind got alarmed over such issue.

As a 90s baby, I had the chance to live through Y2K, which was also deemed as the apocalyptic year, and now this.

It is interesting how mankind always live in fear, wondering when will the world come to the end. As we strive through this rat race of life each day, to own bounties materially and emotionally, in the end, we will still leave the world empty handed when we return to the Lord, that is where we will have our eternal life not to mention all the blessings and happiness that come along at the same time. As for now, we still need to live each day to the fullest, as we do not know and will not know when will the world come to an end.

In the bible it was written, 

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father"

Mark 13:32

I should say that besides wandering what will ACTUALLY happen today, it had been a really good day for me. I had some decent alone time, which is a good breather for this whole hectic week, all in all, my weekend started well and who knows maybe it will get even better.

19.20s

2012 is coming to an end, most of us will be analyzing the resolutions we made for year 2012, and coming up with new ones for 2013.

Came across this in tumblr and found it rather applicable to me, personally, in many ways.

Hope that this would impact you in some way or another.

19 Things To Stop Doing In Your 20s

1. Stop placing all the blame on other people for how they interact with you. 

To an extent, people treat you the way you want to be treated. A lot of social behavior is cause and effect. Take responsibility for (accept) the fact that you are the only constant variable in your equation.

2. Stop being lazy by being constantly “busy.” 

It’s easy to be busy. It justifies never having enough time to clean, cook for yourself, go out with friends, meet new people. Realize that every time you give in to your ‘busyness,’ it’s you who’s making the decision, not the demands of your job.

3. Stop seeking out distractions. 

You will always be able to find them.

4. Stop trying to get away with work that’s “good enough.” 

People notice when “good enough” is how you approach your job. Usually these people will be the same who have the power to promote you, offer you a health insurance plan, and give you more money. They will take your approach into consideration when thinking about you for a raise.

5. Stop allowing yourself to be so comfortable all the time. 

Coming up with a list of reasons to procrastinate risky, innovative decisions offers more short-term gratification than not procrastinating. But when you stop procrastinating to make a drastic change, your list of reasons to procrastinate becomes a list of ideas about how to better navigate the risk you’re taking.

6. Stop identifying yourself as a cliche and start treating yourself as an individual. 

Constantly checking your life against a prewritten narrative or story of how things “should” be is a bought-into way of life. It’s sort of like renting your identity. It isn’t you. You are more nuanced than the narrative you try to fit yourself into, more complex than the story that “should” be happening.

7. Stop expecting people to be better than they were in high school — learn how to deal with it instead. 

Just because you’re out of high school doesn’t mean you’re out of high school. There will always be people in your life who want what you have, are threatened by who you are, and will ridicule you for doing something that threatens how they see their position in the world.

8. Stop being stingy. 

If you really care about something, spend your money on it. There is often a notion that you are saving for something. Either clarify what that thing is or start spending your money on things that are important to you. Spend money on road trips. Spend money on healthy food. Spend money on opportunities. Spend money on things you’ll keep.

9. Stop treating errands as burdens. 

Instead, use them as time to focus on doing one thing, and doing it right. Errands and chores are essentially rote tasks that allow you time to think. They function to get you away from your phone, the internet, and other distractions. Focus and attention span are difficult things to maintain when you’re focused and attentive on X amount of things at any given moment.

10. Stop blaming yourself for being human. 

You’re fine. Having a little anxiety is fine. Being scared is fine. Your secrets are fine. You’re well-meaning. You’re intelligent. You’re blowing it out of proportion. You’re fine.

11. Stop ignoring the fact that other people have unique perspectives and positions. 

Start approaching people more thoughtfully. People will appreciate you for deliberately trying to conceive their own perspective and position in the world. It not only creates a basis for empathy and respect, it also primes people to be more open and generous with you.

12. Stop seeking approval so hard. 

Approach people with the belief that you’re a good person. It’s normal to want the people around you to like you. But it becomes a self-imposed burden when almost all your behavior toward certain people is designed to constantly reassure you of their approval.

13. Stop considering the same things you’ve always done as the only options there are. 

It’s unlikely that one of the things you’ll regret when you’re older is not having consumed enough beer in your 20s, or not having bought enough $5 lattes, or not having gone out to brunch enough times, or not having spent enough time on the internet. Fear of missing out is a real, toxic thing. You’ve figured out drinking and going out. You’ve experimented enough. You’ve gotten your fill of internet memes. Figure something else out.

14. Stop rejecting the potential to feel pain. 

Suffering is a universal constant for sentient beings. It is not unnatural to suffer. Being in a constant state of suffering is bad. But it is often hard to appreciate happiness when there’s nothing to compare it to. Rejecting the potential to suffer is unsustainable and unrealistic.

15. Stop approaching adverse situations with anger and frustration. 

You will always deal with people who want things that seem counter to your interests. There will always be people who threaten to prevent you from getting what you want by trying to get what they want. This is naturally frustrating. Realize that the person you’re dealing with is in the same position as you — by seeking out your own interests, you threaten to thwart theirs. It isn’t personal — you’re both just focused on getting different things that happen to seem mutually exclusive. Approach situations like these with reason. Be calm. Don’t start off mad, it’ll only make things more tense.

16. Stop meeting anger with anger. 

People will make you mad. Your reaction to this might be to try and make them mad. This is something of a first-order reaction. That is, it isn’t very thoughtful — it may be the first thing you’re inclined to do. Try to suppress this reaction. Be thoughtful. Imagine your response said aloud before you say it. If you don’t have to respond immediately, don’t.

17. Stop agreeing to do things that you know you’ll never actually do. 

It doesn’t help anyone. To a certain extent, it’s a social norm to be granted a ‘free pass’ when you don’t do something for someone that you said you were going to do. People notice when you don’t follow through, though, especially if it’s above 50% of the time.

18. Stop ‘buying’ things you know you’ll throw away. 

Invest in friendships that aren’t parasitic. Spend your time on things that aren’t distractions. Put your stock in fleeting opportunity. Focus on the important.

19. Stop being afraid.

As we converse daily,

more often than not, we always take the context of our daily conversation for granted. 

Research shows that words have emotional, physical and spiritual impact. The words we speak can lift an individual up or send him into a downward spiral. They can cause physical changes in one's body and change the spiritual atmosphere.

Words have the power to build bridges. They have the capacity to close the gap between one and other. They can also demolish bridges and make it impossible to heal a rift.

God spoke words in the spiritual realm to make things happen in the physical world. When God wants something to happen in the natural realm - He speaks. God spoke our physical world into existence.

Words, the basis of communication, are more powerful than we realize. They have the power to wound or to heal; discourage or encourage; tear down or build up an individual, just by words. 

Once again, today I am reminded that words could be hurtful. The logic behind this is because mankind feel words with their hearts, they will be hurt when they received words their heart would forbade them from saying to certain people.


As our days pass by, how many of us actually think about the words we said and the power they carry? 


“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” 

― Benjamin Franklin

1st of December 2012 marks a historical day

because after 134 years Thomas Edisson first invented the light bulb, for the FIRST time in my life, I learned how to change a fluorescent lamp(and also the starter). This sounds rather bimbotic ridiculous of me to say this but but but IT IS INDEED HARDWORK WITH A LOT OF SWEAT AND TEARS SHED AT THE SAME TIME BESIDES SUMMONING ALL THE STRENGTH WITHIN ME I DID ALSO GATHER MY WARRIOR SPIRIT this is indeed another stepping stone into adulthood. 

Seeing how one need to consider all these external factors of besides a substantial amount of physics knowledge, height, strength, weight in tasks as such, no doubt all these repair work always fall to men's responsibility. Hence, we have foreMAN, not foreWOMAN; repairMAN, not repairWOMAN; stupidMAN, not stupidWOMAN; pacMAN, not pacWOMAN oh wth, so yup there is my point. 

Ahhhhhh the sense of fulfillment and joy when the lamp lit up, THOMAS EDDISON I FEEL YOU GAAAAH December began well for me