Not Death, Just the End of Living.

Arundhati Roy knew it best.

Really, does it not describe most people in society today?

For students, all they seem to want in life is good grades. Respectable job with a good pay. If I had to do a tattoo everytime someone told me that is his or her ambition in life, I don't think I'd have any skin left?

For the working adults, all they seem to want is...surprise, surprise. A respectable job with a good pay.

Self-centred much.

Money was supposed to be a good thing, it was created for convenience purposes, even though I like the barter trade system much better. But I think we've created a Frankenstein here.

Because suddenly money talks, and money controls our actions and our goals. What a laugh, when having inanimate objects pleasure us in such ways...

And grades? Aish. You have got to be joking. Alphabet on paper, yet it has been a socially constructed virtue to put so much importance into that one slip of paper.

There's this whole idea that failing is a very bad thing. Do you know why failure is so bad?

Because it is not a norm. If you fail, you make up a minority. And generally society does not favour minorities very much, because minorities are usually strange. So if you fail, that means you must be very odd. And for most people, being classified outside the mainstream is a very bad thing.

But when you come down to it, is failure really so harmful? Why are people so afraid of failure? Could it be that people are just so prideful that they have to uphold a certain demeanour in society's eyes? Could it be that people are just genuinely concerned about making a living in the future?

And yet, whoever said that failing once will result in you being doomed to fail forever?

The thing about society is that, they let people and inanimate things decide for them if they have failed. If you failed a module, you're deemed a failure. People are so subservient to such external forces that they do not realize that ultimately, the only person you have to get over is yourself.

When you come down to it, you realize that grades are just alphabets streamlining you into different categories. An 'F' is just a socially-constructed letter thought up by MERE MORTALS to decide if you are a failure.

So do you bow down to such forces? Do you just sit there and accept this "failure" tag?

No.

So why are people so afraid of failure? Sure, it jeopardizes chances in the future, it will not be smooth-sailing, that I will say.

But to me, failure is an internal thing, and I will only admit failure when I myself have given up my own fight, when I myself have taken my last breath, when I myself have decided that enough was enough. THAT is failure.

An 'F'? That's not failure. That's just what other people think of you. So be it.

And yet people rush around all the time just worrying about their grades, about their futures.

If that's the way they choose to live their lives, then do it.

But me? If I were to disappear someday, I hope people will remember me for who I was, the differences I made, and not what I did in school.

And for the record, I am not suicidal, because I know people will be asking me that once I put up this blog post.

I am just, frankly, very intrigued by the strange way people seem to have their lives revolve around school and nothing else. And do not give me the crap that it's beyond your control, because nothing is ever beyond your control.

Unless you are talking about mother nature, that I succumb to.

But otherwise, there are always ways and means to cope with school. And don't feed me the line that I'm just lucky for having no schoolwork.

No schoolwork? In an alternate universe, I don't. But unfortunately, I have a ton of term papers due, as well as various reports and readings. Political Science is no walk in the park I tell ya.

But I am enjoying myself doing Political Science, so I don't complain. And I don't freak out with the amount of assignments I have, that part can be worked out.

That's why I say this.

Not death.

But just the end of living.

I am alive, because I am glad I know how not to let academics rule me.

I feel sorry for the majority of students who fast-forward through life without experiencing anything outside school and clubbing though.

I realize I sound like a 55-year-old man now, especially since the one person who has agreed with my words so far is MY DAD. But well, my dad and I are alike in many ways.

...

...

...

Samantha is talking to me on MSN now, so understandably I am distracted...Samantha liked Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Dragon? MUAHAHAHAHAHA. And I thought I was the weird one between us.

And for the last time, you're spelling thee bee ass kay wrong! Hahahahaha.

And AHAHAHAHAHA. My dear sibling just fell down on the stairs, while carrying some fruit and water and...shoes? Aish.

Ok. Bye.

Signed,

Sincerely, me

Pearlyn