1+1 is 11

March 20th, 2008 [006]

Chair: The next issue to be debated will be on the question of the Academic Overload Crisis. Would the main submitter of the following resolution please approach the podium?

(The delegation of Cathy-Minlian approaches the podium)

Chair: Delegate, please read out the clauses.

1. Calls upon measures to increase awareness of previously neglected but extremely time consuming clubs such as MUN, Journalism, Drama, and various Sports, for the purpose of informing the Teacher Association of:

a. the Student population’s unknown or often underestimated difficulty of completing makeup work,

b. the fact that the Student population engages themselves in far more productive activity than the Teachers are aware;

Chair: Thank you Delegate. The chair now sets a debate time of closed debate 45 minutes for and 45 minutes against this clause. The main submitter may now proceed with her speech.

Thank you honorable chair and fellow delegates.

The Delegatation of Cathy would first like to show her approval regarding recent accomplishments at BEIMUN XV. She believes that the successful cooperation of Nation States such as Time, and Effort, not to mention the much appreciated sacrifice of Sleep, and Stress were all vital to the fruitfulness of the conference. She, however, cannot deny her harbored concerns, as the issue of Academic Overload, poses as a threat to the world student population. Respected Delegates, this very moment, hundreds and thousands of students world-wide are suffering from long-term stress created by participation of various activities, grades, the lack of sleep, and other harmful factors. We the General Assembly forum of Student Rights have gathered to address this problem. By increasing awareness, and eventually having the Teacher Association to realize that it isn’t true that students ONLY take their class, the resolution will hopefully help reduce homework and postpone tests, thus alleviating this problem.

. . .

Cathy is back from BEIMUN . . . . . . with “problems”.

March 19th, 2008 [005]

Observe the picture above. It is that of an ancient Chinese pottery replica I’ve seen in Beijing last year. The Chinese are well known for their delicate and ornate artifacts. But take a closer look; you will see that the golden paint has been carelessly dabbed on. The pottery seams to be embedded with heart-shape, but the paint does not satisfy those proper boundaries. What happened? Of all places, you would think that an ancient temple open for cultural display would have attained a higher quality of this or any other aspect.

This reminded me of the word, “perfectionism.”

I admit that I have a form of perfectionism. No, not the type that must have every book on one’s desk to be perfectly aligned, and definitely not type that needs to have an essay perfectly grammar-clean and spelling-clean. My brand is a less conspicuous and the less elegant type.

Something like… wanting to start on a task or project only if I feel I can do a good job on it, if that makes any sense. On the more negative side, it also means that I tend to leave something before even starting, when I judge it to be near impossible or pointless.

This is a problem sometimes, because I usually can’t move on writing an essay until a thesis is perfect, and it bothers me when time is insufficient to do so. When playing a game, I want to find all hidden places, obtain every secret items, etc. If I think I can’t do that, it is most likely for me to not start that game at all. I want to either read the entire textbook or none at all, I want to finish a novel or not start at all.

So I’d rather have an all or nothing. It’s not a exotic or absurd personality trait, I believe. I’ll bet that many people think this way. You want to do something perfectly, but time and resources do not allow.

This whole thing is a random thought I had. Just to prove a point that I wouldn’t have colored that pottery thing in the first place if I were them :] I would have just left it uncolored.

But then from far away, you can’t tell whether the paint is done nicely or not. Does it mean that a crappy homework is sometimes better than none at all?

March 6th, 2008 [004]

The extreme workload due to the upcoming BEIMUN made me forget how much I really liked participating in MUN conferences. Finishing the report took heroic sacrifices of God given sleep and Grade Point Averages, and I’m glad its done. We leave for Beijing on the 12th of March; I expect it’ll be a good break from school. Recently, I’ve secretly started to wish for the end of my Junior year. Like Junioritus, you know? But its a far way off.

Right now, I’d like some rest.

March 2nd, 2008 [003]

Sometimes when you have so many things to do or so many factors to consider,you experience a “shutdown” of the mind. Like how a computer might shut down when ordered to execute more programs than it can handle. In this way, people and computers are in common– after all, many modern psychologists compare our brains to computers.

In my 16 and a half years of life, I’ve never experienced such a severe “shutdown” than this very week. Overload created from subjects I neither like nor excel at, from SATs that I doubt can measure a student’s potential fully, from APs, from the upcoming Beijing MUN, and time spent due to the start of the Soccer season… By now I’m certain that, given the time available, it is physically impossible to complete all the tasks imposed on me by others and myself. That’s when the Shutdown happens; I stare blankly at my agenda and list of things to do, and I stare, and stare..,

Why must I use valuable time for a subject that I don’t give a …… about. I know I won’t think of the Conservation of Momentum when I get in a car crash, or try to find the Arcsine of a triangular sandwich.

Time is a non trade-able, scare resource. I intend to use it a efficiently as possibly can, but school won’t let me. Like a tax system that prevents the efficient distribution of resources in society. Obviously, there is a loss to this system.

So this is me, experiencing a severe SHUTDOWN.