Recently, all of us poly students have started a new chapter in our lives (a cliched expression, i know); that is what i'll say if i can't be bothered to think of something different, and i was really intending to use that sentence to start this post (actually, i did anyway). But on second thoughts, i think that our lives are not books. If i am to insist on using books as a metaphor to life, i'll rather say that our lives are many books, not just one. Maybe our childhood is one book, our secondary school days is one book, our poly days is one book, NS days is one book, adulthood is one book and, finally, retirement is the last book, and in that last book contains all the lessons we have learnt through life. The last book will not be one of great adventure, but it will be one that is the most meaningful and contains the wisest words. In a way, the start of polytechnic for many of us is a sequel to our secondary school life.

Our secondary school life ended, and now we've started polytechnic. We can cry non-stop and say that we want to go back to secondary school days, perhaps no one would stop us, and perhaps people may even console us. But, at the end, nothing's really changing. We are still heading towards poly life. This is a change that we must face. We can be weak at first, but after that we must be strong and fight. After this change, we still have many others to face. I felt intimidated when i thought of it.

But we have to deal with changes. At times, we are not allowed to give up. In this case, we're sort of being "forced" to start polytechnic. We have no choice. No matter how uncomfortable we feel, we cannot go like "i don't want to do this anymore!" and then absent ourselves from school. I say that because i have this kind of thought from time to time: I don't want it, thus i avoid it. But in this world, what you don't want may come to you as well, unless you're proficient in using the "law of attraction" to sort of attract just the good stuffs to your life. I am honest about the law of attraction thing.

So, how do we deal with changes? I don't mean to sound all wise and stuff, but let me just share what i read, what i did, and some extra logic which i came up with.

According to "Happiness in Hard Times" by Andrew Matthews, when we face with a problem, we must accept the problem. This means we must fight the problem instead of run away from it. In this case, "change" is the problem. Instead of avoiding this change, which we cannot, we have to cope with this change. Firstly, we have to accept the fact that it really is time for us to change already. No more old days when you live just 15 minutes away from your school. No more strolling to school; it's now squeezing like orange juice in the MRT early in the morning to go to school. Secondly, we have to change our thoughts. I've not blogged about it before, but the second chapter of Happiness in Hard Times is about conquering crises. And throughout, it says again and again: The thoughts is the key. And if you read many other books, you'll see the pattern. They like telling you to change how you think! In this case, it's time to adjust. I don't mean we need to immediately get used to things, but that we can adjust our mindsets to save ourselves from misery.

According to "How To Improve Your Self-Esteem" by Elaine Sheehan, which i read some time ago, which includes a chapter about managing your thoughts, we can sort of "replace" our thoughts. Whenever a negative thought enters our minds, tell ourselves to stop thinking that thought, and then replace the thought with a positive thought. And it is possible to come up with a positive thought because everything has its good and bad. The good parts of a situation may be minimal, but if we focus on it, we can enlarge the good parts of the situation. Take for example, you're stuck in a cave with a spade. The entrance is blocked because of rock fall. You can only see a small glimpse of light coming in from a small hole. If you focus on that small hole and dig the area, there is a chance that you can dig your way out eventually. Or maybe i know nothing about caves but you get what i'm trying to say.

So, in this case, instead of thinking "Why must everything change... i miss my friends, i miss everthing. I don't want to go to my new school, i don't want to take the MRT... etc", think "If i can adjust to this now, i have no fear for a workplace far from home in the future."

Challenges make us grow.

If replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts is really that difficult, you can do what i'm doing now, which works so far: Stop thinking. It doesn't make you stupid. You can still think about other stuff, but when you start analysing why you feel unhappy, just stop and tell yourself that you are happy. You are not lying to yourself. If you tell yourself, "Everything is wonderful", everything will be.

Recently i just bought a book called "The Secret", which is by Rhonda Byrne. It is about the law of attraction, which is a physics law that says "like attracts like". Think good things and good things will come to you. Think bad things and bad things will come to you.

Two things that i find important in changing is, firstly, that we must be patient enough to adjust fully, and, secondly, that we must know that we are not alone.

If the start of polytechnic is the introduction to the book, don't expect it to be more interesting than the middle of your secondary school life. If you compare these two, you're actually comparing the introduction of a book to the climax of another, which doesn't make sense. Be patient.

Once again, i am not trying to act like a know-it-all or something. Whenever i felt bad, i would love to know that i'm not alone, and i would love to see a blog post or article that may be of some help to me. To be honest, i have not fully adjusted to this change yet, but i'm confident i will. Hopefully, this blog post did help you or at least be of interest to you.

Let's face changes and see the world in another direction together.