Back to NJ
热3已有 638 次阅读 2014-10-10 00:36
Finally, I came back from SH last night. Though this two-day trip is
everything but glamorous and enjoyable, I still have to say a big “thank you”
to it for the great lessons I have taken out of it.
Since I came back from AU more than three years ago, I haven’t planned a single trip for any one, let alone for myself. Instead, aside from teaching, I isolated myself from the outside world and gave myself tones of excuses for my isolation: I am educating myself for a better future or I am so special that I need no expedition to open myself up or I should be grateful and satisfied with my easy life in my comfort-zone. The result followed is disastrous: I have almost forgotten everything about how to survive and stay somewhere uncomfortable and unknown. This is why before setting off for SH, I was scared to death and almost gave up my plan (of course I can’t give up because of my disease).
On my first day staying in SH, I was feeling like a foreigner in my own country, and I could totally resonate with those “outsiders” trying to settle in this gigantic cosmopolitan city and find good jobs in it. We must feel the same: loneliness, panic, helplessness and the worst, the shortage of supporting companions. However, as a famous writer once wrote: “given time, humans can adapt themselves to every life situation from the worst to the best.” When I finally got off the train and arrived at SH, there was no time for my panic. The first step was to find the hotel that I booked without relying on a taxi. Luckily, my iPhone had Google map and a few food and transportation apps on, and they helped me marvelously to check into my hotel room, find the local dish for my lunch and dinner, and most importantly, locate HS hospital for me, the one that I have to find for my doctor’s visit.
This part of my trip truly teaches me a big lesson: seeing every difficult thing as a great opportunity to learn. Of course, on my way to learn, I have to fail, but the reward is worth of the failure: it can teach me to grow wiser and smarter.
The toughest parts of the two-day trip came on the first lonely night of staying in a clean but extremely noisy hotel room and the second day when I had to wait for the doctor’s check for my muscle atrophy.
For the hotel part, the story started from my booking of the cheapest hotel room only costing 188 yuan. I should have known better that the low cost is at the price of something unbearable – the noise. When I checked in during the day, I was kind of excited for the room’s clean floor and flushable toilet without noticing the “dangerous scene” – the source of the noise - out of my window, a busy and buzz overpass. Late at night, I started to suffer from the noise and barely slept (the squeaky sound above the ceiling from the moving of chairs and tables make the situation worse).
Still, I managed to sleep for three to four hours by taking countless deep breath, sticking squeezed toilet paper ball into my ears, and staying mindful towards my nightmarish situation.
Big lesson to take: never take anything good for granted in my life. I used to hate my room so much due to the occasional noise from my neighbor one wall away. Now, I just realize that my home is truly heavenly quiet. I would never complain again.
Apart from the hotel disaster, Waiting for one and half hour just for the best neurologist’s few words could be really discouraging accompanied with loneliness, strong fear due to the uncertainty of the diagnose and impatience. This is especially true when the doctor could not diagnose me with anything clear, and I was asked to wait for a thorough checkup which required a hospitalization.
Since I came back from AU more than three years ago, I haven’t planned a single trip for any one, let alone for myself. Instead, aside from teaching, I isolated myself from the outside world and gave myself tones of excuses for my isolation: I am educating myself for a better future or I am so special that I need no expedition to open myself up or I should be grateful and satisfied with my easy life in my comfort-zone. The result followed is disastrous: I have almost forgotten everything about how to survive and stay somewhere uncomfortable and unknown. This is why before setting off for SH, I was scared to death and almost gave up my plan (of course I can’t give up because of my disease).
On my first day staying in SH, I was feeling like a foreigner in my own country, and I could totally resonate with those “outsiders” trying to settle in this gigantic cosmopolitan city and find good jobs in it. We must feel the same: loneliness, panic, helplessness and the worst, the shortage of supporting companions. However, as a famous writer once wrote: “given time, humans can adapt themselves to every life situation from the worst to the best.” When I finally got off the train and arrived at SH, there was no time for my panic. The first step was to find the hotel that I booked without relying on a taxi. Luckily, my iPhone had Google map and a few food and transportation apps on, and they helped me marvelously to check into my hotel room, find the local dish for my lunch and dinner, and most importantly, locate HS hospital for me, the one that I have to find for my doctor’s visit.
This part of my trip truly teaches me a big lesson: seeing every difficult thing as a great opportunity to learn. Of course, on my way to learn, I have to fail, but the reward is worth of the failure: it can teach me to grow wiser and smarter.
The toughest parts of the two-day trip came on the first lonely night of staying in a clean but extremely noisy hotel room and the second day when I had to wait for the doctor’s check for my muscle atrophy.
For the hotel part, the story started from my booking of the cheapest hotel room only costing 188 yuan. I should have known better that the low cost is at the price of something unbearable – the noise. When I checked in during the day, I was kind of excited for the room’s clean floor and flushable toilet without noticing the “dangerous scene” – the source of the noise - out of my window, a busy and buzz overpass. Late at night, I started to suffer from the noise and barely slept (the squeaky sound above the ceiling from the moving of chairs and tables make the situation worse).
Still, I managed to sleep for three to four hours by taking countless deep breath, sticking squeezed toilet paper ball into my ears, and staying mindful towards my nightmarish situation.
Big lesson to take: never take anything good for granted in my life. I used to hate my room so much due to the occasional noise from my neighbor one wall away. Now, I just realize that my home is truly heavenly quiet. I would never complain again.
Apart from the hotel disaster, Waiting for one and half hour just for the best neurologist’s few words could be really discouraging accompanied with loneliness, strong fear due to the uncertainty of the diagnose and impatience. This is especially true when the doctor could not diagnose me with anything clear, and I was asked to wait for a thorough checkup which required a hospitalization.
“Being patient” is probably the greatest lesson from this
experience. Since my first noticing of my muscle atrophy back in 2011, more
than three years have quietly and unnoticeably passed. I am still healthy and
alive, and I should be patient enough for the following uncertainty of my life.
More specifically, flowing with it and put my faith into GOD and the universe
with more gratitude and fewer complaints is a better option than distressing
myself on a daily basis with no use.
声明: 本文及其评论仅代表个人观点，不代表飞赞网立场。不当言论请举报。
评论 (3 个评论) 发表评论