A sudden burst of...

"All our energy is spent for the purpose of getting what we want, and most people never question the premise of this activity - that they know what their true wants are. They do not stop to think whether the aims they are pursuing are something they themselves want.

In school they want to have good marks, as adults they want to be more and more successful, to make more money, to have more prestige, to buy a better car, to go to places, and so on.

However, if I do get this new job, if I get this better car, if I can take this trip - what then? What is the sense of it all? Is it really I who wants this? Am I not running after some goal which is supposed to make me happy and which eludes me as soon as I have reached it?

Therefore, man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want."


- Eric Fromm, Fear of Freedom (1955)

This was discussed in one of the lectures on discourse analysis during the semester. It struck a chord with me probably because I'm one of those people that are not really sure what they want. I mean, I know what I'm supposed to want, but what do I really want? If you think about it, there's really quite a difference between the two. Sometimes it feels like I've been disconnected with myself. I feel like an outsider looking in on my life and I don't really identify anymore. It's scary really.


I think I'm going to miss the clear, crisp air of winter. Oh, the irony.

Currently listening to - High Times by Landon Pigg and the Turbo Fruits

This I Promise You.

I hereby pledge to blog more often once exams are over.

If I don't, feel free to harass me online or in person about my blog.
(Not like you guys don't already, but I give you permission to up the intensity of your harassment)


In the meantime, you guys can check out Five Fashion Friends. Since we now have 6 girls working on that blog (after the addition of guest blogger Tee Jowee), it gets updated wayyy more often than this blog does.


Cheers!

The days are long, but the years are short.

It's Week 13 now, time really does gallop by, leaving me a little startled as I watch the dust gather behind it. It seems like yesterday I was boarding a plane, getting ready to begin another chapter of my life in Australia. And suddenly it's now, with my first semester of my second year in university coming to an end. I wish I was able to grasp time, make it into something tangible, something I can hold on to, even if it's just by the edge of the sleeves. But it always eludes me, and slips right through my fingers.


If you think about it, everyone laments about how long their day has been. Whether we sit in lecturer theaters, counting down the minutes till it ends; Or are at work, sitting at a desk staring at the blinding computer screen, watching the second hand of the clock trickle by so slowly, it starts to hurt watching it. It's true, the days always seem so long, filled with so many things to do, people to see, places to be at. So much so that we never notice how fast the days fly by until suddenly, we reach a milestone and discover that the days have indeed flitted past us, silently and stealthily. And we start to wonder where all those days went and how it could have passed us by like a speeding bullet train.

The days are long, but the years are short. In Jowee's words, truest.