Just Keep Swimming - a testimonial

by Huiyi

IN WHICH HUIYI DESCRIBES HER EXPERIENCE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSISTENCE, AND NOT OBSTINACY AS A FUNDAMENTAL TOOL IN COMPLETING TASKS EFFECTIVELY AND IN AN ENJOYABLE MANNER.

Judgment Day. That’s the day I get handed my end-of-year report, complete with result slips and teachers’ testimonials. I start to scan that dratted piece of paper.
“…X IS A DILIGENT AND CONSCIENTIOUS PUPIL WHO…”

when classmate Y snatches it out of my hand and starts poking her nose into it.
I grab hers irritably, only to see,
“…Y IS A CONSCIENTIOUS AND DILIGENT PUPIL WHO…”

Clearly a phrase conveniently plucked of a list of Standard list of Euphemisms for Describing Mediocre Kiddos.
I recover my testimonial slip and read the next teacher’s comment.
“…X IS AN DETERMINED PUPIL WHO’S EXTREMELY WILLING TO WORK!”

Jaw Drops.
Well, this was something new alright.
‘Extremely willing to work’? I, student X, was being labeled as some loony, over-enthusiastic mule!
Perhaps we never give our educators as much credit or benefit of the doubt as they deserve.
Perhaps she truly did think that I had a persevering attitude. *coughs*
Yeah, perhaps she really did!

I mean, after all I do strongly believe in 2 basic things. That for everything we commit ourselves to, we should “Do it well, or not at all!” and “Finish what you start!”

Sometime back, I got a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle for a birthday present and I just couldn’t stop working on it. I got yelled at countless times to take a break and eat dinner at the table instead of on the floor whilst working the puzzle out. I spent so many hours sitting down and bending over on the floor that I had a stiff neck and back when I was finally done with it.

I guess that’s one decent example of me being persevering.

And yet, there are also times when I think that I’m being persevering, failing to realize that I’ve just been persistently clinging on to one track of mind, and refuse to be open to alternatives.
Now that’s a different thing altogether, that’s obstinacy.
That’s like the time I was still taking Higher Mother Tongue in preparation for the “O”s. I’ve always been weak in the subject. Mother (who does not speak my “mother tongue” herself) suggested tuition classes out of concern.

Pride, Ego, and yes, Obstinacy got the better of me, and I managed to keep refusing and avoided it for the entire year. The examinations came and went. I comforted myself with the fact that, whatever the results were, I could proudly call it my own. I got that grade “without” help!

I later realized, that my grades did not come about due solely to my own hard work either. I had my parents’ ability to send me to school to thank, I had my higher mother tongue teacher to thank etc. I passed the subject, but I suppose I could have mostly likely done better, with more help. Especially help that was both needed and available, had I wished it. I could have stopped being blindly persistent, obstinate and started to embrace the alternative.

Henry Ward Beecher says it best with “The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.”

The whole of the human race testifies to this will to survive, to rise above our station in life, to simply make things tomorrow better than they are today.

It’s all been said before. Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence… The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. (Calvin Coolidge), Never never never give up (Winston Churchill), Never say die (Energizer battery).

Every single one of them, testimonies to “just keep swimming”, and as much as possible, enjoy the ride.