Interview meme, questions from Reeves
These are great questions, not only thought-provoking, but really helps with self-assessment/evaluation too.
1. What are two of your most treasured memories? Why?
This is probably going to sound really strange, but after I first read this question, I walked around for a few minutes (getting ready to go out) and couldn't think of one, was for a moment overcome with self-pity. Half a day later, I remember a few, so not so sad.
I guess one of them would be the memory of friends online and LJ. Really shows how unbalanced I am, huh? *wry smile* I never had close friends with whom I share personal thoughts and feelings before, so this combined with the process of learning and growing on LJ, and being fortunate enough to get to know such a wonderful bunch of people, was a really great experience for me.
The other one probably would be when I was a kid in HK, Mum helping me with my homework. I would be doing homework in my room, came upon something I need help, and yelled across the apartment and my Mum would come over and help me. This happened almost everyday when I was little. It's sort of symbolic I guess.
2. What's the most important lesson you've learned in life? How has it affected you?
This is really tough to say, afterall, an important lesson by itself is not much, all these knowledge, experience and discoveries have to come together for something ... complete? Sorry, nitpicking too much. :)
Probably the value of perseverance, perhaps the most important ingredient for achieving anything, IMHO. Before realizing this, I had this rather unrealistic idea where brilliance was the quality to strive for (that it would be the difference between success and failure), so I didn't place importance on the more mundane and simple things. Then I found out someone is only brilliant because he/she tried many many times, and it is rather fleeting too. Even though I know(maybe) the importance of it long ago, still not very good at persevering. So, perhaps ... ? and !
:|
3. What are three things you want to accomplish before the end of the year?
Don't really know. I read a long time ago something about parents really having a huge influence on their kids, whether like them or unlike them. I guess that's the case for me, sometimes I would catch on to the similarities of me with my Mum, but most of the time I probably don't realize it. There were also a bunch of favourite books that I keep reading and re-reading, a lot of them are about chinese history, but again not really sure. I didn't talk much, so very few people were in the position of influencing me.
5. What two books do you recommend I read? Why did you choose them?
Even though I like reading as a kid, I kept reading the same books over and over and didn't read much outside of prescribed texts at school, so I am afraid I don't have any good recs. My favourite books are all in Chinese. In high school, This Boy's Life and To Kill a Mockingbird were my favourites. I was directly influenced by the brutal honesty with which Tobias Wolff wrote himself in This Boy's Life, and in a way I try to emulate it in my journal and speech sometimes.
*looks on Amazon* Wow, I didn't know he wrote another memoir based on the period after his childhood, probably will look that up, thanks for helping me find it indirectly. :) As for To Kill a Mockingbird, there is not much that need to be said with it being so well-known, Atticus was my hero but only read it once. The lesson of putting myself in someone else's shoes has for a long time been one of my primary operating principles (when I remember anyway).
1. What are two of your most treasured memories? Why?
This is probably going to sound really strange, but after I first read this question, I walked around for a few minutes (getting ready to go out) and couldn't think of one, was for a moment overcome with self-pity. Half a day later, I remember a few, so not so sad.
I guess one of them would be the memory of friends online and LJ. Really shows how unbalanced I am, huh? *wry smile* I never had close friends with whom I share personal thoughts and feelings before, so this combined with the process of learning and growing on LJ, and being fortunate enough to get to know such a wonderful bunch of people, was a really great experience for me.
The other one probably would be when I was a kid in HK, Mum helping me with my homework. I would be doing homework in my room, came upon something I need help, and yelled across the apartment and my Mum would come over and help me. This happened almost everyday when I was little. It's sort of symbolic I guess.
2. What's the most important lesson you've learned in life? How has it affected you?
This is really tough to say, afterall, an important lesson by itself is not much, all these knowledge, experience and discoveries have to come together for something ... complete? Sorry, nitpicking too much. :)
Probably the value of perseverance, perhaps the most important ingredient for achieving anything, IMHO. Before realizing this, I had this rather unrealistic idea where brilliance was the quality to strive for (that it would be the difference between success and failure), so I didn't place importance on the more mundane and simple things. Then I found out someone is only brilliant because he/she tried many many times, and it is rather fleeting too. Even though I know(maybe) the importance of it long ago, still not very good at persevering. So, perhaps ... ? and !
:|
3. What are three things you want to accomplish before the end of the year?
- Clean and help out around the house and sort through all my stuff that needs to be taken care of, there are a lot of that because of years of neglect, matters that need inquiries and follow-up and decisions...
- Be doing some volunteer work, for near full-time hours.
- Having some sort of plan/order and working consistently towards finding my future line of work.
Don't really know. I read a long time ago something about parents really having a huge influence on their kids, whether like them or unlike them. I guess that's the case for me, sometimes I would catch on to the similarities of me with my Mum, but most of the time I probably don't realize it. There were also a bunch of favourite books that I keep reading and re-reading, a lot of them are about chinese history, but again not really sure. I didn't talk much, so very few people were in the position of influencing me.
5. What two books do you recommend I read? Why did you choose them?
Even though I like reading as a kid, I kept reading the same books over and over and didn't read much outside of prescribed texts at school, so I am afraid I don't have any good recs. My favourite books are all in Chinese. In high school, This Boy's Life and To Kill a Mockingbird were my favourites. I was directly influenced by the brutal honesty with which Tobias Wolff wrote himself in This Boy's Life, and in a way I try to emulate it in my journal and speech sometimes.
*looks on Amazon* Wow, I didn't know he wrote another memoir based on the period after his childhood, probably will look that up, thanks for helping me find it indirectly. :) As for To Kill a Mockingbird, there is not much that need to be said with it being so well-known, Atticus was my hero but only read it once. The lesson of putting myself in someone else's shoes has for a long time been one of my primary operating principles (when I remember anyway).