Over the course of your life, you will find the thing that not always fair, you will find the things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted. But you have to put your head down, and fight, fight, fight. And never, ever, ever give up, things will work out just fine.

The schedule of classes was so intense. I could barely hold it together. But my parents had no idea the kind of pressure I’m under. I almost had a meltdown.

At that time, I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going.

I’m really good at talking others into this.

I was like, reasoning with them and getting through to them.

我真的擅长说服别人。

就像，跟他们讲道理，使他们理解。

When I was younger, I was ready to take on the world, make a difference.

My dad talked me out of it.

在我小时候，我准备去闯荡世界，改变世界。

我的爸爸制止了我。

Good start.

A really Nice book called Viewpoints from my favorite tutor

I love it because it includes various profound and thought-provoking viewpoints.

NOTES

Someone once said that there are three sides to every questionable issue: your side, my side, and the "right" side. In truth, there may be many sides, depending upon the issue itself.

According to psychologists, numerous studies have been done that show the urge to conform to group thinking is too powerful for most people to resist. Unknowingly, we become conditioned to ways of thinking. This usually happens because we are molded at an early age by our parents, relatives, teachers, and friends. we tend to honor their value systems because we love them and trust their judgments. Their beliefs become our beliefs without much questioning or thought on our part.

As we mature, our beliefs are also molded both directly and indirectly by the media. What we wear, what we eat, what music we accept, even what media we enjoy become tied in with our desire to be accepted as part of a group. Even when we think we are acting as individuals by rejecting the ideas of one group, we are often just accepting the ideas of another. We become self-deceptive. Our thinking process becomes overruled by others' opinions that we think are truly our own thoughtful reactions because we have heard them for so long. We become biased and forget to weigh our opinions by looking at facts or reasoning that goes against our belief system. And even when we do try to see "facts", we often don't have the experience needed to evaluate the information. In such cases, it is better to suspend our decision on which "side" to take until we do some more investigating.

If you already have a viewpoint on one or both of the topics, try to suspend your opinions as your read the selections. Avoid letting your own biases cloud any opinions that are opposite to yours, not always an easy task. We sometimes have a tendency to view ourselves as superior to another person's race, religion, or culture even though we may not think we are doing so. Such views limit our objectivity and keep us from learning from others.

New information on these and other controversial issues continues to come out. What you think today, may not be what you think tomorrow. That's healthy, too, as long as you are truly making sound judgments and critically weighing the evidence. A changing mind is better than a closed one.

Everything I confronted isn't going well.

When I come to a new country, everything is new for me and the man who comes with me is changing towards a person I am not familiar with.

I am exhausted every day, but actually, as an adult, I don’t want to complain about the things that I encountered with my friends, because it is a long story. I need to introduce the background, cause, results, and my feelings to others, so they can untotally and superficially understand my situation. However, each time I talk about it, it hurts.

I can only express my feelings and emotions here. Nobody can know who I am.

“The things I want to remember I can’t, and the things I try so hard to forget just keep coming.”

— Paula Hawkins

how to generate creative ideas:

(i need to get this out of my brain)

Make moodboards, playlists, keep a list of people who inspire you. Before starting a project think about the general vibe you want it to embody. Ask questions like “What would this concept sound like if it was a song?” ,“What would this concept be like if it was a person?”. Create a shirt that looks like a building you like (yes i did that once), literally anything can be combined.

Take unrelated things or concepts and mix them together. Let’s take Addams Family as an example. “What if it was a story about a typical suburban family…but GOTH!”. It basically flips everything upside down. Or “What outfit would someone wear, who’s personality is the mix of the vibes of these two songs?” Random word generators are amazing for this if you don’t know where to start from.

Try making something truly BAD and then add a twist to it. It’s a great way for your brain to let go of expectations and then think outside of the box. But you can also use this to find out what you do not wanna do under any circumstances.

Think without worrying about the limits of what you can do and when it’s time for excecution, find a way around what’s impossible. It births more creativity and adds uniqueness.

Consider what your idea is NOT before considering what it is. Limits are the best way to avoid getting overwhelmed and giving up. Don’t ALWAYS do this though (unless you wanna…), it’s just something to try out when you feel like you’re seeing too many possibilities to the point that they’re contracting each other. Unless your goal is to make something full of contradictions, you’re a Free Man, do whatever you want.

Keep a list of random ideas you have throughout the day in your notes app or something and then at some point actually review them. Keep what you think is worth exploring and then act on it.

Find out how something works very throughoutly so you know which aspect can be changed to create something new.

Take a concept and break it down into smaller concepts, ideas, questions, key elements and then also break those ideas down etc. This will naturally lead to associations, unique ideas you wouldn’t think of without doing this. I found that this is a great way of coming up with metaphors.

This one is similar to the last two: take a piece of art you really love and try to find out the thought process behind. What’s the story, where did the artist get inspiration from, how did they incorporate those ideas in their work. How did an artist combine their personal interests and knowledge into one big thing. For example: Tolkien was an erudite linguist, so much so that he created entire functional languages in his work, such as Elvish in Lord of the Rings. Hirohiko Araki loves 80’s music so much he named characters in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure after music references. This is why no knowledge is useless knowledge.

Think about the times you’ve been the most creative before. What were the specific circumstances? For me my best ideas always come when I have a strict deadline for something unrelated, like school (which I’m way too willing to sacrifice), or when I’m doing something mindless like walking and listening to music, or playing a game that requires no thinking. Most of the time after 10p.m. This doesn’t mean I can’t “force” myself to be creative (tips above), it just means these are the times ideas come most naturally. For some people this might be being out in nature or experiencing high emotions, maybe having their life on the line idk, to each their own.

You can’t just create. You also need to consume. The more information you absorb, the more possibilities you have with your ideas. So if you’re not feeling that creative, that’s fine, it’s the perfect opportunity to learn something new.

If you don’t already do these things and you’re looking to get more creative my advice is to ACTUALLY TRY THESE OUT. You’ll best understand them in action.

I have troubles without end. I don’t want to pour my troubles to anyone. I try to hide my worries behind an air of insouciance. I always laugh off after everything goes well. Nobody know what happened to me.