Family

The family is like a book-
The children are the leaves,
The parents are the covers
That protecting beauty gives.
At first the pages of the book
Are blank and purely fair,
But Time soon writeth memories
And painteth pictures there.
Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust;
Oh, break it not, lest all the leaves
Should scatter and be lost! .
The husband needs to be blind at times;
the wife, deaf;
both need much of the time to be dumb.
Ivan N. Panin

The above poem was introduced to me in this week “Mental Health” class and prior to this on the same day I did simple graphic editing on my family photos. (This is going to be my first post with a picture on it)

Family and my life

I tried to express how grateful I am to be given such a wonderful family. They are not perfect individuals but our unity as a family compromises the flaws in us. It is just too astonishing to be a part in such an understanding and caring family.

Despite all the blessings that I have received, I was also aware of people in this world that is not fortunate enough to have a good or even complete family. According to some researches, the majority of them are more likely to fall into mental illness. This fact was also affirmed by my lecturer, who is a practicing psychiatrist in SGH. A family does impact the way we perceive and act, it is the foundation of believe and norm.

I, myself, agreed with it but I also believe that we are the one that are responsible to our own attitude. As a human, we are unique and blessed with a brain that is so magnificent. It is possible for us to change anything, inclusive of our own improper behaviour. Let me tell you a piece of my struggle in building my confidence.

I was once a boy with little self confidence as I grew up with my grandmother, which is a conservative yet lovable and caring person. It was terrible for me to even think of speaking in front of a group of people. I stammered and felt cold of just being seen by the audiences.
To cut the story short I was lucky enough to be given opportunities (I won’t disclosed it in this blog) that helped me to realize that nobody is perfect and superior or inferior from the others. My father kept reminding me by saying: “We ate the same food and I believe that whatever things other can do is also possible for us”. It shouldn’t be taken literally; it is true that every person is unique and able to do great things in their own ways. However I believe that my father is trying to tell me that as a human we have the ability to improve ourselves and be even better than the other.

Today I still keep trying to improve my confidence level. I am still far away from being fully confident but I can feel the difference between the old me and now. Hence I want to emphasize that it is not the environment that confined our choice as we usually think but it is ourselves that let us being dragged by the environment. We, as I did, have the choice to form our own personality.