Gary Love Share (Gary 愛分享)

I remember by the end of 2006, one of my coworkers showed me some interesting slips which could predict my fortune in 2007. The one I got for my 2007 fortune is that I would suffer from some financial loss. I am not a superstitious person and I just laughed it off at that time. But today Sh*t did happen to me. So, the digital fortune teller kind of thing is not way off the mark.

It's the final exams day for some of my classes. Finally, huh? The semester is gonna be over after the finals. Not only students but also teachers can be off the hook and take a break for a few weeks. However, one of the themes that my students have to take for their finals is "asking for directions" in English. It seems that most people are not well-prepared. Three or four sentences alone could take them more than 2 minutes to speak out. That makes me wonder whether I didn't teach well or they didn't study hard. A lot of people criticize the poor quality of college education. Even some students say so, too. However, when it comes to the time to evaluate how much they learn, students try to bargain or ask teachers to lower the bar for them. It's really contradictory. Some students told me their pronunciation was terrible at the beginning of the semester. However, a couple of months has passed and I'm just wondering how much effort he or she has put in working out the problem. To me, it seems their pronunciation stays the same- the same poor level. All of those proves an old cliche, "easier said than done." On one hand, they expect teachers to teach as hard as possible. In other words, teachers should be responsible, which I think is an obligation. On the other hand, when teachers ask them to study hard and give some feedback (by showing how much they have learned), they beg teachers not to be so hard on them, trying to talk teachers into going easy on them, giving them a break or cutting them loose. To me, this is also a paradox. I think every teacher faces this kind of dilemma more or less. I don't know if I should lower my teaching quality or lower my standards (or expectations) set for my students.

On my way home, I received some calls from friends. It seems that they had some problems getting along with their coworkers or relatives. Instead of sparing some time for myself and cooling myself, I gotta tried my best to be a good listener and be there for my friends. After putting down my phone, it's almost 10:00 at night already, a time for a part-timer like me to go home and dip myself in hot bath. All of a sudden, I saw three or four pedestrians walking across the road. The green lights were on on my side. That means they were jaywalking. Maybe I was too tired to see them, or it's too dark, or I was thinking over something else, or I was trying to chill after the final exams. Brake! Brake! I told myself. Thanks God! I didn't hit anyone. And one of them just jumped aside. What a close shave! I didn't go out of my car and check if they were OK after I made sure that I didn't hit anything and they seemed OK to me. It seems that I was a bit shocked by the incident, and they showed up from nowhere. I told myself it's OK. Nobody got injured. I had to focus on my driving. As I tried to cool myself down and drove all the way home, I forgot to watch out for anything suspicious behind me. One minute, I pulled up at the traffic light. The next minute that I knew is that one guy stuck out a bat, smashed my car window in the left front, and swore at me. The only thing I did was to raise my arm to protect my head. When I knew it, the guy was gone and I realized I forgot to check out his plate number and the description of the car or the guy. I felt so bad about it. It's not the broken car window that left me so upset. What made me angry and upset is that I didn't do anything about it, except for being out of it at that time. After clearing the mess, I drove home empty-minded. I used to be trained to be a professional to maintain public order and crack down on criminals. However, when things like this happened to me, I was out of it? I felt so disappointed about myself. I should have checked out and jotted down the plate number as there were not any surveillance cameras at that intersection. I knew it's of no use to report to the police and the likehood to nail those bastards is pretty slim. However, I'm always a positive and optimistic person, looking upon the bright side of my life. It hit me that it's a good thing that I didn't hit anyone or no one was injured except for my car in the incident. And maybe the "financial loss" crisis pointed out by the digital fortune teller just occurred. And down the road, things will be fine. Do I look like an ostrich burying its head under the sand? Or it is the right mindset I should have?

Anyway, it's not my day! What goes around comes around. However, I also believe that after bad things come around and go around, good things will come around. Still, I want to thank God for keeping everyone in the incident safe and alive. And maybe he's trying to tell me that I have to take more rest before I hit the road. After all, I'm the one who drives here and there to make money to get by.

Hope you won't have a bad day like this, my friends. Take care & Peace (out)!