It's popular for students to cling to trite positive sayings. I try to smile whenever I receive one or see it written on their classroom walls, but unfortunately, it does little to encourage this realist.Here's a few that I've noticed this week.
In a text message to encourage me in my Chinese standardized test:
"Let your uniqueness shine through! If you think you can win, you win!"
(Does uniqueness shine through multiple choice tests? )
On the wall of the student's classroom:
"Never give up. Never lose hope.
Always have faith. It allows you cope.
Trying times will pass, as they always do.
Just have patience, your dreams will come true.
So put a smile on."
(For a lot of our students, their dream is to make a lot of money and travel overseas to teach. Will this really come true for the majority of them? Hmm.)
Or, the most common saying that makes me gag...."Happy, happy, happy everyday."
Hopefully in the natural course of the day, we do experience moments of happiness, but this should not be the purpose we strive for in our lives. If I truly wanted to be happy in China, I don't think I would leave my apartment, but would rather prefer to sit around eating chocolate, writing, reading, skyping, and watching episodes of Friends and Lie to Me. Of course, this too would lose it's charm and I would soon have to find new ways to pacify my selfish nature, but thankfully as followers, we don't follow the happiness mantra.
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"Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly." Edward Albee, "Zoo Story"
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