If life gives you lemon..

As the saying goes, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade..."

BORING beginning.

First off, this is a very boring topic/question. Secondly, I don't think this can be anything creative. Thirdly, why'd it be lemon, but not apples? Apples are great!

I met the topic by chances as I dropped by a webpage. Then, there's a topic about this lemon thingy in a page which was addressed in the content of scholarships' details. It said writing an essay about the topic might win a chance of getting shortlisted and come for a face-to-face interview. If you get through all of it, you could  actually stand a chance to have your tuition fees waived and more benefits awaiting. It's quite enticing..

Forget it. I'll never give anymore shots for interview. Last time I screwed up an interview. The interviewer was speaking ill of me to the in-charged counselor by commenting that one of the Chung Hua Middle School students- that's me- was reeling off everything from memory. I did a double take. I wasn't having any because I thought I did the interview pretty well. I even put my gratitude to my English teacher, hundredfold thanks for the interview script. But it seems I can't make it and botch things up. People are saying Chung Hua students are not much articulate enough so long as they're having  everything off pat preceding the interview, can't hold a candle to those of whom from St. Jo. St. Jo students are well known of their silver tongue, speaking English as fluent as ... shit, umm, I mean native speakers.

How I know people talking ill of me? Well, I went to the education counseling centre in town, and Ms Yii, the counselor, discerned me as one of the Chung Hua students going for the interview. She told me about a person in the interview who had read aloud everything from his memory, as she's clued in by another school's pupil (probably St.Jo guys). Then, it hit home- I'm that person.

That's probably the reason I'm not going to any other interviews, because it gives me an inferior feeling of being trampled underfoot. Loathing to be jibed at of being a dork, I’ll choose to bottle myself up. A snippet of an artiste in a Singapore drama once resounded in my head, “The world lives no perfect soul. Perfect men are simply perfect in keeping dark secrets. The higher they go, the more the dark secrets they can hold.” Well said. People are making it to the top, craving wealth, fame and lucrative businesses of all ilk, but they  are more aware of their shortcomings yet to reveal. They put up their own façades, and fabricate far more tall stories, swollen in pride and ego and  hanging on ‘till it all burst. When it happens to blow up, many peoples’ tongues are set wagging, and it's a pretty nice case of describing how sour a lemon can be.

Do you think you can find a glass of lemonade in a cut-throat world as it were now? People are doing the same way as to treating the world, and the idea of fighting off convention is quite incredulous, as long as you're bent on holding out your principle and the real you. They judged, taunted, imposed their unscrupulous values on us, failing your crack of making a lemon delight.

Making a lemonade isn't easy. It requires ingredients, methods of handling and unparalleled skills. My mum once told me being a man of valour and integrity isn't to afraid of trials and tribulations. Before I have to triumph over the world, I'm compelled to win over myself. Even so, mum's criticising me who wasn't a real man, but a spineless and meek boy under saying grace and showering protection. Given the example of my interview's experience, it reveals a kind of my weakness: I can't overcome my failure.

When I was young, I like to horse around without rhyme or reason, just out of fun and curiosity. I then grow up in time over 19 years of my life, light dawns on me that I can't be like a kid anymore. I can't cast an utmost thing aside- appearance. The Chinese call it 'the face'. Whenever I'm in public, I can feel as if an invisible audience watching over me, and commenting on my remarks, my moves and my performances. I'll feel embarrassed when they laughed over my fiasco but I'll feel high-spirited if they praised me for my sterling performance. However, I've lifted my expectations, so the invisible audience jeered at me more often than they supposed to be. It weighed me down, upsetting me. In that case, I'm all aware of the stress and burden, and can't win it over to give every attempt a best shot. Indeed the greatest enemy is oneself. To defeat that nitwit, I shan't just put up a brave front, but also to conquer that fear inside. A piece of 'Let it go' lyrics from the album of the Disney movie, 'Frozen' crosses my mind ,"No right no wrong no rules for me", " to test the limit and break through."

I live up to my parents' expectations, and they stressed very hard on my academics. I think the mass of typical Chinese parents are all concerned about their child's study. The Chinese children mostly resigned themselves to toughening themselves up and pushing themselves too hard to fit in their expectations. My parents are not to blame, because I've chosen a life like that, to be a nerd. Homework and exams are always at the top of the list, prior to entertainment and recreation. At times, I asked myself, "do I want to live a life like that?"

A life's beyond measurements and expectations. I can choose a different life in which I can feel free to do something I deem enjoyable and joyful, not a life on the darned desk doing doggone paperwork. There is a lot of possibilities in our lives. I don't have a dream, because I think there's nothing a real dream in the reality. Life kills dreams. Dreams are once deemed to be stupid to somebodies' eye, and people are even uttering that they are for ignoramus to dream on. But then again, I'm yet to take it in that there's nothing on earth can replace a secret ingredient of a lemonade, what's more the only secret ingredient is yourself. You. No matter how cruel life is, it depends on you yourself to think of how your life can be. What seems to be impossible for you to live a dream? You can just live a life you dream. Dream's always as sweet as lemonade, while life's as sour as a lemon. There's a Chinese saying," People are great to make something of themselves because of their dreams." I think realising your own dream and pursuing it are more of a significant life than of a successful yet meaningless life with billions of gold bullion in a bank vault.

Lemon's sour, but the lemonade's sweet. They stand at the exact antithesis. The crux of the matter to execute a 180 degree transformation isn't a child's play. It requires determination, resilience and bravery in order to beat our own opponent- ourselves. Lastly, if life gives you lemons, squirting it into your eyes. Fancy! It's a dare, and you should do it once in your life, and just once in your life's enough to cost you an early visit off to heaven.