Passion

Tomorrow, training starts again in the FAC. It is supposed to be a school holiday tomorrow, but we are still going to train. Right now, we have a new target, which is to win the First Aid Competition by a landslide victory of 20 points. Of course, a victory of 20 points would be sweet, but for me, even 1 point is good enough. Paraphrasing from the emperor in the movie "Mulan", "A single grain can tip the scale. One point can be the difference between victory and defeat."

Last year, our seniors, the AA Team, won the competition by a slim margin of 2 points. Now, if I'm asked, would I be happier winning by 1 point, or 20 points, the answer is obvious. 20 points. Why would a big margin be good? Obviously, winning by a big margin would not allow any of our opposition to switch the tables by launching an appeal. A big victory would also be easier on our minds, since we know that we won by a real victory, rather than win by luck.

The question here is whether we would still carry on training even if by some divine method, we are able to reaffirm that we will win the competition. Will we continue to train even if we know we will win? Now, this brings us to another question. What is the purpose of competing? Are we competing for the sake of competing? Or are we competing for the purpose of knowledge?

I remember watching an episode of "America's Next Top Model", (What? Just because I'm a boy means I can't watch this kind of rubbish? =p) and in that episode, one of the competitors was eliminated because the judges felt that she was in the competition only because of her competitive nature, and not because she had a passion for modelling. So the question for us, is what exactly is the purpose for our competiting? Why do we carry on doing the same thing day after day, week after week? Are we aiming for something that is advantageous to ourselves? Is it to get a special promotion to that managerial post that you want? Or is it becaus you have a passion for it?

I remember the Leadership Development Programme (LDP) Camp, in which the instructors told us that whatever we did, they would still get paid. It was up to us whether we wanted to learn or not. Of course, the instructors did do as much as they could to help us and teach us, because they had a passion for it. I'm not perfect either. I'm definitely guilty of whatever I have mentioned above. The sad thing is that in this world, passion has no meaning. What matters most is results, not your opinion of things. However, imagine what it would be like if all of us could be like those instructors. Things would get done efficiently, and we would not complain so much about having to do work, since we enjoy doing it.

After all this roundabout talk, I guess we should do our best to be passionate about whatever we do. Put our shoulders to the wheel and push with all our might. Only then, can we actually find satisfaction in what we do.

A/N: How did I suddenly end here? I don't know. I was just ranting random things, and I ended here I guess =P