On Privilege and Hard Work

A job offer can be a very significant thing in a person's life. It is not only a contract between us and our employer, but also a contract of the life we are very possibly to live in the next couple of years. It means financial stability, it means new goals, it means the first step into the real world. 

As everything has its two sides, so does a job offer. On the other side of the coin, a job offer can be a stopper for the hard work that we have kept for years; it can be a ticket to the comfortable and worry-free college life that we have always been dreamt of; it can be a reason for not taking any further steps or risks in this familiar yet unknown world. 

In order to prevent myself from falling in this trap, I write the following behavior standards down as an alarm for myself.

1. Never pay attention to the job offer again, as if I had never received it

2. Study as hard as before, but with a focus on preparing for the real world work environment (this does not have to contradict with 1 since preparing for the real world itself is always necessary)

3. Utilize the summer internship experience to find more potential opportunities

4. Be humble all the time but be confident about what I have achieved and learned during the summer

5. Be a beginner and open to any knowledge, don't be restricted within the job functionality

We are on this long long journey of life, thus any significant events will look insignificant if we look them back 70 years later. I believe there is no single event can alter a person's destiny, which can only be made up by his or her personality. So the perfect state of mind is always thinking him or herself as a beginner. The best travelers always pack himself with little or no bags, because they are always ready to start a new journey. 

Solitude

Solitude.

Sorting Things Through

Officially, today is the end of 2013 spring semester. Some reflections are due. I write them down here as a conclusion to my past semester as well as evidence that I never stop thinking. The reflection will be divided into two parts—academic and non-academic. The reason for this arrangement is because while I am still in school, I am still a student. So academic achievement is still my priority, everything else comes second.

1. Academic performance: 

I did well in finance courses, but not so well in mathematics. When it comes to finance, no matter it is investment course or derivatives course, my heartbeat would increase and thoughts move fast. I can really say that I begin to enjoy my finance concentration. I love my derivatives teacher. She engages the whole class and let us challenges really hard problems. Through the course, I did not feel any pain or boredom, only continuously being enlightened. I certainly enjoy intellectual challenges, but a boring teacher would really get me. In contrast to the derivatives teacher, one of my investment teachers has a boring, heavy note-taking and old teaching style. I fell asleep several times during the class when I was extremely tired. This did hurt my final grade! As a result, I did not get As for this sequence. Now I know, next time when I run into a class with a boring lecturer, I will especially pay attention to this course since I might fall asleep during the class! 

Mathematics is painful. I did not enjoy the over-complicated proofs of why 1-1=0 or why there are infinitely many nature numbers. Some might do, but I am not. Adding mathematics to my course portfolio is a liability but not an asset. It hurts GPA and consumes large amount of time. But on the other side, mathematics is useful and sometimes can be interesting, especially when I can utilize the knowledge in some complicated financial models. I am not fortune enough to have the ability to love pure mathematics, but I would find other ways to embrace it—in some more practical ways.

2. Non-academic performance:

Spring semester is a harvest season. I am offered an opportunity to intern in one of the best finance firms in the industry—JPMorgan Chase. In my country, people acknowledge it as “摩根大通”. It actually starts tomorrow and ends until mid-August. The next three months are going to be one of the best times in my entire college life. I am excited about it. But again, good things always accompany bad things. I might give up preparing GRE for graduate school, which adds uncertainty to the near future when I graduate. But one the other side, my heart tells me graduate school is not a good option for fresh college graduates. Many Chinese students simply rush to the conclusion that a graduate school would save their lives, but they forget the cost—not money, but opportunities. Graduate school would be good if you know where you are going for, but it can be very misleading if you are still not sure what you want to do after coming out of school. Maybe I am being judgmental again, but ask your heart: are you going for the graduate school for the sake of the brand of the school or you really want to learn something there? I reserve my answer here, because it is such a simple question.

3. Conclusion:

I am happy that I went through hell safe and sound this semester. I did not lose my physical health and mental health. I did not try to kill my roommates and in fact we become brothers. My next goal is 5k. I am going to do it in three weeks. GPA is a constant distraction; I will fix it next semester. Right now, I will put 200 percentage of my energy into work. Let the following 3-month be the most rewarding experience ever.

Last, I have been disconnected from the social networking world for a while. Part of the reason is to avoid wasting time on meaningless stuff. But this time I come back with some new realizations and understanding of this world. I will talk about it next time. I welcome any kinds of comments and critiques, and I would love to know your thoughts and share my experience.

Rethink on the nature of this blog

I found a very interesting argument by my friend Zilong. As he searches for the nature of his blog, he says the nature of his blog is to write down his thoughts and just be. What comes out of it does not matter. He continues arguing that “the thoughts are no longer mine once they are out there. By the time I finish typing a sentence, I have already evolved. “

These arguments help me rethink the nature of my blog. I have been shying from writing down many of my thoughts which I presume to be too naïve. Gradually, I lost the happiness of continuing writing blogs. In fact, what I have to be shy from? Not only few people know this place, but also this is the place where my maturing is witnessed. So let this place be full of naïve and immature thoughts, because by the time I look back on these words, I should be glad to see how I was formed and shaped.

Job Day

It is a whole year gift that I receive an offer with JPM. After celebration with friends and parents, I come to these three realizations below.

1. Finding an internship may not be as hard as I thought before. Neither are other things. As a young man, we just began our journey to the real world. Opportunities are plenty. So the things that matter are that we need to have confidence. Confidence keeps my eyes open and thus willing to give a shot to things that someone else assume impossible. In fact, the biggest cost is not failure, but opportunity cost. If I decided to take an easier intern instead of a tough one, then I would sacrifice this great opportunity, the cost of which is big!

2. Academics and real business world could be every different. Think of what factors evaluate academic success and what factors measure career success. Examinations, grades, GPA are really standardized measurements of academic success, but there is no measurement of initiative, passion, in person skills, etc. On the other hand, career success is measured by non-standardized factors. Either competent jerks or lovable fools can have their achievements in the office.

3. Money is a matter that doesn't matter. I was shocked at first that I am paid so handsomely. But soon I realized money could be good thing if I don’t pay attention to it but can be a very bad thing if I always want to know how to spend it. Right now I spend an average $650(tuition not included) every month to fulfill my basic needs. I live happily and healthily, so any extra amount of money spent on fulfilling basic needs would be unnecessary. So, say hi to money and then walk away from it (making investments is another topic).

These are my realizations within the past 24 hours after receiving the offer. I will keep posting my new thoughts and hope everyone can leave your comments on these thoughts. 

The End of the Old College Life

There is nothing in this world that is not possible. We refuse to believe in something before we get our hands on it. We are too often scared by the opportunity cost and neglect the true expectation of an event. I was convinced by myself that at the beginning of my college life that I cannot crack into one of the top master programs in China, but now all my 3 roommates make this happen. There is one more year left before the end of the college life, where is my dream? I should believe I can make this happen too!

Life Style

The happiest people all have schedules for their lives. Routines keep a person busy and thus healthy. So keeping a life style is really vital. I will choose simplicity as I did before. This conception should serve as the guideline for every aspect of my life, including studying methods, electronic devices usage, eating habits, shopping checklists, so on and so forth.

Mathematics frustration

Sometimes the math homework can be so hard that I need to stand up and walk away from it. I know that as long as I sit down and keep working on it, I can work out every single problem.

A lost place

I have literally abandoned this place for almost half a year. It is also in this period of time that I found myself lost.

Memories often occurred to me that how positive and hopeful I was when I first stepped on this continent.

But they all gone.

I know the greatest enemy is always the person himself. Not his or her competitors, not destiny.

Human beings may never have full control over themselves, but the better they control themselves, the better the persons will be.

If I want to regain the hopeful, positive, and optimistic mind that I used to own, this is probably the first place to start. I will keep posting blogs about how I am going to improve myself. It also serves as a way to practice English.

See you tomorrow.

A Sleep

After a short sleep, I feel like waking up after a long frozen winter.  The streams of life are flowing in my body. I am reborn.