"Why did you say you did badly last semester?" he asked me, recalling that I said that last Friday night when we went out as a group to watch a theater. "You got three BA."
I blinked, then frowned. "You checked my result?"
He grinned. "Yeah. In the system. You said you did badly so I was curious."
That really caught me off guard. "I didn't get a single A," I said.
He said something about it's the first semester and adapting and all that. I told him how I always stayed up till very late at night, reading and doing assignments and all that.
"This is a tough course. Ask anyone and they will acknowledge it's not easy," he said.
"Yeah. Makes me think I'm not smart enough to take this course," I frowned.
He said, "You are smart. Believe me."
But I gave him the I-don't-believe-that look. "Really?" He nodded.
I told him how I planned to do pHD and a BA is certainly not gonna help me do that. We talked more about the different pHD system in different countries.
Then I went to class, thinking whether I am smart enough or not. Ahaha.
Then I remembered a conversation with my american classmate last week. He told the class about his experience traveling around the world and i asked, "How did you get to travel so much?" thinking that he's probably from a rich family or something.
"Because I'm really smart," he said and laughed.
There are people who really believe that they are smart (and maybe even actually are smart). That's a good thing coz it helps with your confidence. What's more crucial, if it's true, that means you know your strength and hopefully know how to put it to good use. If it's not true, but you don't know it's not true, lets just hope that eventually it will be true...before it knocks you off your feet...in public.
Then I went to class, thinking whether I am smart enough or not. Ahaha.
Then I remembered a conversation with my american classmate last week. He told the class about his experience traveling around the world and i asked, "How did you get to travel so much?" thinking that he's probably from a rich family or something.
"Because I'm really smart," he said and laughed.
There are people who really believe that they are smart (and maybe even actually are smart). That's a good thing coz it helps with your confidence. What's more crucial, if it's true, that means you know your strength and hopefully know how to put it to good use. If it's not true, but you don't know it's not true, lets just hope that eventually it will be true...before it knocks you off your feet...in public.
hahaha....believe me, alina....after struggling with my masters study, and now working over the top for the phd, I can't stop asking myself, am I smart enough to continue with this journey....? and that was when someone told me, it is determination....and working hard....obviously, being smart is not enough....now I can't stop thinking, am I working hard enough?
ReplyDeleteBetul la Dayah awk cakap "smart is not enough". Dlm kelas sy ramai mat salleh yg bijak2, tapi mostly luangkan masa 1 hari je utk buat term paper 20 pages pastu dpt B. Sy nk dpt A mau b'minggu2 buat research, apart from English is not our first language.
DeleteReally??? That's exactly how I feel and what I'm thinking. Asyik t'tanya cukup pandai tak... tak cukup rajin lagi ke... Kadang2 rasa cemburu (bukan dengki ;p) lak dgn org yg betul2 konfiden dgn kemampuan diorg.
ReplyDelete