Tag: school

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Keep Your Promises!

I remember the promises that you told me before. Apparently, you don’t remember, and you don’t care. How can others trust you, and how can you ask them to follow you?

I know it’s not easy being a professor. However, when you are a professor, how can you change your mind again and again? You always put your students in tough situations, and you see how they struggle in those situations. You never change, even sometimes you are aware of their feelings, you just show a bit of kindness. Then you forgot why they don’t trust you anymore. Remember before you said your dream is to let us finish our thesis project in the first year and take it easy in the second year. But the fact is that I’ve done many different experiments which didn’t produce any results, which wasted my time. I agree that we need to try experiments, but you still blamed us for the failures. You also made me change the goal for my thesis multiple times. This also happened in my second year, when I was supposed to be relaxing, according to you. Now I’m rushing to complete my thesis, making me stay up late and be unhappy. Now that I know you more, I know it’s impossible that you would allow us to relax, because we would have nothing to do. You view us as employees because you pay us a tiny amount of money, so there’s no way you would let us relax in the second year.

You always say things are easy. I think it’s because you do not do those things. All those things you think are easy is just because you just ask other people to do. I agree that it’s a kind of “training,” but what I get from the training is that your leadership never improves or changes, just your requirements for projects always changes. You never have clear direction, because you ask us to think and find the direction for you. I agree that’s important, but it depend on the situation. When there’s not enough time to do that “training,” and for master students, I think we need a good leader with comprehensive plan, at least for most parts. It’s important to help your students, not leave them stranded without a paddle.

Every discussion you have with your students turns into an argument. You also don’t get along with your graduated PhD students. They never want anything to do with you when they graduate and leave. You told me this and I didn’t think too much about it, I should think more about these kinds of things. You have told me that I’m a kind of “rebel” and I don’t listen to authority. I don’t care what you think of me, I just want to get through my program and leave quickly. I definitely won’t have any connection with you after leaving.

I want to leave ASAP.

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Learning Instruments

I have practiced a few musical instruments since I was a kid. I practiced some at school, and some outside of school, the difference is that you need to pay for one. Hahaha!

I think the first instrument I learned is the recorder in elementary. That recorder is still at my home. Although we are not rich, but I remember my father still brought me to buy a recorder. I performed for my family when I came home from school, late into the night, much to my Mom’s protests! After that, we learned the harmonica. After Elementary school, I didn’t practice or pick up a new instrument until after college. During college, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar, and I wanted to join a guitar club. My mom said the guitar was as heavy as my study. Without support of family, I gave that idea up temporarily. There are many kinds of clubs in university, and I joined other clubs while attending university, however I still didn’t join a musical club. After that, my studies picked up and I was too busy to deal with my clubs. After I graduated, I saved some money after working for a period of time, and the idea to practice instruments come me again. This time I wanted to practice the electric guitar, so I found a teacher on the internet who was near my home that would teach me how to play. I had hoped that I could be as cool and impressive as the teacher. However, I was living in a different city, and I couldn’t go back home to my home town every weekend, because I was busy with my master’s program. So I had to stop practicing. After my studies calmed down a little, I joined some university clubs and thought maybe I could practice some instruments when I have some free time. By joining clubs, I could also take my mind off of annoying things from school. I picked up the electric guitar first, and then the keyboard. I even went to the drum lessons! There is a fee to join the club, but after paying, you can use all the instruments, like the keyboard or drums, that way you don’t have to buy the instruments for yourself. But since they have a limited number of instruments, it’s hard to borrow them from them from the club. I noticed that undergraduate students have more time than graduate students. It’s too bad!

Although the undergraduate club teachers are fine, it’s still not as good as a one on one class. However, you get what you’re paying for, you can’t be too picky. They can share they learned how to play, which is nice to hear. They are willing to answer you if you have any problems, but their teaching is fragmentary. If you want to use the space and instruments, you need to fill out the form and contact the person who is responsible for that. Besides, the number of class slots is limited and there is just one set for every kind of instrument, you always need to compete with others. Right now all the bands are practicing, so it’s very difficult to borrow the classroom and those instruments. Besides, without any background of keyboarding and drums, I don’t know how to practice by myself. Who can teach me even I borrow? It’s impossible to ask club mates, so maybe I need to consult with the club teacher. That’s another big problem. Learning instruments takes practice. Without practicing, it’s impossible to be cool, unless I’m a genius.

However, I’m still appreciate their efforts, and I thank for having the chance to learn different instruments. I hope I can have the opportunity to play better for the instruments that I’ve learned. Keep enjoying the joy that the music brings for me!