10 Years Younger

Do you wish to be 10 years younger? I had that wish, was not because I wanted to have younger skin. I wish to go back in time was because I wanted to give my younger self a second chance.

Last Monday, my dream came true. I finally traveled through time and became 10 years younger when I was in high school.

For the record, I was one of the popular students back then. The truth remained the same when I came back from 2017. I was famous was not because of dating anyone popular or being extremely well off. It was because of my academic excellence.

Here was how my typical went down. My morning started at 5:30 am. I got up, went to the balcony and practiced my English by reading an article aloud. If I still had time, I would go excise in the gym. Then I came back to my dormitory and joined my classmates for breakfast at 7, and went to our first class together before 8:30. The school day ended at 3:30 pm, and I usually stayed in the library for about 2 hours alone to do my homework and prepare for the next day. I spent rest of my day chilling with people, or hanging out with Canadian teachers for potlucks or movies.

Here was the change. Instead of spending time studying all day, I brightened my days with people interaction, volunteering, and exploring new things. Soon after, people’s impression on me had drastically changed: from a nerd who only cared about grades to a student leader, a friend, and a cheerleader. Later on, I was offered the role as the president of the student society.

Twice a week, I sat with the school board to work on some student society business. As a student leader I always looked for students’ best interest when it comes to having fun outside of the classroom. Since there was only a movie night event every Sunday, I was aiming to spice up students’ lives even more. Therefore, I proposed for ballroom dancing class and social every Saturday night from 8 to 11 pm, as well as the possibility of opening up a toastmaster club where students could practice their public speaking skills. When students heard about these ideas, they were thrilled. Their votes for approvals blew the entire ballot on the hallway. It literally just took an hour to get my new proposals approved. At the first night of the ballroom dancing event, half of the school was there to take beginner-dancing class and stayed for social after. The opening of the Toastmaster Club was a blast. Since there were way too many students wish to join the club, we had to open 10 clubs at the same time.

I invited in people a lot. Besides hanging out with my regular friends, I also volunteered to mentor younger students who were looking to improve themselves. I inspired them with my own stories and struggles, and also spent time learning about them at the same time. Overtime, we built trust together and became friends.

Beside school, having fun, volunteering, and building meaningful relationships, I was also a big fun of Canadian TV shows and CBC news current. TV shows such as Friends, Sex and City and Lord of The Ring were my favorites. I loved listening to the CBC News Current by Annamaria Tremonte, and I learned so many current events going on Canada wide.

I graduated from high school in year 2007. Here was part of my speech at the graduate ceremony “You should study hard, but should always play harder”. I’m strong believer of study-life balance, as you can’t succeed in life without life experience or good relationships. There is so much to accomplish other than getting good grades in high school. It’s true that getting into good Canadian universities means a lot to us right now, however 10 years from now, the person who you are matters even more. Remember what I said today. You will believe me when the time come."

All of sudden, I traveled back to 2017. It was Monday the 18th at 7:00pm. I realized that I had a dream.

I realized I wanted to go back in time so badly so that I could rewrite the history. Throughout my high school years, I had always been the top student with lots of respects from teachers and classmates, however my life was very dry and doing well at school was all I knew at that time. I had no friends, had no fun, let alone leadership experience.

When I finished my university in 2012, I tried to make changes to my life. Throughout these 5 years, I’ve grown so much. I learned the importance of work-life balance after I flunked an important document at work one day. I learned the importance of leadership development after being an assistant organizer for Calgary Rotaract for a year. I learned importance relationship building after continuously losing people in my life.

You were the way you were 10 years ago for a reason. Everyone has his or her unique journey on learning. Some people learned certain things earlier in life, while others learned them later when entering the working world. Remember, the end goal is your lessons are learned. That’s what matters.

It’s your journey, so take your time.

Note:

Above content only represents author’s perspective on certain subjects. The blog post was written based on author's dream, and no real story or people (person) was mentioned or referred to. The purpose is to inspire, motivate and share knowledge and experience with others.