Life Lessons Learnt In Kindergarten

Danielle wrote a light and funny post on some common sense manners learnt when she was five, of which still applies today in adulthood. Then, Mindy shared an excerpt from a book in the comments section which I think is cute, sweet yet so practical and inspiring.

It made me realise that sometimes we can be so caught up with our daily lives, worrying about our job and money, we forget about the most simple and basic rules we learned as kids that would help put our life in order in some way or another.

I am sharing the said excerpt from the book “All I Really Need To Know, I Learned In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum here today. Enjoy!

All I Really Need To Know, I Learned In Kindergarten

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. All I REALLY need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

© Copyright Robert Fulghum, 1990. Excerpt from ”All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.

Are You Savvy?

It didn’t take long for me to realise that living in Auckland can be very expensive. Not having a comfortable income just adds insult to injury. That’s the worst thing about student life really – handicapped finances. Every week is about budgeting, budgeting and more budgeting.

I never cooked so much in my life until I moved to New Zealand to study. Cooking everyday cuts down weekly costs, thus it’s more of a must than a choice. I enjoy cooking, don’t get me wrong. But before this, it had always been just an interest and a few occasional meals for friends. Now, it’s more to cook or go broke in 2 days from eating out!

Cooking everyday also means managing our own grocery shopping every week. Back in Malaysia, mom and granny did all the shopping and cooking for the family. Naturally, I am absolutely clueless of the prices of usual items like meat, fruits or even salt and sugar. During those rare occasions where I need to do light shopping for a dish I decided to make for friends, all I do is pick up the items, pay and go. I am ignorant of price tags. Even if the cashier overcharged me, I wouldn’t notice!

Living in Auckland on limited finances has taught me how important it is to be a savvy grocery shopper.

Every weekend, Terry and I shop for groceries. Hypermarkets and supermarkets usually mark up prices of their items and select a handful to go on special every week. The trick is to rotate the items we pick up every week, according to the rotation of items on special in the hypermarket. Or put it simply, I follow their weekly newsletter closely. It’s like our little hunting adventure every week

At times when I really needed to buy something that is not on special, I usually pick the cheapest brand or I stare at the shelf really long trying to make up my mind on the best choice in terms of quality and quantity. That explains why my grocery shopping session usually takes more than an hour!

I trained really hard to stop buying things (especially snacks) that I simply feel like eating that particular week, but only items that are necessary and on special. An item on special may be usually less than a dollar cheaper than its normal price but you will be surprised how the cents add up in the grand total. Every cent does count!

In addition, Terry makes the habit to take a mental note of the prices of items we usually buy. Items like rice, bread, meat and fish (per kg), and a variety of canned food, their prices are at his fingertips. Doing this enables him to help me recognise better deals if I saw these items selling at bargain prices at another shop I don’t usually frequent.

Every item I put in my cart, I remember the price. Nobody is perfect and sometimes items on special isn’t really registered as a special on the cashier’s system. While queuing up to pay, an approximate grand total is worked up in our heads and if this number is within 5 dollars of the cashier’s, we are good. If we get overcharged on a particular item, we notice it immediately. Usually, it’s a mistake we made in reading the price tag on the shelf, and we would return it on the spot. In a few other occasions, it was the system’s fault.

I used to think that being savvy at grocery shopping is a waste of time because it takes too much effort and the savings insignificant. How ignorant was I!

I guess it takes a lot of growing up to acknowledge that it pays to be savvy at shopping. It pays to be a savvy shopper knowing that you are always aware of better deals and on alert in case you get overcharged for nothing! Everytime I look at my shopping receipt (which indicates my total savings), I feel accomplished seeing that I made an effort to save

Are you a savvy grocery shopper? Do you compare prices of items? If the cashier overcharges you, would you realise immediately?

 

It Isn’t Spring

It feels like spring. At least in the blogosphere. Almost everyone is blogging about spring, flowers blossoming, ice melting and warmer days. However waaaaaay down south in New Zealand, it isn’t spring at all. Instead, autumn is approaching…

The reality finally sank in when I needed to wear long pants and socks to bed last night. Just minutes ago, I pulled out the duvet from deep inside our closet. The tomato and long bean plants are withering and most of the lettuce plants are ready to be pulled out.

However, all is not lost!

After doing so well in summer, my strawberry plants are now focusing all its energy to make babies! Runners are sprouting non-stop in place of strawberries and Terry had been laying little containers and pots around to “receive” them. Roots start to grow at the tips of these runners as soon as they “find their ground” and turn into new strawberry plants.

Instead of one, now we have a total of 8 strawberry plants, 7 of them from runners. Let’s hope these little babies survive through the winter chill and develop into their full potential next summer.

And last but not least, the late boomer finally arrived – our cauliflower

I Wish

Every morning, I take the bus to university. During one of my routine bus rides, I watched as a mother with two  young children in tow got onto the bus and asked what the total fare for her kids were.

“How old are they?” the driver asked.

Patting the palm of her hands lightly on each of the children in turn, she said “This girl here is three and this boy is four.”

“Alright that would be a total of…for all three of you….”

Suddenly the driver was interrupted.

Tugging at the lady’s left hand vigorously and looking up frowning, the little boy shouted, “Noooooo!! Mommy….I am five! FIVE….!!” He appeared to be really upset.

“Oh sorry, this one’s five,” the lady corrected.

“Five? But you just said he’s only four!” the driver laughed, teasing the lady.

“Yes I know, it’s terrible!” she answered rolling her eyes and turned to the boy and said “Sorry, honey!”

Everyone chuckled as the lady paid and took a seat with her kids.

I smiled at the encounter and thought, why is it that children get upset when you think they are younger than their actual age while adults (especially ladies) get offended vice versa? Some even dodge the age question like it’s taboo. Why is it that kids can’t wait to grow up and when they finally do, they wish they wouldn’t have to?

When I was a kid, I can’t wait to be a working adult because from what I observed, working adults don’t have homework and exams. When I was in high school, I can’t wait to go to university because then I don’t have to wear school uniform. When I was in university, I can’t wait to start working and earn my own living. When I finally graduated and got a job, I wish I could go back to being a student. When I started graduate school, I was happy about student life for a while but now I can’t wait to finish and get it over with.

But most of all, I wish I never had to grow up in the first place and be five and carefree forever. I guess the grass is indeed always greener on the other side. To that little boy on the bus, you don’t know what you are going to be missing!

All That Clutters

More than 2 years ago, I arrived in Auckland with only a laptop, a large suitcase and a hand-carry bag. I moved from one place to another for not once, twice nor thrice but 4 times! Each time I moved, I discover I have more and more stuff to carry. From one additional boxful of clothes and kitchen consumables to more shelves, storage chests….oh my gosh! I would’ve included the car too but I figured it doesn’t count since it lumps uncountable items to become one two carloads of stuff. The last time I moved, I can fit myself only into the third carload.

A very good friend once told me, “If you think you are poor, try moving and see.”

So scaringly true! Since moving to this current place that Terry and I are renting (we’re only renting a room by the way), we have added a queen-sized bed, one TV, one de-humidifier and one TV cabinet into the list. That is not the point. The room is very comfortably sized for us and it has a good-sized closet too. Somehow, random  items start to accumulate under the table, behind the door, beside the cabinet and pretty much all corners in the room every few days. I try to keep our room pleasant by de-cluttering every week. And as the weeks go by, I find the accumulation of clutter getting bigger and bigger and before I know it, I need additional space to store them!

Everything is packed to the brim – the closet, the drawers, the storage box, even my original luggage is full of stuff. I really have no idea where all these items appear from! I swear I haven’t been shopping for clothes or shoes or anything bulky for ages. Oh and let’s not get started with our shelf in the kitchen cabinet. The number of jars and bottles keep growing.  We occasionally sell items no longer needed on Trade Me (New Zealand’s online auction site) to try to get rid of clutter. So far we have sold a mini shelf, a TV aerial,  a printer, several electronic items, but still the de-cluterring process seem to be endless.

Alright, I agree that every little purchase counts and it accumulates to becoming clutter. It is almost impossible for me to keep track of the accumulation before I notice clutter under the table for example. Last week, Terry and I bought another 5-storey, 1.6-meter  high wooden shelf to organise our “clutter”. The shelf was full! Everything is organised at the moment but I knew it won’t be long until clutter starts appearing again. Perhaps I should try harder to adopt a minimalist lifestyle.

Sometimes I feel like it’s a dilemma because like everyone else, I long for the day when we can stop renting and have a place of our own. But if one room produces clutter to this extent, I can’t imagine what will be if we have a whole house to ourselves! I am aware of the fact that we need professional movers the next time we move, sighs. Now, if you excuse me, I have to clear up this little “hill” beside my bed.

Do you have a problem with clutter too?

The Art Of Comparison

Shin Loo is a very close friend of mine, with whom I share a lot in common. She blogs at The Geographically Blind,  which is an inspiration for me to start blogging. She has a wicked sense of humour, often expressed through her posts. The Art of Comparison (original post here) is one of my favourite entries from her blog and I am sharing it here today. Enjoy…!

The Art Of Comparison

Being depressed about life in general, a friend wrote an entry in her blog which I’d like to share it with you here.

There was this person in Hell, let’s call the person X.

So, X was living a relatively happy life.

There were happy days, sad days,

and recently, many stressful ones.

But it’s okay.

Because X believed that the days will past.

And there will be sunshine after the rain.

And X was glad of the life X had.

Life could not have been better.

Then one day, X met Y.

Y was someone from heaven.

So, Y was talking about how perfect and wonderful life is.

Y was having the best time of Y’s life.

That was when X realized that X had been living in hell all this while.

And X craves to go to heaven.

And as Y continues talking about the fun and happiness.

And X wonders, why did Y have to tell X?

Why did Y had to torture X that way??

-The End-

“The End”, it says… but it is not the ending. The story is not complete. The complete story goes like this:

X continued to be very unhappy.

He kept thinking why he had to suffer like this, while Y can live a good life.

This thought troubled him by day, haunted him by night.

But then one day, X met Z.

Z was someone from the Earth.

Z was not a happy person.

He complained to X that his life sucks.

He had to go to work everyday, get a tiny weeny bit of salary in order to survive.

His boss treated him like a slave; his colleagues back-stabbed him.

Only to be retrenched due to recession.

Now that he was jobless and penny-less, his wife left him and ran away with another man.

His son got into drugs and his under age daughter got pregnant.

He was helpless and didn’t know what to do.

That was when X realized that he had been living in heaven all this while.

And Z continued to nag about his troubles and problems.

X was sympathetic.

And at the same time glad, and contented about his life.

-THE END-

Now that’s the ending. The moral of the story? Choose the right person to compare with and try not to make yourself feel miserable.

What is Your Purpose in Life?

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a wise friend which revolved around the big question: “What is your purpose in life?”

If asked this question a few years ago, I would have quickly related the answer to be somewhat religious. And being a non-religious person, I was under the impression that I could never be able to give a satisfactory answer. True enough, I did not know the answer. I was so eager to give the right answer that my mind went blank thinking of one. I was intimidated by the question.

When faced with the same question once again a few days ago, I gave it a little thought and suddenly had a eureka moment. Right then and there. I came to the realisation that this question has no right answer, it’s really a question of opinion. I said smiling, “I know it’s a little vague, but my purpose in life is to be happy.”

My friend assured me that my answer was not vague at all. In fact she thought it was very specific. We discussed further and I arrived at some interesting conclusions about myself. Now that I know what my purpose in life is, I started to think about ways in which I could live my life, driven by that specific purpose.

We both acknowledged that the state of being happy is highly subjective to every individual, life situation and most importantly – timing. In my opinion, I will truly be happy when I have contentment in life. In order to be contented, I need to pursue all my “wants” to come to the stage where I could finally say “I am happy now.” Of course I cannot deny the complication of not knowing what I want. I might think I want something, but I wouldn’t really know until I got it. Agree?

Instead of pondering on my doubts, I decided to put things in action now. Well because life is short and I am not there yet! At the present moment, I think I will be happy if I can graduate by year 2012 and start living a life that I enjoy. Well, what kind of life would I enjoy? That’s another story for another post

For now, I should focus to make this work. When come 2012, I will decide again if I am truly happy or….plan something else. I shall keep doing this until I find contentment in life. This may take me a few years or a lifetime (let’s hope it’s not the latter…). Then, I can be happy.

So tell me, what is your purpose in life…?

Berry Cheerful Sunday

I woke up to a chilly and gloomy Sunday this morning. Although its summer, the miserable weather suggested otherwise. The sun has gone into hiding for the past few days to be exact! Today, the drizzling started since dawn. Stuck at home, I can’t help but feel a little gloomy and depressed too.

I did my laundry and took it out to dry in the garage because the forecast says it will be cloudy with chances of rain….all day……

Feeling bored, I decided to walk over to my garden to check on my vegetable patch after that. I haven’t watered my patch in the last few days because the rain did the job. And I don’t fancy walking over wet soil too….ughh…

I almost forgot that I have wrapped up three strawberries middle of last week to keep them hidden from the birds (darn birds..!). And look at them now! What a lovely way to turn a gloomy day into a berry cheerful one

Looking Back When I Was “Fortunate”

When I was young, I always get told how fortunate I was to be able to get a ride in the family car to everywhere. Or that I get to have chicken for dinner. Or when I got new toys from the mall. My father would tell me that when he was a child, he had to wake up at dawn everyday to help his mom who was a rubber tapper. He had to walk or cycle everywhere. Even getting a ride on the bus was considered very luxurious. Rice with soy sauce was his daily meal. If he was lucky he would get to have chicken during festive seasons.

Even though I understood that his intention was only to make me feel contented with what was provided and to not be wasteful, I wasn’t able to understand how having chicken for dinner was anything to shout about  during the 1990′s. I would have preferred McDonald’s anyway. A car on the other hand, was no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Everyone gets driven around and I was no different. In other words, my reality was very different from my father’s and I simply could not comprehend his “struggles”.

Ten years down the line, I was getting ready to leave home for the very first time to attend university and my mother bought me my first mobile phone, at 20 years old. The type with monotonic ring tones and non-colour display screen. I didn’t have my own computer until I was in my second year of university. My mother had purchased me an old run down desktop that was only installed with basic Microsoft Office. It was deemed good enough for me to complete my assignments and that was about it. I did not have internet connection throughout my university days, heck my computer was not even capable of playing mp3 music! I relied solely on my old-fashioned walkman to listen to the radio when I had to. I bought myself my very first and own laptop only 2 years ago in year 2008.

When I look around me these days and see school-going teenagers using fancy touch screen mobile phones which also has internet access, Apple Macbooks, Louis Vuitton handbags, iPods, Dior sunglasses…..I think I can finally say that I begin to see what my father meant some 20 years ago when he talked about me being “fortunate”.  This time, my reality no longer fit into that of the current generation’s.

Which reminds me, I should pile on more eye creams and anti ageing serums tonight.