“Equivalent exchange” is my maxim. It is the main idea of “Fullmetal Alchemist”, my most favorite cartoon show [ CITATION Sol071 \ 1033 ]. The story of this cartoon revolved around Elric brothers’ struggle for their destiny(s). This corroborates that, what people do must be commensurate to their aspirations. It allows me to believe that victory is reciprocal to striving and struggling. However, out of frustration I once did not believe this reciprocal relation between success and struggle to be true.
I strongly believed this equation to be true without any doubt, exhorting and challenging myself. If the right hand side of the formula is the dream, I will put diligence and intelligence into the left hand side with alacrity. Similar to what Albert Einstein said, work is 1% inspiration plus 99% perspiration [ CITATION Tys85 \ 1033 ]. I convinced myself not to sleep until all questions were solved; clarified all answers from my teachers before they left. It was more of a passion for me to enroll myself for the topmost high school, then a reputable university and therefore I studied very hard. Nevertheless, fate played a joke on me! Although I spent every minute of my time, every unit of my energy in striving for the best, I still almost missed the opportunity to go to my ideal school. How could that happen? I won many awards, which meant my talent was not lesser that any of my opponents; I had dark circles under my eyes confirming my effort were not less than my coeval. Was that “Equivalent exchange”?
With vexation and unwillingness, but no option, I sat in my new classroom and began a new journey. The atmosphere around me was lighter than before. As the pressure of courses alleviated, I managed to have time to try what I always wanted to do; holding a director position in math club, playing basketball with other girls, and tutoring my classmates. One day, my friend surprisingly questioned me, “How can you be so perfect?” What? Perfect? I lay down on grass, gazed into sky, and ran that laudatory word in my mind. How sarcastic it was? Could I, a loser, be defined as “perfect”? If I was, I would not be in this school! I did not get any reciprocation for my exertion, did I?
Wait, there was a notion disturbing my mind – actually, I did attain something. Despite missing a good school, I instead received enormous and unprecedented experience, leadership and some superiority. I cannot deny that I would not have been anything more than an ordinary individual if I would have been in my dream school. I could not have experienced such entertainment and opportunities to excel. The paramount goal of mine was to compete the admission tickets of elite universities, similarly to the traditional ideology of numerous ambitious Chinese teenagers.
Here, by contrast, I was able to develop thoroughly. I began to rethink the meaning of “Equivalent exchange”. Perhaps “Inspiration” plus “perspiration” does not have to be equal to what people yearn, but may be equal to what they really need. I recognized that I had missed out on a whole lot of things while concentrating on text books. The formula may want to remind me that participating in extracurricular activities is just as important as studying. And high GPA is by no means the equivalent of success.
To achieve my dream, there are quantities of things I am required to undergo. Certainly, “Equivalent exchange” is pithy. It works as a reminder in my life and warns me of my blemishes I attained missing out on my life and reminds me to rectify my fallacious value. Therefore, no matter how abominable the result seems, I would like to get intimate with it and cherish it. I firmly believe now that whatever I attain will always be good, since I put all my efforts and cordiality on it.
Works Cited
- Solomon, Charles. For manga, a novel approach. 29 April 2007. 10 November 2011 http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/29/entertainment/ca-manga29>.
- Tyson, Jon Wynne. “The Extended Circle: A Dictionary of Humane Thought.” Harper’s Magazine (1985): 75.
