Reflections On the Past Lantern Festival (Lugg. 7)

February 9th, which at the same time was January 15th in Chinese lunar calendar, was our Festival of Lanterns, the last day of the new year.
Actually, I was not aware of the significant date initially until a classmate shared her thought on the festival in class. I felt ashamed at that time because I would not be able to send a short message to wish my parents a happy Lantern Festival if the group mate hadn’t mentioned this. God bless me!
It was from that day on that we started to seat ourselves on whichever chair we like. After the silent reading, maybe silent sleep for some classmates, Miss Wong, in accordance with practice, began the class with a conversation. And a girl talked about her experience on the MRT when the train was passing by the 11th station. I got shocked when I heard that some committed suicide there, ending their precious life regardless of the feeling of their relatives, especially parents. How irresponsible they were to leave inerasable scars on the heart of their parents’! I could sense Miss Wong’s sincere concern when she told us that it was we who were most significant to our parents, rather than how much achievement we would obtain. What would made our parents anxious was that we became anxious when we got a low mark in an exam, rather than the shame we brought to them. Our parents expected us to be a person of integrity, to behave ethically and to live happily and healthily most, rather than…
After the touching conversation, Miss Wong treated us dumplings, which are traditional food eaten on that special day. Then, with a feeling of satisfaction, we went back to the classroom to continue our lesson. I remembered clearly about the topic of gifts. I recalled that I often sent a sandglass to my friend when he was on his birthday because I valued time very much. However, I have been wasting time at times since I came here, which made me rather annoyed. I always delayed my task to the next day and kept reminding myself to stop procrastinating and do something. I scarcely found efficiency in my daily work. I was reconciled to the awful circumstances but I couln’t prevail over it. Oh my!
My mind wandered further and further, and I realized that I cost much time on meaningless things because of my over carefulness. I once believed it’s better to err on the side of caution. Nevertheless, I doubted it at that time for I’ve wasted much time owing to my excessive caution. Maybe it was time to change a bit. Suddenly, I came back to the class as a consequence of the break. I was not on my mind just now. I stunned for a while and wondered, in despiration, whether I could still remember it the next day!
Hope that I could really make better use of time!