To do the right thing?

Published on November 15, 2022by Le Mai Tan Dat

Sometimes, it's better to just listen, not ask!

When I joined "Interpersonal Engagement" organised by NUS College, I was amazed to learn that there are things that I have taken for granted, there are things that I consider the right things, but may produce different outcome based on the people that received them. When we think of "feminism", "gender equality",..., we often envision an inspiration talk "I grew up in... I have done... I can do it, so you can do it". There's nothing wrong with that. It is a thing that we should do. However, sometimes, there are things that cannot be changed just by inspirational words. Theoretically speaking, we, as human beings, have approximately 72 nucleotides that are different from our parents. Things are more complicated when we consider epigenetic, how genes are turned on and off. Even the environment surrounding has an influential effect on how we behave and think. So, there should be an acknowledgement that not everyone possesses the same thing, or experiences the same thing, right? Think about it, how could a person "be yourself" and "just say what you want", whilst they are living in an unsupportive environment? How can a person "just do what you like", whilst all that educational institutions care about are grades in academic subjects? Sometimes, I wonder why people do not perceive the world they way I do. But it is very unreasonable to expect people to think the way I do, behave the way I do. Everyone is not constructed using the same blueprint, and we seldom get the same workers to build the houses too. Imagine we are the addition, and we ask our friend, who is the deduction, why they couldn't get the value up. Of course the deduction cannot increase the value of the operation. Instead of trying to ask, why don't we add a larger number than the number being deducted, or seek for an additional deduction and put it next to each other so that "deduction with deduction makes addition"? I enjoy the way NUS College encourages "challenging idea, not ridiculing it". There may come a time, it's better not to convince others to go with our opinion, but rather accept and respect others' perspectives.

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I'm not writing this post to make you think in another way. I just wish to share my opinion and what I have learnt, hopefully, you will learn something new for yourself. Thank you for looking through my posts!

November 2020, Singapore.

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