What is the best gift your father had given you?
Wait! Father's Day is coming, it should be the other way around right? We should be thinking about what gifts we should buy for our father (or are you thinking about it now, or you are so busy and would like to just send a text message on that day). Whatever you are thinking now, let's chat about the best gift you had received from your dad.
To me, the best gift I had received from my dad was a dual-gift, when I was in grade 6. What is dual-gift? Is this word even in a dictionary? It doesn't matter. What i mean is at that time, I received both physical gift and spiritual gift.
During my first year at secondary school, I had just gone through a mentality change (if you read my first post about my background when I was young), and I was terribly at math back then. I failed the entrance exam, and was classified into what the school called "mediocre classes". There were 13 classes belonged to that type, and I was in the bottom class of that "gang". I referred calling these classes as "gangs" because they literally were. If you watched the series "High & Low" (a Japanese movie series) or "Crows Zero" you will be able to visualize what I mean (by the way, if you read the other part of the story, you would know I dominated them at the end. Sound cool but not good at all. Don't try to imitate if you were in the same situation. This story is about some good stuff during my "faulty" years)
I was not a bad student. By that, I mean I did study hard, but I wasn't smart like my father, or even matched with my peers. At first, I thought I was destined to be mediocre. However, my father has never given up on me (even now, he still believe I could change the world). On my birthday, he bought me a nice watch, not a super expensive one, but the one he bought for me is 20 times better than the one he have wore all his life (until now, he is still wearing the same watch). Together with the advice how to use the watch.
If you read up to this part, you may wonder "Why on earth do we need to know how to use the watch?!! We all know what's it for?". However, the only limitation in human's capabilities is their imagination. Sometimes, Watches or not just for keeping your self up to date with the time. It is more, and let's me tell you about it.
My father told me "Basically, Watches are for showing time. Most people just think it in that way; however, if you want to surpass the others, you have to go further and beyond". Alright, he got my attention. My ears started opening wider than normally. My eyes started bigger than usually. The curiosity really encourage me to open the pandora box, except this time, the pandora box would be filled with wisdom for sure.
"A Watch is a warning. It tells you time never stop going forward. The moment you are left behind is not when you fail in trying to do something, but when you stop moving and believe you had lost the game. As long as there still another seconds coming, you will still have a chance to prove your effort"
He paused for a little bit to make sure I keep up with his saying, and then continued:
"So, never stop moving forward, and never let a second go by meaninglessly. Seize the time with you've got, to do the things you wanted to do, or you need to do. Use it to to strengthen your discipline".
Then he asked me a crucial important in my head " tell me, my dear son, what you wanted to do right now?". I told him that I wanted to be good at math like him. He was a savvy businessman, with the ability to calculate complicated equations as quick as a machine. I am serious. What made me depressed was that he was that good and I was that bad. Deep down, we all wanted to make our dad proud because our Dad has been always our biggest personal hero.
He told me that he wasn't born with that talent. He practiced it, and every good things he had done consistently throughout his life. "Consistently" was the key he stressed to me multiple times. "And that is also the reason I bought you this watch. All you have to do is to take time to do 2 math exercises a day, from easy to difficult in level; and do it consistently the whole year. That means you would do around 730 math exercises a year. That number equal to a thick book of math. And trust me, after that, you are unbeatable".
I took his advice, and it worked in just three months. I had improved in a way I started to shock the whole classes, and I then lead the "bottom of the sea" class that I was in to win the 7 special classes (these classes have students that passed the exam with flying color). I did changed all individuals in my classes (with both studying and fighting. Let's say it was " Fist and Pen" approach).
After that, I was transferred to the special class for gifted student at the end of that year. That was also I first met my first love. I though the best chapter of my life had begun. No one knew it was actually the beginning of an end. However, this sad part I will leave for another day.
Now that I had experience all the failures due to my carefulness during glory days. I had let time gone by meaningless, and no way I could turn the clock back. But even though I had failed that much, I will never stop moving forward. And now that Father day is coming, I really want to give him a watch like a gift. The different is this time, the meaning changed according to the context. To me, the gift I would buy will not be the warning, it is a " prediction".
Every 12 hours, the clock returns to its original place. I believe every person have a period of time they can be on top of the world, and a period of time they will be at the bottom of the sea. These two special times; however, never last forever. Like what my father had taught me, I had failed a lot but I have never given up on learning from these failures. I had prepared my self well enough so that when times come, and it will be, I shall fulfill the promise I had made with him. Like the dragon in the watch I want to gift to him, " No matter how dark the sky could be, the KOI will surpass the waterfall, turn into dragon, and fly above the storm".
What's about you? Would you want to share with me your story. What is your best gift you received from your Dad? Even more interesting, what is the best gift you have given your father?
