Life Goals
Life Goals
  • reporter Choi Eun-je
  • 승인 2019.11.08 15:07
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Reporter Choi Eun-je
Reporter Choi Eun-je

 

At the end of the spring semester this year, I was tired of school life. Yet, at the beginning of the semester, I was filled with expectations toward my new environment and knowledge to learn. However, excessive assignments and speedy lessons always made me run out of time, and it led to a lack of sleep. Moreover, I had not been back home to see my family for a long time, which made me mentally exhausted. As the exam period came, the situation became even worse. I concluded that I needed a long break to restore myself. Therefore, I decided not to do anything during the summer vacation.
The first few days of summer vacation I felt a surge of happiness. I did not have to get up early in the morning anymore and spent all day playing games or watching movies. No one was scolding me for living like that. After two weeks of such a life style, one day, I stayed up all night playing a game with my friend and fell asleep in the morning. That day, I barely woke up at dinner time, and the fact that I spent time so meaninglessly caused me to fall into a great sense of helplessness. I thought it would be nice to have nothing to do, but it was not. I did not want to spend the day meaninglessly anymore. Since then, neither games nor movies have entertained me.
I needed a goal. I decided to run. The way I chose to build up the strength was running. On the first day, I could run for just 12 minutes. Experiencing my poor endurance, I was in despair. However, this despair gave me the desire to increase my strength, and I set my goal to run longer each time. On the second day, as the running time became 12 minutes, it began to get tough just like the first day. To achieve the goal I set, I kept running and I was able to run for 15 minutes that day. It was only three minutes of improvement, but the fact that it had increased compared to the previous day was important. I felt great satisfaction and fulfillment as I accomplish my goal every day. After a month of this process, I was able to run an hour, which was five times the first day’s amount.
The strength was not the only thing that changed through a month of running. Playing games or watching movies after running entertained me again. Relieving the tiredness that came from running through these activities gave me pleasure and it refreshed me to do my best again. Also, my goal changed from what I usually do during my break time. Not only watching movies, but I also started to find videos about how I can enhance my strength more effectively. I realized that a break without a goal is meaningless and we should pursue proper harmony between relaxing and putting in effort to achieve our goals.
These are the lessons that I learned during this vacation. People should have goals. It seems simple and obvious, but in the first semester, I forgot because of my busy daily live. Passion without a goal is like driving car without a destination. Fuel without a destination makes us waste our energy and passion easily and get tired. Without a goal, even rest is meaningless. However, I think there are many people who have forgotten their goal in POSTECH because of a tough student life. I hope those who have forgotten their goal to read this article and have time to think about their goal again, like me. If you are one of them, set your own goal from a small one to a more challenging one. Achieving them step by step will give you courage, power, and satisfaction in overcoming any difficulties.