I was invited to Mr. & Mrs. Nice's place for lunch yesterday. One of our friends, TE was in town for business trip. Well since I just had a catch up dinner with TE two nights ago, Therefore I wasn't that thrilled to meet him up yesterday. Instead I was really looking forward to meet Miss Nice. You know what? I actually dreamt about her few nights ago. Oh, Miss Nice is turning 3-month old this Wednesday. :)
Me: I feel that I still know nothing about my profession. I'm still running around Level One.
Mr. Nice: There's actually so much to know. You don't have to worry. I'm sure you're doing fine.
Me: I wish I could be creative, independent and be familiar with my research area.
Mr. Nice: Well, that would be nice if you could achieve those now. They are your ultimate aims.
Me: What should I aim right now?
Mr. Nice: Master your technical skill although you're dependent on your supervisors' advice and suggestions. That's absolutely fine.
Mr. Nice: You know ,you really shouldn't look too far ahead. If you can't pass Level One, how can you proceed to Level Two?
I tilted my head slightly to look at Miss. Nice (the baby). She's smiling at me. Geez, she's really growing fast. She has grown quite a bit since I last saw her two weeks ago. Man, I'm now a little concerned that the baby clothes I bought for her during my conference trip would soon not fit on her. And I thought I was smart in getting a size of a 9-month old. Oh heck, I need a lot of training in this aspect. *lol*
Yeah, babies grow fast. I'm sure in 3 months' time; her parents will be bragging about her turning her back and eventually rolling around. 6 months later, she'll be crawling around the house. When she's close to one-year-old, she'll be holding any furniture she can find in the house to support her little chubby legs to stand up. In fact she will start calling "Papa & Mama". Some even scream "I want mum-mum (no, not calling for the mother, but for food!)." Don't be shocked about this, I was one of them. *teehee* Soon enough she'll be walking all by herself and then even starting to run around and play hide and seek with her parents. Ah, what an amazing infant developmental process. Did we really go through all these stage by stage ourselves when we were babies?
Babies learn step by step. It is also the same for every one of us, be it studies, career, relationship and so forth. We won't be able to run steadily if we can't even stand firm. The more we rush, the easier we will trip ourselves. Construction workers have to follow the instruction of Civil Engineers to lay a strong and solid foundation for gigantic building, regardless of how fancy the design by its architectural was. Without the foundation, the building will crack and fall easily. Another example is growing a small plant. It takes time for it to grow and for its flowers to come into bloom. Pulling the stem of the plant to make it taller is way too foolish. Fertilize the soil too much ain’t helping either. The plant will grow and bloom when the time is ripen as long as it has sufficient minerals in its soil and is exposed to enough sunlight and watered regularly.
I grinned at the baby again. And she smiled back as if she knew what I was thinking and thus responded, “Jie-Jie (older sister in mandarin), let’s focus and just work hard on our first level in our developmental stage.” I pinched her chubby cheeks and nodded my head and whispered to her, “Thanks for your little support and reminder!”
By the way, Mr. Nice’s mother protested that her granddaughter should call me Aunty Jade instead of jie-jie (older sister). This was agreed by the rest too. Nooo... way!! I insisted to be called jie-jie giving the reason that Mr. Nice is just 6 years younger than my uncle (my mother’s brother). Hence they are in the same generation whereas Miss Nice and I are the same generation. Eh, don’t you just adore Jade’s cheekiness?
