Year Three, Almost Free 7: Midterm and Personal Means of Stress-Relief

Hello, Tim!

Our midterm is over, and right after that, we have to plunge ourselves into other numerous sessions of studies, for our GSAT is around a hundred days away. 

We have an alternate weather these days. It can be blazing-sun hot this day and biting-winds cold on the next. Rain is present throughout the week, so it would be wise for us if we have an umbrella in a hand’s distance and very unwise of us if we don’t. 

Semblance of Ragnarok 

I’m not sure if anyone here is familiar with the Ragnarok, but in short, it’s just the Norse version of the apocalypse. One notable difference is that the mythical beings in Norse mythology are said had spent their entire lives preparing for the eventual doom. Their concept of doom was, surprisingly, more creative than the other versions of the end of the world: Loki, the trickster god would launch an attack on the collective other gods, leading his own army of malicious intentions. The fire giant would burn the world as a sea serpent named Jömungandr would eat up the world from the bottoms of the sea. The warriors and the other gods that were fated to tackle the whole myriad of chaos, trained for the eventuality even though they knew that the world would have to be burnt down to the ash, taking along lives of both gods and warriors before a new world can rise. 

Well, one day it dawned on me that we are in some way similar to the warriors in the myths. We are faced with an imminent adversary (the GSAT), knowing it would bring down some of us while some remaining survivors. We bury our heads in the books, ‘training’ to stand out in the one-on-one combats (with the subjects,) but the whole of it just sounds a drastic step down to the heroic and epic-worthy striving for survival. 

A Book Bought is a Heap of Stress Relieved

Let’s wind up a bit and go back to two days before our midterm when I was at my desk studying history. For reasons, we had an inexplicable wide range needed to study. I felt like swimming through a sea of cotton with all the incidents, named, and wars, etc. swarming around in my head, and suddenly I felt a weird feeling that I was falling, like a pebble rolling off a cliff without the knowledge of how much longer it would take to reach the bottom. Despite the raging wind and incessant rain both visible and audible indoors, I grabbed a small paper pouch and an umbrella after a small contemplation of my destination. I hastily laid a thin layer of a vest on my shoulders and took off right after telling my parents I’m going out for a walk. 

It was only a little past seven, but the winds were already picking up; another hint winter dropped for us to notice his presence creeping near. The streets, dimly lit by the yellowish white lights coming from the street lamps, were more isolated than it normally is at the time of day, supposedly because of the rain and the gushes of wind that would very likely tear up the metallic joints of your feeble umbrella. I sauntered down the streets and took in the lonely streets as much as I could, with a view to soothe myself, probably on the margin of panic. I ended up at the doors of the nearest bookstore while content washed over me with the knowledge I get to look at books that are not textbooks for a change. There were no English novels that caught my eye in the particular bookstore, so determined as I was to bring at least one book home with me, I chose a Japanese novel translated into Chinese and bought it with the vouchers I kept in the said paper envelope. 

I chose the one on the left; I just cannot resist classy covers.

I am glad that I have my own mechanism of keeping my sanity intact when troubled by stress: When something feels off, leave and go buy a book. I felt substantially better afterward. 

End

This is the end of the week. It is quite brief, compared to the previous two letters, and while as much as I wanted to write another column about my book that I'm currently reading, I figured I should only have one entry for a book; that's fairer for the books.

Extra: Mom focusing on her knitting.

Sincerely, 

Hugo