Five minute life updates!

For some strange reason, I feel like things in Australia change really quickly, sometimes faster than I can remember. That being said, I'm not talking about the developments in WA (which is practically going at snail's speed), but the events and occurrences in my life. Life seems to have just flown by, one and a half years isn't exactly a short amount of time, yet it seems to go by so quickly. Perhaps that's what they mean when they say good times are usually short, cause I truly am enjoying myself here, I'm truly loving every moment I have at dental school. Though I have to say, it is tough and rough, but it's only gonna make me buff (alright, this is quite bad). BUT.. it is making me buff.. figuratively and literally speaking. 

More importantly, I think I realize how much I appreciate my friends back home. The girls from church, Elaine, Jasmine and even my dudes are so dearly missed. I miss friendships that were not solely built on circumstances. Don't get me wrong, I love my core group of friends here in Perth too, my church mates and the dent gang are just blessing my life with extravagant experiences, not to mention, my special someone who doubles up as my soul mate too. :) 

Yes. Things have changed, for better or for worse, only time will tell. I honestly am confused about the situation or whether or not there is one to begin with. I am at a point in my life where I just don't seem to have the spare strength or energy to seek clarification or purpose. I no longer see a point in pursuing a friendship that does not mean anything to the other party. I've tried, but it's going to be just another seemingly transient relationship, then it's not one that I'm going to pursue. I'd rather build my friendships on the solid foundation of trust and love then to be in one of mistrust and speculation. 

So much for "friends forever".

Oh well.. On a lighter note, I met his parents a couple of weeks back. I was SOOO NERVOUS! You can only imagine the horror in my head, according to him, I was so tight lipped. I'm hoping (fingers crossed extremely tightly) that they'll be happy with his choice and that they'll know that I'm here to not only love their son, but to love them too. Right now, I'm just really blessed to have him in my life, at least I know there's someone who understands me and is there to hold my hand and catch me when I fall. After all.. He's the reason why I fell ... in love... in the first place. :) 

Born and bound to be no more

For the first time in 24 years, I've been challenged to rethink my concept of intelligence, of innate abilities or in short, the idea of "it's all in the genes". I've been reading a book called The Genius in All of us - David Shenk, I'm 50 pages in and I am half delighted that part of what I believe has been put into words and yet I know it shakes the other part of me that subconsciously categorizes.

Streaming, IQ tests, admission tests and all of the others that we have used to determine someone's intelligence, or rather, innate intelligence and in turn, whether or not they are "worthy" of admission, has been used to shape society, the way education systems work around the world, the way we categorize our children at the very young tender age. I know in Singapore, we fall into the fallacious world of genetic categorizing. Our ex-MM Lee used to believe so strongly that everything is genetically predetermined, having (with all due respect to him) the audacity to think that people of higher intellect should marry people of the same intellectual class, and hence have more children, so that we can produce a society that is genetically more intelligent.

I find that theory flawed. Like David Shenk and many geneticists, I don't believe that nature determines personality traits and capabilities. Genes are not independent of the environment we live in, genetics and traits are not solely predetermined when our parent's gametes meet, when crossing over occurs or when our genetic differentiation and specialization takes place. Yes, I have to admit though, that genes code for the proteins that would make up and form our traits, BUT, genes first interact with the environment to produce these proteins. So essentially, what I'm trying to say is that the so called "innate traits" that we have are not a sole product of genes, but an interaction between the environment and the genes to produce traits.

What does all that mean then? It means no one, absolutely NO ONE is born for mediocrity, no one is born incapable. Yes, you'd argue with me that there are genetic mutations like down syndrome or huntingtons, but we cannot discredit this thought by basing it on the anomaly of 5% of mutations. As illustrated in the book:

"'A disconnected wire can cause a car to break down,' explains Patrick Bateson. 'But this does not mean that the wire by itself is responsible for making the car move.' Similarly, a genetic defect causing a series of problems does not mean that the healthy version of that gene is single-handedly responsible for normal function"


My point is, are we falling into the misconception that what we're capable of has been genetically predetermined? If my parents and brothers are not athletes, does that mean I'm destined to not be one? It is the lack of an encouraging environment for sport from a young age that results in me being physically not as capable. The environment did not DEMAND of my body, or in this case, my genes to produce proteins and hence traits for sporting abilities.

Why is it that some families are a family of doctors? Is it cause the kids are just born naturally smarter because their parents are? NO! It's because the environment the family has created for the child was conducive, they were brought up in an environment that stimulated their child in certain ways. The child's vocabulary for medicine would be far superior than their peers, through day to day conversations, children pick up knowledge and even at a very young age, they are stimulated to think, to understand. The environment they were brought up in was probably the reason why they are more inclined to medicine and hence do better, and not because that they are genetically born smarter,  they are just more well exposed and developed.

Here's what I got out of 50 pages, that our potentials are limitless, we, society and our environment place limits on ourselves. We have been ingrained to believe what society believes. We have to break free from these categories and challenge ourselves to stretch our abilities and to not deem someone "less intelligent" by their vocation, or their course of study or to think that someone is "smarter" by virtue of what they do or study. We have different capabilities that have been formed from an environment though dynamic development, static development should be crowned a fallacy. In a way, we are what we demand ourselves to be.

I'm challenging myself to break free from what I have been taught to believe, that I'm only good at my hand skills, that I'm not good with books, that I'm not physically capable/fit cause I'm not genetically born to be so. I want to break free from these categorizations, these, in my opinion, are bondages that I've been brought up to carry. To be a better me, I have to break free from these limitations, because I can never know my full capabilities if I'm constantly bound by limits.

Would you join me in the quest of fulfilling potentials and stretching of abilities?