These 2 years have been very fulfilling and packed, and something that resonates deeply with me recently is this saying :
‘It doesn’t get easier, you just get better.’
Remember the times when you have to do something new and how difficult or even impossible it seems? I have been there many times these two years.
Most recently, it was at my new job where the learning curve have been extremely steep. During my second month was the quarter-close and budgeting deadlines when everyday was a race against time. For the first time in my working life, I wished that the weekend wouldn’t come, just so I can have more time before my Friday deadlines. One Friday, I left office near midnight, it was also a first in my working life. But the thing is, I knew that I was just slow and figuring things out, and it would become a lot easier the next time. After 2 months at my new job, many things have become easier although I’m still learning.
I also started driving to work last year when I was still working in Tuas South. I was always nervous about driving, simply because I barely drove since I got my license donkey years ago. I drove a few times and during our USA trip, but my parents never liked me to drive. They were always worried that I couldn’t get out of my own gate and my dad told me that it’s cheaper to take a taxi in case ‘something’ happened. So when we got our own car, the husband made me drive while he sat beside me. We all know how things go when men sits in a car with a female driver. He’s the strictest teacher, constantly reminding me and screaming at me when he thinks that I did not check my blind spots (even if I did!). He also made me parallel park. A few weeks with him later, I drove myself to work a rainy day when I overslept and had to cab to work, yet refuse to pay half a tank of petrol when my car is sitting downstairs. He was supposed to drive with me together to work the next day, since he was on leave and wanted to be with me on my first drive to work. I asked him for permission to drive to work, he said up to me, but later told me to drive carefully and keep a safe distance as it’s raining. Since then, I drove myself to work and picked him up from work. I constantly ‘hear’ his reminders even when I was driving alone. I still get nervous about driving to a new place now and then, especially during peak hours or when it was raining. I still remember how stressed I was driving up my violin teacher’s condominium carpark – it was those old condominiums with narrow ramps and waist-height walls. I had to go up 6 ramps before I reached the visitor lots and I counted every single one, heaving a sigh of relief after I made it safely every. A few months on, it came so naturally to me that I actually went higher than I needed to. Nowadays, I actually enjoy driving most of the time and I’m no longer scared or nervous about tight spaces nor parallel parking. Weekends are my favorite me-time when I get to drive to the gym and do some shopping. Amazing what a few months can do, isn’t it?
Having played the violin and piano for more than a year, I’m constantly amazed by my own progress. Whenever I am frustrated when it comes to a new piece, my violin teacher never fails to remind me how I used to struggle with ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars’ just a year ago. 15 months after I first picked up the violin, I passed my Grade 3 ABRSM exams. I don’t think I imagined this much of progress in one year, yet one could actually do so much in a year. I struggle with piano more than violin though, because coordinating 2 hands and 2 melodies and reading from different clefs is really a challenge. I take months to play a song well, yet what used to be difficult could become easy after some time. I’m finally playing Yiruma’s River Flows in You now!
With all these lessons over these 2 years, I am no longer daunted by new challenges! As long as you keep working on it, everything would become easier after some time - only that it did not get easier but you simply got better!
