Life Before the Zhongkao

Now that I'm finished as of noon, the only thing still limiting me is the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. Finishing the exams really does feel great, and now I finally have time to write this post. Let me start with the time before the exams. Those days were brutal. For the ten days before the exam I stopped going to school and went to a tutoring center to cram physics, chemistry, and English. Those ten days were really miserable, but I did give it everything, I suppose. I imagine this is how top students spend every weekend. Thinking about that, I feel a bit ashamed. If you don't work hard normally, you can only cram at the last minute.

Let me describe how I spent these ten days. Every day had courses that were no less intense than regular school classes. From 8 to 10 in the morning was English, then physics, then chemistry from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, and after that I'd do practice papers, usually two physics papers and one chemistry paper, plus English listening and reading comprehension. That was the daily training load. In the end, the conversion was weakest for English, and chemistry went up about 20 points. You can imagine how poor my earlier scores were. Physics went up about 10 points. Sometimes you don't know what you're capable of until you push yourself. Maybe this is what "bitterness before sweetness" means! Although these ten days were exhausting, I experienced the joy that working people feel when they reap the rewards of their labor. I can only say it felt wonderful. People need to set goals for themselves, but I tend to prefer carrying things out rather than directing them, so I don't really set goals for myself.

Even though it was only ten days, a lot happened. The first day still felt fresh, but after the second day there was only pain. So I often went up to the rooftop alone to clear my head, and that feeling was really nice.

It seems that in the end I also had a bit of a clash with a teacher. That's fine, though. After this time I won't see her again. How should I put it? Some people think I'm a bit stubborn. Thinking about it carefully, maybe I am a little, but I'm only stubborn about things I firmly believe in, and I don't think I did anything wrong. For example, if someone tries to grab my snacks, I won't give them up even if I have to throw them away, but if they ask politely, I will give them some (except of course for people I'm close to). After all, taking someone's property infringes on a citizen's property rights, right? So I don't think I did anything wrong. If anything, his behavior violated my property rights.

I also really hate being threatened. If someone pointed a knife at me and wanted to stab me, I would fight back without hesitation. That's probably a human instinct. But in everyday life, if someone threatens me, I will definitely get back at them, and I'll do it quietly. I'll keep a smile on my face toward my enemy while stabbing them in the back. I think that's the best way, since after all, a gentleman handles things with dignity, right?

This post is a bit scattered. I basically wrote whatever came to mind. Sorry about that!

Recently I also did something else. My brother came to my house recently and complained that he kept getting 460 ms of ping when playing games. I figured it must be the mesh router's fault, so I listed my router on Xianyu for over 400 yuan, then spent 300 yuan on a Phicomm K3 and a heat-dissipation mod kit.

Here's the finished product! It should have lowered the temperature by more than 10 degrees, and the effect is pretty obvious! But I still need to wait for my brother to come over and test it for real. Not that I play games myself (mutters quietly).

I've also filmed a few videos. Nobody watches them, but I think I should keep going, since it's a hobby I love. So I'll probably post a lot of videos during this vacation. There will be far fewer technical things, and most of them will be real-life documentary videos. The vacation came too fast and feels a little unreal. Soon I'll be entering a completely new environment, high school, and I can't help feeling a little lost. I'm used to this road from home to school!

But people have to learn to step outside their comfort zone and change things. I'm an optimist by nature (maybe because I've been through too many bad experiences). So a new environment means new teachers and new classmates, and I'll meet better people too. I also hope that on this new journey I can do more, have more fun, and, most importantly, study harder!

I don't really have anything else to write. That's it for now. Thanks for reading all of my rambling.