What makes the good times special

It was beginning to get dark as my friends and I made our way to the car park after a session at the gym when one of my pals beside me pointed up toward the indigo sky streaked with hues of graying clouds. All of a sudden, I had a sudden desire to take a photo of the scene.

January 4th, 2020. It had been nearly 4 days since the commencement of a new year, a new decade - the beginning of something. But what was that something, exactly? In all of the past new years I had gone through, each filled with more goals and responsibilities than the prior, what would this year's bring to me? To the rest of us?

As a sophomore at the University of Lethbridge, and having just moved from my home country in Malaysia to pursue further education studying abroad in Alberta, Canada, I wasn't quite sure of what I wanted to be. Did I want to continue following the straight, sure path in order to get a job or did I want to take risks and try for something better?

Only after I had taken the photo and peered at the picture, I noticed the lone glowing star in the middle of the sky - glowing faintly above all the other trees as the large, glistening Sun prepared its descent.

For a long, long time I thought I had been the star; that I was the only one harboring problems and a head filled with all the stress in the world. I would be lying if I said I hadn't struggled with finding my own place in this world. This star looked to be chasing the Sun, something it idealized and wanted to be, and all the trees below appeared as though they were trying to advise this star to come back down to Earth.

It was just like how I would always try to become something - or someone I wanted myself to become, and all the outside noises (the negativity, the criticism, the dissuading) would try to drag me down.

It's funny, though, because moments after I'd taken this photo, and my friends and I drove to the Dairy Queen near our university campus for supper, I glanced upward to the sky only to find many other stars glowing equally as faintly as the glowing Moon had started to rise.

I had a sudden thought - perhaps everyone were nothing more than weak stars trying to find their place in the world, constantly comparing against each other whilst believing they were the only ones struggling with their own issues. Everyone wanted to be the best versions of themselves

Perhaps it sounds rather odd and corny but I had a new perspective light up in me. Instead of stressing out over this rat race that all of us youths had to face today, maybe taking a step back and accepting the way things were wasn't all that bad. It wasn't that I wasn't going to try to find my place, but maybe trying too hard wasn't always the solution.

My mother constantly reminded me that forcing things wasn't always the answer more than half a decade ago, something I'd always ignored. I'd always believed that working hard and forcing my way to find out who I wanted to be was the way to solve problems. Ironically, this new perspective allowed me to understand where my mother was coming from. The message wasn't to stop trying to be the best I could, but rather to accept the punches and fall down so that I could get up stronger and better.

It was rather solemn to think that life wasn't this smooth sailing voyage that I had thought it was as a wee child. That there would always be the bad days trailing after the good ones.

But doesn't that make the good times more special?