long term happiness.

this week we learn that long term happiness is always more cherished than short term happiness. short term happiness tend to give one a fleeting moment of pleasure, triumph that forces others to look upon with jealousy and regret about their current situation. the tide swings, and how great it does.

take coming to airforce school as a short term happiness. it was so beautiful, a wonderful place to spend ns life but the fact that i wud be going out of here in due time to lim chu kang camp was never bothering my short burst of contentment. fridge, tv for worldcup, aircon rooms, spacious bunks fitted with insect nettings on e windows, friendly staff, excellent gym facilities.. now they have vanished into nothing but a puff of smoke, sealing my fate in lim chu kang camp 2, one of the worst hellholes around. talking about the dirt, filth and condemnation of the place just makes me sadder and sadder. it is my home for the next 1.5 years, sighs. how wonderful. how i finally realised that i wud rather have tough training and get a 1.5 years of benefit than to get slack training for awhile, and get a 1.5 years of hell.

take the world cup as another greatest example. u can win 6-0, score the most majestic and magical goals, rip the weaker opponent apart like what football samba kings, argentina and brazil displayed to us. it was all in e group stage with the hype already raging, and morale running so damn high. and today, we flip our newspaper to come to terms with the situation that this world cup wud be an all european final, without our samba kings. the early happiness of being so celebrated to win the world cup did not help in any time to give a telling signal to both teams to work even harder, and not sit on their current 'happiness'. sighs. it was instead, france of all teams to crash brazil out of the world cup, a team that was so badly written off by punters and journalists thruout because they struggled in their group stage to draw with south korea and switzerland. but now, who cares about that? they are flying with zidane's form, they have been strengthed by their criticisms, they have blended into a verocious attacking colour that sweeps down and defend strongly. and more importantly, they are ever closer to savour the sweet world cup victory, the long term happiness.

we are always presented with short windfalls of hope, glimmers of light that we fail to realise that some of it are just pleasure for awhile. we showboat what we have to people around us who look upon with envy, who are striving so hard just to keep up with life or their progress. and finally we get torn apart by our premature happiness that is even more badly beaten by seeing others rise to savour the sweetness of happiness that lasts forever.
if you ask anyone out there now serving ns, if he prefers ns to slacking for 2 years, you know the answer by heart. if you ask someone else who has served his 2 years, if he had a fulfilling experience in ns, he would most probably say a firm yes.
now the question is have you seen your answer to that question?
i hope i have.