Recently, I attended a motivational workshop that was meant to be study-focused, however, it touched on certain aspects of life and it really sparked off a train of thoughts within me. One question that struck me hard was when they asked, “Why did you wake up today?”
Many of us did not know how to answer this question. Many gave answers such as “I needed to attend the workshop so i woke up.” However, the instructor pointed out that none of us said that we woke up cos we wanted to enjoy another day and to see the sun rise. This really hit us all hard as he said that many others around us go to sleep thinking that they may never see the sun again the next day.
This has led me to ponder about the current aspects of my life and my recent addiction to Maplestory. Was it really worth spending hours in front of the computer just to level up a little avatar in the virtual gaming world? In the past few months, I also neglected much of my school work, resulting in a drop in my grades as well. I also spent less time with my family, choosing to glue myself to the computer screen.
Waves of regret washed over me, and I set myself a new goal in life. To learn to appreciate all that i have. I know this sounds extremely cliched, however, it really hit me hard. During the workshop, we had a visualisation session (it was about our parents being old and sickly), in which everyone was in tears afterwards. Afterwards, we all kinda had a new resolve in our hearts: To live life to the fullest and to enjoy it as much as you can.
I suppose one can say that playing a game is fun and helps you to escape from real life, but a warning: Don’t get to enraptured into the virtual world of gaming and end up neglecting others around you and more seriously, your life.
For now, i have quit maple as my GCSE’s are just round the corner. It was not extremely hard and i realised, i do now have much more free time on my hands to catch up on my homework. So i suppose it was not really a bad thing after all. All in all, I now can say that every minute of every single day i spend is WORTH IT.
Life ain’t that bad. It all depends on your perspective of it. smile! 
Which GCSE are you taking?
hm as in? Its the cambridge (did i spell correctly O_o) one.
haha. I was asking if you were taking ‘O’s or ‘A’s.
I’m taking my A’s this year, and I have already gone into Maple hibernation. Though the time I spent wandering around on this website doesn’t really help, haha 
Go, us!
Oh me taking o levels. Yeah, jiayou! oops chinese phrase, same meaning as ‘go us!’ though haha (:
Yeah, I know jiayou
*temporal lapse into Singlish* Add oil mah! XD
God, can you say guilt trip? It might work for you, but some class like that for me would just make me sick.
I wouldn’t trade in my Maple addiction for the world, as my best friends are on there. People who’s company I enjoy, who like me and accept me. As much as it makes me sound like a nerd, real life is overrated. People don’t get along with me in real life, and I trust my friends online more than anyone else.
Sure, I smile, I enjoy my life. But for now, until things stop hurting me in the real world, I’ll just stay here, thank you very much.
~Mip
>< ouch. I could tell you it’s escapism, mip, but I understand how you feel too. The main reason for my Maple addiction is my friends there. I’d talked more to them than I had to anyone I know in real life. I wouldn’t give up my Maple experience for anything too.
However, major exams have a way to bite you hard, and if a guilt trip can help wake me up to face the painful truth that grades do matter in this society, I wouldn’t mind taking that trip.
Yeah, that visualisation session was really a guilt trip. Though I must say, my friends on maple are my friends in real life too. Oh well, they defined friendship during the workshop for us. It goes something like this, –> Friendship is nothing more than a connection between you and another who have gone through shared experiences for an extended period of time. If friends drift apart, it becomes nothing more than an aquaintance.
See you can still play Maple but take it easy and make sure that you finish everything first then jump on. Its not bad to play Maple but be careful of how much you play and when exams are coming hit the books and abandon maple for a week