So it actually makes me think a lot when I’m experiencing different things without the distraction of social media, so I’ve got some new perspectives on my life.

So apparently my whole new life is just beginning, which is so different from the previous stage, but this is the result, the accumulation, of all the little changes that happened in my past life, but I’m still undergoing a huge transition, for example, English is becoming the predominant language for information acquisition and communication, even self-speaking, This is the new medium for me to convey my thoughts and feelings to the world, so I definitely need to put some effort into the transition, which will definitely help me to develop a better personality and good manners, my new knowledge base will form the new image when I’m interacting with other people, so I should put extra effort into it at this moment until the full transition settles down. That is, to increase my ability of inputting to the average level, so that we can stop spending time on it in the near future, because after reaching a certain level, I will train my ability throughout my life. So I’m going to try my best to improve my listening and reading comprehension this year, so that next year I can focus on the output and localisation part of my communication behaviour, after I’ve accumulated enough language.

I also got to see some children in a group with their parents around, which made me think about my identity by pointing out the differences between them and me. One thing I realised is that even though we’re all people living in this country with similar social norms and values, they grew up as Australians but I grew up as Chinese. So for them, they’re Australian first, then they have their Vietnamese or Chinese or blah blah blah heritage. I’m different because I’m Chinese first and then I’m Australian. We have the same components but in a different depth and order, that is the uniqueness and also my speciality, I could have the same Australian factors as them but the Chinese part of me will give me something different, I can have both vision and judge the best ways of doing things in two different cultures. I should definitely be proud of myself and make the most of my abilities, but I need to work a lot harder to make myself an average Australian, like everyone else around me, I’m sure I have a long way to go, but I’ll be there as long as I put in the effort, so do it.

Also the two days completely away from any kind of telecommunication and social media brings a very different way of living that maximises my productivity and also my mental health is well taken care of. So we need to adjust my lifestyle to the changing situation for the best of my personal interests. Therefore I should minimise the use of social media in my life and change my way of using the internet at this stage until I reach the level of knowledge and skill development. We will try to find out soon, but definitely social media use will be minimised once we are ashore. Trying to concentrate the time spent with friends, but with higher quality would also be great, while washing off the habitual use of social media for low quality information acquisition. We will find the way.

Yes, I think I really have some new insights and ideas lately due to different circumstances and experiences in my life. As I said, I’m on the verge of my new life, which is completely different from my point of view and my socially constructed “identity”. But I’m still in my own transition, so I really need to spend my precious time on the most important things, from which I can benefit the most. I’m glad that I have a clear goal and now I have the motivation and much more maturity and self-discipline for it. I will definitely try to do the defence work as an essential part of my identity formation and personality development. We’re going to try to get the army officer position, we’re preparing for it in many ways, my professional skills, my communication skills and also my interpersonal skills. And even if we don’t get it, we can still be a sailor, a linguist, all over the world. There’s a bright future waiting for me and I need to equip myself for it.

Tommy C Z
31 March 2024