Liquid Rock
“Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.” Benjamin Zander & Rosamund Zander
This week was great. I enjoyed getting back into the world of work. It was not easy but looking back on it retrospectively, it went very well. I did not have the weekend before to study thus I had to cram everything into the week itself. For this week I had a TP examen in chemistry (Practical work exam), one math oral interrogation and on Saturday there were exams in chemistry and computer science. While going to check my calendar for this information I realised that I only have 3 of those exams left before the DFA (final exams). This means this year is almost over. We are in May after all, but it is still crazy to think about it. Time really does fly.
My work to grade ratio is very good for the most part and I am very grateful for this. On a week like this one I do have to bring out how lucky I am sometimes. This week, on that TP examen I landed on the easiest experiment. In my computer science written exam I got a 15/20 without studying much. On the other hand there are days like Thursday where a grumpy interrogator makes you suffer and gives you a 9/20. The point of my story is that it goes both ways, and there is almost always an element of luck involved. Sometimes without doing much you get lucky and other times whilst working loads and being ready you get stomped on. This is of course very unjust, but I think I am personally coming to terms with this thought more and more.
On a different note – I am very happy that I got to make lunch for both my sisters at my apartment this Tuesday. Up until that point it has been the other way around. I eat at their places because you know, they are the adults. To have that kind of a role reversal felt very much empowering, as if I could be an adult as well. Of course I have been living in the body of an adult for a little while now, but there are some milestones that I have yet to reach. This was one of those milestones. Best of all about this lunch – I did not even mess up the food!
This weekend I had tickets to a Liquicity event. This is a Drum & Bass event that is quite widely recognised in its scene. The event took place in Antwerp and to get there I had to go by Brussels first. In Brussels I linked up with some of my fellow EEB2 graduates. It is very fun to speak to those people because I can relate to them on a different level. To some extent we feel that we can not call home the place we live in because we differ so much from the locals. Nevertheless in our country of birth we have a similar disconnect – we can not catch all the puns, the inside jokes, we tend to not understand slang or the general pattern of thought of our compatriots. To solve this problem I would suggest a change of perspective like the Zanders. I do not think it is a matter of disconnect with a demographic but with certain people that we believe to represent the majority of that demographic. The solution would be to keep an open mind and talk to people (I hope to one day take my own advice).
Anyway back to the weekend at hand and my trip to Antwerp. I had a lot of fun at the Liquicity event. It had a cosier feel to it than the events I have gone to before (which are indeed also for less cosy music, but still). I enjoyed being in the crowd a lot. It had been a while since I had heard some Drum & Bass live, thus it felt extra good to be back. The event was extra special because we got to see live some artists who's sets we have seen only thanks to Youtube. Live shows' biggest selling point is the sound system. Every song (especially in Drum & Bass) gets so much more energy through a powerful sounds system. It does not mean I am going to stop streaming music on my phone, but more so that I am looking forward to my next event which will be in summer.
This Week's Suggestions:
I do like my productivity content. This is a simple overview of how to create and/or break habits. It is of course only the tip of the iceberg, to get more knowledge about this subject I recommend taking on Atomic Habits itself. I briefly talk about this book in my blogpost The Basics.
🎶 Linkin Park – Meteora:
I had of course heard of Linkin Park before but I had seldom listened to their music. This week I explored their album Meteora and I was not disappointed. One of my favourites out of this album is today's feature song as well: "Breaking The Habit" by Linkin Park.
That is it for this 37th blogpost! See You next week!