it is finished

YAY! MPP is OVER! and we won Best bill!
The problem is that through out this week, i have been sorely neglecting my family, giving homework and projects precedence over family. I feel really bad about it, but also very frustrated. It's at times like this when i really question the role of a student. Throughout my growing up years, my parents have always stressed work before play, studying before anything (save GOd). Then as i got busier and busier, they started stressing Family over studies, and now i'm confused. There are so many wonderful, nice things that i'd love to do, but because of studies, i have to cast the thought of them aside. Is studies really so important that i have to stress myself out over it, so important that i forget what truly matters in this life? Sometimes i wonder what the world is coming to, where kids are so engrossed in society that they have no time to play. The government is breeding a generation of workaholics that can work to the wee hours of the day, that breathe coffee and treat sleep as a leisure activity to indulged in occasionally.
I think this generation of students are becoming OVEReducated, especially when i see the two china students attached to our class. They are so brilliant and so far ahead of us, yet they are unable to communicate well with people. They have been brought up in a dog eat dog world that to them, being the BEST, the BRIGHTEST is securing survival. The pursuit of knowledge has so consumed them that they forget the OTHER things in life. although they are on attachment, they barely say three words to us. when we smile at them, the give this blank, guarded expression back. Is this what we really want? A generation of isolated people who barely associate with each other?
And this situation is becoming very very real. What with condominiums with PRIVATE LOBBIES sprouting up all over the place, MP3 players that do away with the communal Hi-fi sets and computers that give us a handy front to hide behind when confronting with people.
A junior of mine's Dad just passed away very suddenly over the weekend. It comes at such a shock, that our parents aren't permanent fixtures in our lives. Which makes me all the more guilty for not spending more time with my parents. As my friend mourns for the dad that she will never hug again, never go out with again, never say "good morning, Dad" too again, i curtly tell my Dad that i am busy, too busy to go out with him. The mere thought that a day will come that he won't be there for me just scares me. Even if i don't see him much everyday, the thought that i might have to wait a life time to see him again scares me. And it makes me all the more appreciative of him.
Dear Lord, be with my poor poor junior and her mother. I pray that you will comfort her with your love, comfort her more than we will ever be able to. I pray that her mother will be able to find a better job that will enable her to support her children better, and i pray that my junior will have strength to face each day.