Michael's Goals

Amazon At some point I was offered a chance to work at a dessert department of a restaurant to learn to make cakes. There were several apprentices there and we became good friends very quickly.

One of them was taking night classes at a college, but another one finished only high school and had to begin to work to support his family. One day we were talking on the phone and I asked him why he didn't pursue higher education. He said he couldn't; he had neither financial means nor time to do it.

Later he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was hospitalized for several weeks before he got out. Life is certainly kicking him in the teeth, and it is fortunate he didn't break down; he continued to work and do what he had to do. I admire his courage, bravery, and diligence with the utmost sincerity.

It is a very realistic situation and he is not alone. Isn't life ironic? Some have the means to pursue education but would rather slack off, and others hardly have the means but would work their tails off. Why can fate be so unreasonable like this? What is God thinking?

I have things I believe in just like everybody else, and my convictions are what drive me to get up in the morning and start my day, day after day, year after year.

My ultimate, lifelong goal is to set up a foundation to help people pursue higher education if I manage to accumulate humongous wealth in the future. You see, every bit of my heart aims toward this goal and I believe with His help I will pull it off eventually.

Actually that was my former life goal. An elder friend of mine reminded me that if someone doesn't have money to pursue higher education, they probably are not doing well financially. I immediately realized that there are so many poor children around the world who are suffering from hunger.

One day when I was watching TV I saw a group of people doing a documentary in Africa, and I saw so many poor kids struggling to survive. They would be lucky to have one meal a day, and most of the time they don't.

My heart cracked at seeing this documentary, and I determined that I would strive to feed the hungry. As a first step, I made a pledge to sponsor a couple of children with World Vision, and I will sponsor more and more over time. I am also working on some things that can hopefully generate a lot of money so I can buy TONS and TONS of TONS and TONS of food to feed hungry kids.

In fact, you should make a pledge to sponsor a child too! It only costs $30 a month per kid, which is affordable to 99.9% of people who have regular jobs. The cost may be nothing to you, but it can save a human's life.

May happiness be with you and sadness be somewhere else, not somewhere out there. So what other goals do I have? Here is a list:

Play piano version of 'Eyes On Me' on the piano: It is so good that I must learn how to play it on the piano. You can listen to it on Youtube with keywords 'eyes on me piano'.

[2012/12/4]: I successfully played Eyes on Me on the piano!

Learn how to free-style cut playing cards: You might not know what I am talking about, but it is an activity where you cut a deck of playing cards the free-style way. It's mainly for show, not for shuffling purposes. It looks so snazzy that I just want to learn it. I know it sounds superficial, but as long as I enjoy it it's worth learning!