IEW-TSE SZE WAI: EXPERIENCE THAT I REMEMBER CLEARLY AND WAS IMPORTANT TO ME

  Stress seems an inseparable company of people in 21^st century. School, workplace and money, there are numerous things in the world can generate stress. A lot of tragedies cause by stress can be found in the newspaper every day. However, I do not think the problem is the stress itself. As long as we can find a way to deal with it, those stresses can never do harm to us. One incident, which happened a few years a ago, had taught me a lesson.

 

  Under the old education system, every Secondary 5 student in Hong Kong has to take a public examination in order to get into Secondary 6. This is very important since there are only one third of students can continue their study. Different from the university entry examination, this examination lasts not only for a day but a month. Everybody is under huge stress. Even though sometimes we may want to get some rest and hang out with our friends, we are not able to call them since we are afraid that we will interrupt their study.

   The day before my Mathematics test, I was going to take a nap before dinner and then study at night. I turned off the light and went to bed. A few minutes later, I heard my mum shouted my name from the kitchen, ' Sze Wai! Sze Wai!' I was so tired and did not response. Until I saw my mum rushed into my bedroom grabbing her right hand with her left hand, and said, 'I cut my thumb! I have to go to hospital immediately!' Suddenly, I realised something serious happened. I jumped off the bed and grabbed a pair of trousers near me. I didn't have time to change my whole pajamas. I only changed my trousers and had no time to comb my hair. I must be so absurd at that time.

  There was a small hospital near my neighbourhood. We ran to there but it was closed already. We were so desperate. I was very nervous and worried since bloods kept coming out from her thumb. It became worse after running. We then decided to take a taxi to a bigger hospital. I sat in the backseat with my mother. I looked at her thumb closely. Her thumb had already turned purple in colour since she was grabbing it so hard. Blood was clotting on her hand. She looked so painful. I was frustrated, as I could do nothing to help her with that.

  When we arrived, we went straight to the emergency room. We waited for a while and finally there was a nurse came to see how serious the injury was and gave my mum some basic treatment before she would be assigned to a doctor. At that moment, I suddenly felt very dizzy and could see nothing but darkness. My head was hurt and I could barely stand by myself. The nurse said coldly, ' Miss, if you are not able to see blood, just go somewhere else and wait' and my mum said so as well. I sat down on a chair and took some rest with my eyes closed. I knew that I was not afraid of blood; I collapsed from getting relief from highly intense stress.

  After we went back to home, my mum was very sorry for bringing me this trouble right before the day of an examination. She concerned that whether I could focus on studying after this. I kept saying that I was okay but I was actually not. I could not focus and I could not sleep. I felt not right for doing anything until one of my friends suddenly called me. I told him what happened today and I burst into tears. After I cried for a few minutes and chatted with my friend, I finally felt much better and went to sleep. 

  After this, I figured out that the best way to deal with stress is not pretending it is not there. The best way is to face the real problem and try to release our true feelings and emotions. Talking to friends is a great thing to do. It is okay to be not okay.