Might As Well

A little story about a book and a bake sale.

That was a line in Go, a novel with a simple name but a heavy story. It was one of those books I picked up without checking the reviews or the synopsis. But, honestly, I didn’t regret it. Go opened my eyes to one part of the world which I hadn’t previously known.

But, beyond anything, that line stuck with me. It was around the time I was working on a difficult project when I read this book.

Here’s the story.

🦁 My Leo Journey was lit

If you were to ask about my time as a Leo club member, I’d have reminisced about those good old days.

It was when I went from the “someone wanna take a photo with me so I hide in the toilet” guy to one of only 100 people globally to receive the International President’s Leadership Award in 2018, for “showing excellence in the community in the areas of service, membership and leadership”.

I learned a lot. And I also got to experience the joy of helping those in need while I learned. It was an unforgettable part of my life which changed me a lot.

Seeing that line in Go, I realized it wouldn’t have been possible had I not given my best in my Leo Journey. If I had half-assed things, those few years of serving and growing wouldn’t have been cherished and remembered.

🍪 A recent event

Recently, a two-day bake sale I led in a club at university came to an end. It was a simple fundraiser for an animal shelter — something new to me, but not that far away from the other community services I had done back then.

But, there was a difference.

I’d given my best then, but this time, I didn’t.

Halfway through, I wanted to quit.

I had the urge to throw in the towel and even leave the club without minding my incomplete duration of service.

At one point, the event itself didn’t seem doable. Although some of the reasons lay within the bureaucracy of getting the bake sale approved, the other lay in me or — to be exact — discipline.

I struggled with my relationship with discipline. Sprinkle some perfectionism in it and you get procrastination too — “If I can’t do it perfectly, why bother?”.

Bad self-discipline prevents one from taking control of one’s own life. Hence, in the two months of preparation, there were times I went dark and away from reality. When the bureaucratic issue came up, I wondered,

Why had I gotten myself into this?

I didn’t need to join any clubs. Though there is a merit system in place, it is there as an encouragement, not a prerequisite for graduation. I could’ve just used my free time doing whatever the flying flamingo 🦩 I wanted.

But, that’s not the point.

🛣️ I was the one who chose this path

Undeniably, I made the choice to take up this job. It was I who decided that my time and other opportunities were good trade-offs for joining the events department and becoming the organizing chairperson of a bake sale.

The thing is,

Those who make a choice must face the consequences of it, be it good or bad.

If that is the case, the line in Go is reasonable.

If you’re going to go through the trouble, you might as well get into a really good school.

—Kazuki Kaneshiro, Go

If something is worth sacrificing for, then it will be a shame to not give your best in it. Of course, your best may sometimes not be enough. But that’s okay. It’s never a smooth ride doing anything in life.

However, it’ll still be a million times better to give your all.

Why?

Because, at the very least, you’ll learn something. And you’ll feel great about having gone through the journey, just like how I cherish the good old days in mine.

At times, doing something may be a pain in the ass, but,

If you’re taking the trouble to do what’s a pain in the ass, you might as well give it your very best.

—Thomas