Eric Tian

When I first wrote my first check-in post back in April, a post aimed to ‘summarise’ the last few months, I found it quite refreshing to reflect on the months that had gone by and consider my goals for the months ahead. It’s now been three months since that post, and I feel like it’s time for another one. A few things have happened since then, including the commencement and finishing of exams, medicine interviews and holidays, giving me a lot to think about.

The Good

1. Attitudes to work

I’ve been casually working at CSL (a biotechnology company) for 7 months now as a research assistant and things are picking up. I’m by far the most unqualified person to work in a CSL lab – I’m only here on a 12-month placement while other workers have Masters/PhD qualifications – but I’ve recently started to get the hang of things and appreciate things more. I’ve since changed my attitude towards work from being a means of financial freedom, to a privilege to be able to learn and serve the community. This attitude change is remarkably infectious to other areas of life: whether that be doing the dishes (“wow, I have running water and a stove to cook with”) or getting out of bed (“wow, how amazing it is that I can wake up and live: let’s go and make the most out of this day”).

2. Running

In my April post, I set two running goals for myself: to run a sub-19 5k and a sub-40 10k by July. How did I do? Well, throughout cross country season I managed a 5k split of 18:58 in a 6k race, achieving my sub-19 5k goal. I attempted my 10k goal in a 10k road race, but ran an official time of 40:00.74 – less than a second off my sub-40 goal. While it’s a bit of a shame, I’m still happy to have gotten so close. When I wrote those goals back in April, I honestly didn’t really believe I’d be able to achieve them; they seemed way too fast. Being able to (nearly) achieve them gives me gratitude towards God for giving me the opportunity to run and live, and confidence to go out and try other things.

3. Faith

This isn’t number one on this list because for a few weeks, I was very complacent about my faith. Maybe it was exams, USyd medicine interviews* or full-time work over the break, but other things seemed to take priority over spending time meditating over scripture, evangelising or fellowship with church community. My wake-up call arrived on a camp in late July, where I spent time with some Christians and was forced to question what I was really living for. That camp sparked in me a newfound joy in scripture and a hunger to go out and love others. It was a great reminder of the importance of church community as emphasised in Hebrews 10:24-25. I’m super pumped to be able to serve in church and Uni ministry this semester and I’m excited to see what lies ahead.

*A bit of a side node on Uni and medicine interviews: I must give a few shout-outs. One is to my sister, who in the two weeks leading up to interviews, called me every night to give me support and practice with me despite her hectic schedule as a lawyer. I really don’t deserve her. Another friend I am most grateful for is Ali Abdaal. His YouTube videos on study techniques and medicine interviews highkey saved my WAM for the last two semesters and helped my med interview prep immensely.

The not-so-good

1. The holidays

…were largely unproductive. I had vague goals to read more, do more exercise and build closer relationships, but while I did do a bit of these things, I also wasted a tremendous amount of time. The habits I had established during semester pretty much fell to pieces, leaving me with little direction and letting my ‘instant gratification monkey’ run rampant. Luckily, I was able to get over this bad phase through some words from scripture, some eye-opening articles and some discussions with friends. These holidays have definitely made me weary of my instant gratification monkey in the future though.

2. Relationships

One of my goals for my last ‘check-in’ post was to love God and to love others more. And while I still stand by this, I think I need to make this goal a little less vague, for I feel as though I haven’t done much to cultivate as many meaningful relationships as I could. Superficial friendships drain me to the point of wanting to literally crawl underneath the Earth in frustration (haha #introvert) and so this is important not just as a calling, but also for me as a person. And so, this leads me to:

Goals

1. Meditate on scripture every day for >5 minutes and catch up with >1 person a week for a face-to-face chat.
2. Running: Maintain 50k+ a week and not get injured in preparation for my first marathon in October!
3. Post at least twice a month on the blog.