After the chess tournament, I slumped in the backseat, kicking myself for how impractically I played. "Shouldn’t have spent all my time on that one move!" I exclaimed. That’s when Dad would always tell me, “You will learn more from your losses.” The joy of winning a game and the agony of blundering one away are constant themes in my chess career. And, as I discovered, my dad was right about the losses.
I am a big fan of strategic board games - I played Go when I was younger and now, chess is my current pastime. The complexity and beauty of both games intrigue me, since the best moves and ideas often unfold like hidden gems, just waiting to be discovered.
As I pondered about the different possibilities in front of the chessboard, the clock ticked down fast. I couldn’t help but be engrossed in the game, pursuing the best moves like a quest for the truth, oblivious to the passage of time. Likewise, in life, I find myself constantly in the pursuits of knowledge:
After Modern Physics, I was fascinated by special relativity and its predictions of time dilation and length contraction. Craving more in-depth understandings, I went on an imaginary voyage on trains and spacecrafts: a Gedankenexperiment (“thought experiment”), as Einstein referred to his. Though …show more content…
I felt intense guilt for my naïve impracticality that caused me to overlook safety and imagined the horrible consequences if someone happened to be... The pain of failure was only human; however, it blinded me from the silver lining, the same kind that Dad had gently reminded me of after those chess games: “You will learn more from your losses.” I finally understood what he meant: he was talking about the unforgettable knowledge I’d gained, the key to the ultimate success. In reflection, I realized that those “failures” had indeed taught me memorable lessons on the importance of practicality. And I thought to myself, oh dear, isn't knowledge like this what I've always longed
I am a big fan of strategic board games - I played Go when I was younger and now, chess is my current pastime. The complexity and beauty of both games intrigue me, since the best moves and ideas often unfold like hidden gems, just waiting to be discovered.
As I pondered about the different possibilities in front of the chessboard, the clock ticked down fast. I couldn’t help but be engrossed in the game, pursuing the best moves like a quest for the truth, oblivious to the passage of time. Likewise, in life, I find myself constantly in the pursuits of knowledge:
After Modern Physics, I was fascinated by special relativity and its predictions of time dilation and length contraction. Craving more in-depth understandings, I went on an imaginary voyage on trains and spacecrafts: a Gedankenexperiment (“thought experiment”), as Einstein referred to his. Though …show more content…
I felt intense guilt for my naïve impracticality that caused me to overlook safety and imagined the horrible consequences if someone happened to be... The pain of failure was only human; however, it blinded me from the silver lining, the same kind that Dad had gently reminded me of after those chess games: “You will learn more from your losses.” I finally understood what he meant: he was talking about the unforgettable knowledge I’d gained, the key to the ultimate success. In reflection, I realized that those “failures” had indeed taught me memorable lessons on the importance of practicality. And I thought to myself, oh dear, isn't knowledge like this what I've always longed