Kuroko no Basuke Magazine: Issue #1

Words of Wisdom

"Don't give up! There's no shame in falling down! True shame is to not stand up again!" -Midorima Shintarou

Even though Midorima had fallen due to Akashi's ankle-break, without hesitation, he went  back up again to block him, the feared captain of the Generation of Miracles. How many times in our lives have we fallen down, but bounced back immediately? How many times have we given up an opportunity, in fear of failure or being ridiculed?

In life, it is inevitable that you will fall at some point.  For example, failing an important test, or not getting your dream job. What are you going to do? You obviously can't turn back time to change what has happened (sadly..). Instead, focus more on getting up, and moving on, learning what not to do for next time. As you may have heard already, you have not lived if you have not failed. By failing, you gain experience; new information that can only be acquired by re-doing it over, whether it be an action or goal.

Take Thomas Edison for example. During his school life, many of his teachers, people that a student like him would look up to, told him that he was 'too stupid to learn anything.' He was fired from his first two jobs for being 'non-productive.' He made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the lightbulb; but when interviewed, you know what he said? "I have not failed. I have just found 1,000 ways it won't work." (You might have heard another version of the quote with 10,000 or 700 but it varies). He has fallen down so many times in his life and yet, he never gave up. Thank the lord for light bulbs *\(^o^)/* (yes, yes I'm scared of the dark, don't judge.. (^_^;))

In all seriousness though, the only shame in failing, is giving up basically. Hard-work as well as perseverance are admired qualities; failing is a part of life. And yea, some of you people reading this may be like, "Oh, but I can't fail! My parents will kill me!!! (T_T)" Remember this, who's life are you living? Whose life is it going to affect? Yours. You shouldn't need to do it for anyone else but yourself; I realised this after an argument with my parents.

Even though you fail in life, don't give up. Just don't. You will reap the rewards later, I promise. Like playing an instrument. Every little bit of practise counts, in order to perfect it. I wonder where you'd be without it?

To conclude, failing is somewhat beneficial to you, but in order for it to be, you must be able to get up from it, and continue on! Falling down and not getting back up, shows that you do not have the determination, the drive that causes you to be at peak performance. Although people may made fun of you, or judge you, or made you not want to get up again. Don't let it get to you, sometimes even if it is your parents, because they aren't you. You are the person that writes your own destiny :). Everyone is a human. They must have failed at some point too, and by getting up shows that you believe in yourself.

Are you going to let it define you? Will you rise to the challenge? Or will you fall thinking its too hard. The choice is yours.

But remember;

You are not alone. Failing is necessary in order to achieve better things.

"There's no such thing as a useless effort." -Kagami Taiga

Like a little droplet of water about to fall into the ocean, everything counts. The ocean is made up of all these tiny droplets, collected into one big body if water. This is similar to hard-work and practise. Every bit of work you do, knowledge you gain, will in the end, show through at the end, therefore backing up the fact, that nothing is a useless effort.

Sometimes in our lives, we often think that it doesn't matter, if we miss a practise, or skip a class or take shortcuts, because it's only once, pfft, it wouldn't matter right? However, think of it collectively. If we all thought that that one little bit of effort didn't matter much, where would we be now? Obviously not where we are now... It is best to look at things in a broader, much wider perspective, rather than thinking narrow-mindedly, and also looking a little into the future, eg: future planning. We can only see and/or think that nothing is a useless effort if we take a step back sometimes, to look at the bigger picture rather than only focussing on what's ahead of us. As people living in a generation where being 'too busy' is the norm, having the time to do this may be hard, as we are too caught up in all the things we have to do at present, may it be homework or a report,of some kind. Though even if little (remember everything counts :D) it is essential that we do this so that we can confirm where we are, and maybe have a change of pace or set ourselves back on track.

However, with everything, there is some sort of catch. The quote from Auguste Rodin makes this fairly obvious: "Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." Yes, we can say that we've practised and all that, and yes that is good; the next step is saying that nothing is a useless effort... only if we make it not be.

Don't get me here? Let's see... Take this example. You have been practising on your (insert chosen instrument here) for a few hours already, however! That practise was not perfect practise; instead, it was one full of mistakes and wrong notes all over the place, but you don't bother to correct yourself. What is the point of 'practising' if the practise was not even worthwhile? Practise should make you better, not just for the sake of it. Therefore this practise was a total waste of time (T ^ T) because you probably learnt nothing from it except how to play a horrible, mistake, all over the place piece of music (is it even still music? I shall leave that to your imagination xD).

So as seen here, there are two ways to look at this statement, firstly, that every little thing does count no matter how small it is, as in the end, it will collectively be big, and secondly, making sure that this 'practise' or any other type of work, is to the best of your abilities, ensuring that the effort was NOT a waste of time, and you actually gain something from the experience.

So basically, to sum everything up; nothing is a useless effort, only if you make it not be.

By AnnoymousLee