Recently, many countries have announced their annual Chinese characters. The annual Chinese character for China is "振" domestically and "危" internationally. The annual Chinese character for Malaysia is "贵" and for Japan it is "税". Additionally, the annual Chinese character for Malaysia's opposition party is "苔". These annual Chinese characters are mostly summaries and evaluations of the past year, open for public discussion. I believe that we can also choose an annual Chinese character to evaluate our own experiences from the past year and give ourselves a summary.
The annual Chinese character I choose for myself is "小" (small). Let me explain my current situation. I am a senior in college. My academic studies have ended, but I haven't started my internship or thesis yet. I haven't entered the workforce, and I don't know where I will work or study in the future. (If you have a life plan and have taken action in college, you would know all of this.) Faced with what seems like a major decision, I still choose the character "小". Based on my current level of understanding, I will explain the meaning of this character.
"小" represents a kind of cognition, feeling insignificant in terms of the knowledge I have learned and the future work I will do. I can only say that knowledge is always lagging behind, and the goal is to commit to lifelong learning. From this, I deduce the learning methods and approaches for elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. I believe they can be divided into three levels: the first level is learning knowledge, the second level is learning methods, and the third level is learning how to apply and share knowledge. It's not about which method is outdated or advanced, but rather whose level of understanding is higher or lower.
"小" also represents a kind of helplessness. Although it seems like a major life decision and a choice for future direction, for most ordinary people (of course, everyone has a different definition of ordinary, so there's no need to compare), it is just an ordinary small decision. These are the decisions made by ordinary people, those who go with the flow and don't stand in the spotlight, the most cautious ones. They can intern anywhere, work anywhere, and enter any industry. From this, we can see the importance of self-reliance. If you have seen and experienced more, there's no need for further explanation.
"小" is also an attitude, being cautious. If it's due to lack of understanding, then go out and explore, participate in activities, and interact with more people. If you have a certain understanding and want to try something, follow the standard process: ask questions, make hypotheses, design experiments, prepare for experiments, conduct experiments, collect data, and summarize the results. This process can be applied to any problem.
The above is a summary of the past year and a glimpse into the coming year. I look forward to reading this article next year and gaining more insights.