When was the last time you had dinner together with your family? In your pursuit of the remarkable, what meaningful moments have you let slip by unnoted? If guilt creeps within you, your soul is yearning for a change.

In today's fast paced world we are all running a marathon in an attempt to achieve our milestones, failing to take a pause to turn around and reflect on the everyday things that are happening around us. Unless the event is "once in a blue moon" we fish out our phones and try to freeze the extraordinary moments in life without really living out the experience. In life, all things happen for a reason and we should try to embrace both the ordinary and the extraordinary in order to fully understand what life has for us. However, it is worrying to say that we are blinded and trapped by the rare events that we fail to cherish the profound joys we get from our mundane life. 

Before diving into the discussion of the idiom, have you ever questioned yourself about how it is even possible to see the moon? Sometimes we are too engrossed in the unexpected events that happened to us that we often neglect the things or people that made the occasion possible. Just like how we forget that the moon does not emit its own light but is dependent on the sun's light to allow it to reflect and show its face to the whole world at night. Without the sun, there is no moon, agree? Similarly, in our lives, we should pause for a moment to reflect on who or what our "sun" is. They are a vital part of our life journey as they work silently in the backstage of life's drama, empowering us to shine just like the moon. In life we are too fixated on the outcomes rather than the valuable experiences we gather from the process of learning. I had one incident that lies deep within my heart and whenever I recall about the incident, it teaches me the importance of cherishing the steps of learnings and failures before reaching the castle of unforeseen outcomes. 

There will be some point in life where everyone has encountered a challenge and has struggled to overcome it and hoping that things will be okay someday just like the appearance of the blue moon. Although facing a challenge is a hurdle, another most difficult barrier is crossing the hurdle and recovering from its setback. Personally, what I found most challenging was juggling between my academic and non-academic commitments that I had in my junior college (JC) life.

I am a person who prioritizes things and ensures that there is sincerity in my work before I submit the work. Moreover, we all know that JC life is stressful as we will be inundated with assignments that might have very tight deadlines for submission. I had many commitments apart from being part of my school's badminton team. For example, I was the class chairperson of my class and I feel that huge responsibility has been put on my shoulders. Being a class chairperson is not an easy job as your classmates will be looking up to you therefore  you need to ensure that you are their good role model. Moreover, I had to miss some lessons because of the National School Games. All these things have put great pressure on me and I felt really miserable as I was not able to cope with my studies well. This was the time I experienced failure and was helpless. 

In order to share my struggles with someone, I approached my teacher for help. I still could not forget what he had told me that is still etched in my mind. He said " Struggles are going to make you climb the ladder of success and experience the unexpected". Those words carry a deep meaning in them. Keeping his words in mind, I learnt to confront my failure and not to run away from it. From then onwards, I have never failed to create a daily schedule for me to follow and make sure I meet all my commitments. I always set time for myself and do the things I relish. By doing this it actually helped me to manage my stress as well as concentrate more on my studies and badminton commitments and ace it!

Through facing this challenge what I personally learnt is that we should have the spirit and resilience to learn from each mistake and take it from there. I also learnt that we should not be afraid to face failures as they are the ones shaping us and moulding us to move forward to taste success. Just like how we need to wait for the right time for the blue moon to appear, all things in life have a time and we have to remain patient to see its full potential. 

I would like to give some food for thought about the moon, especially the blue moon. Have you ever questioned yourself how the appearance of the blue moon is possible? In fact, the answer is already well-known. When things are proven to you, you will believe it. If not, you will be on the edge of throwing question bombs at them. Similarly, in life we should always have an unshakeable belief that all things are possible even though they appear to be impossible. What changes is the mindset we have that is the most powerful tool to achieve the impossible. I hope from this short story our perspectives of this idiom is changed for the better and I am confident that we will no longer lock ourselves in a inescapable bubble of negative thoughts but try to break the bubble and step out confronting all the challenge that is at your side in order to taste the outcomes that seems unexpected at first.

 Everyone has a "blue moon" in life but you just need to wait for the right time!