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Chasing Hares

I have always thought that the story of the hare and the tortoise was a very misunderstood tale. Think about it. A hare and a tortoise decides to race. The faster hare bounds off, sees that the tortoise is far behind and decides to knock off for a while. The tortoise catches up, overtakes and crosses the finish line. And next thing you know, generations of humans laud the tortoise's achievement and writes it into their folklores and storybooks for their children. Furthermore, parents and teachers ceaselessly drill impressionable young minds with the message that,

Slow and steady wins the race.

Though, if you think about it at a much deeper level, the tortoise did not win because it was slow and steady. It won because the hare was fast but stupid. All the way in front and still far from the finish line, he decides to take a break. The only person whom I knew to have done something like that was my cousin when she was a 8 year old and took part in a race in her school. Halfway through, all the way in front, she stopped and started picking the grass on the field, though this time, as an act of defiance against her stunned parents who had not bought her chocolate earlier. But she was a kid and kids do stupid things. In fact, kids are meant to do stupid things. If Usain Bolt picked grass halfway during his race, that would be something.

But this thing, complacency, affects us humans more than it should. My life is littered with such unnecessary moment. Just a few days ago, I took my mid terms for one my modules. My (ever present) friends convinced me that since I was going to S/U that module (ie I just need to pass the module without caring about the grade), I did not need to study for the paper, as any 'idiot' could pass a paper in NUS. Over time, I have found that any exam I took in NUS evoked for 4 different kinds of emotion in me. I would happy, if it was an easy paper. I would be satisfied, if it was a decent paper. I would be concerned, if it was a difficult paper. And finally, I would be laughing, if I knew I was f****** for sure. This time around, I couldn't stop laughing.

I partly attribute this and many of my other similar failures to the story of the hare and the tortoise. Whoever wrote it, had he or she got the moral of the story right, it might have taught me a valuable childhood lesson and saved me from such moments. We need to set the record straight. The story of the hare and the tortoise needs a new moral that future generations can understand and appreciate so that they do no end up picking grass halfway during a race. A new moral that goes something like,

Complacency can be a real bitch.

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