Crying Over Spilled Milk? A Spicy Lesson I Learned
Hello, everyone. Have you ever put off your work, thinking, "Well, my future self will handle it"? To be honest, this is a story about me from not too long ago.
It happened during the last exam period. A week before the exam, I was supposed to study for my "World Culture and English" class. However, a smartphone was held in my hand, and the YouTube algorithm was just too powerful. I had this groundless confidence, thinking, "World culture is just about stories, and English is something I can handle with my usual skills. If I just stay up all night the day before the exam, I will ace it!"
Yes, I was already expecting a perfect score without even studying. In Korea, we say, "Drinking Kimchi soup before being offered rice cake." In English, this situation can be described by an idiom: "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." This idiom perfectly matched my attitude because I was so sure of success before any actual results were made.
So, what happened next? On the night before the exam, I was completely overwhelmed by the huge amount of English texts and unfamiliar cultural backgrounds. My eyes were closing, and I was deeply confused about why each country had such unique traditions. Eventually, when I received the test paper the next day, my mind went totally blank.
Regretting it after the exam was useless because the bus had already left. In Korea, we have a proverb: "Fixing the barn after losing the cow." There is a perfect English equivalent for this: "It is no use crying over spilled milk." I realized that crying over my bad score wouldn't change a thing.
If I had started studying earlier, I would have gotten a much better grade. However, thanks to this "spilled milk," I learned a valuable lesson. I never procrastinate anymore. Are you putting something off right now? If you don't want to cry over spilled milk, start right now! Thank you.