ThinkSeries Snapshot Competition 2011 – Senior Section

Completion

Caption

Life is just a candle, and dream must give it flame.

Commentary

Dream is what we wish to acquire. It can be a desire for small toys or even an unrealistic thought. Although dreams may not always come true, they act as goals for us to do our best and to get-ahead in life. Moreover, dreams enrich life, as they give energy for us to move on and make our life meaningful. Fish cannot live without water, and similarly, we cannot live without dreams. Life will become worthless if we do not have any dreams. The most important thing is, dreams enlighten our lives and equip us with passion and aspiration to handle every aspect of life. “Life is just a candle, and dream must give it flame.The famous statement written by Neil Peart, a musician shows that we should live with dreams. With our burning candles, we are able to love our life, but not to “exist” in the world. We can only feel fully alive and truly get involved in life when we pursue our dreams. When a candle is ignited, it can pass its flame to the other candles and enlighten them up. It is just like when we have a dream, we can light up other people’s life as dream gives up hope and faith. So, let’s take our candle and go light up the world!

Dream v.s. money

Caption

A tic-tac-toe of 'D's and coins. We use 'O' and 'X' in childhood but 'D' and coins in lives when playing this game.

Commentary

The Ds represent dream and the coins represents properties. Both parties cannot win. A man abandons his dream to chase after fame and interest. In the end, he loses both. Guess what? Although he has a distinct target, he does not fulfill his unlimited wants and eventually loses his interest. His heart is empty and not happy with his ‘achievement’. Consequently, he is unable to find a way to success and become normal. Why is a dream important to a person? A dream pushes us to go beyond our limits everlastingly. We, human-beings, have our dreams to achieve. We, animal-beings, have our restrictions to survive. We follow our own ways since very young to do what we want to do. We follow others' rules since very young to survive in the society. We go independent roads to reach our dreams. We go managed roads to support our living. Which one does you select, fulfillment or worrilessness? It is a very difficult decision to make. If you select fulfillment, you struggle for your dream. If you select worrilessness, you struggle for money. Everyone is greedy, we want both. When we endeavor for our dream, we are putting in a 'D'. When we endeavor for money, we are putting in a coin. Unfortunately, the best way for money is hardly the same for dream. When you go the best way to get rich, you are getting farther from your dream, and vice versa. When the road diverges, will you choose the road nearest to your dream, the road nearest to money, or the road in the middle? There is no certainty in life. Every bean has its black. There is no best choice. Whichever way you choose, never regret as it is unchangeable. So, do you prefer worriless life or satisfied life?

Fly with our knowledge

Caption

We are holding a paper plane which is full of knowledge.

Commentary

Everyone has dreams but their dreams may be different. While we are in the process of making our dreams come true, we may have some difficulties. However, if we deal with the problems with positive attitudes, the problems will finally be solved. As a student, our dreams are more or less the same: that is studying in the university. If we want to achieve this dream, we must study hard and we must accumulate our knowledge. It is unavoidable that we may come across challenges when we grow up, what should we do is to deal with the trouble, but not escape from the reality. By doing so, we can achieve our dreams. The light in the photo represents our future, whereas the plane represents us. The formulas on the plane is the knowledge we have. There is a mistake of a formula on the plane which represents the difficulties that we have in our studies. We should embrace the courage. So that we can fly to a bright future. All in all, if we want to achieve our dreams, we should understand a meaningful aphorism—no pay no gain. The more time we devote, the better results we can get.

Weaving the dream

Caption

A spider is weaving its web. (ISO-80, f/4.6, 1/2000 sec)

Commentary

One afternoon, I found this little creature in a park. It was a hardworking worker which was busy building its home between the branches of a tree. I observed it for almost an afternoon, watching it weave the web in the bright sun. It was really a hard job for this tiny spider. The web was destroyed again and again by wind, falling leaves and some crude insects which broke into the working place accidentally. The spider just kept on weaving patiently until the web was finished. After a very long time weaving, the work was done. At that time, it was nearly sunset. Watching the work of spider was a great amusement, I was so amazed by the masterwork of this little fighter. It overcame a lot of difficulties to finish the web. From its working, I got some inspiration. Realizing a dream is just like weaving a web. It takes an afternoon for the spider to weave the web, but it may take a whole life for us to make our dreams come true. We have to be patient and patience is an important factor leading to success. A lot of setback will ruin our planning, our hard work and everything we have done. It may be hard to remedy, and for most of the time, the only thing that can be done after the ruin is to restart all the planning and working. This is how we realize our dream, just keep on working hard until our dream is fulfilled.. Sometimes, it is so frustrating as we fail again and again, and it seems that we will never succeed. I will tell myself that life is full of frustration. No pain, no gain. Just think about the shining web under the sun. The happiness of realizing our dreams will show us all the effort is worth making.

completion

Caption

Life is just a candle, and dream must give it flame.

Commentary

Dream is what we wish to acquire. It can be a desire for small toys or even an unrealistic thought. Although dreams may not always come true, they act as goals for us to do our best and to get-ahead in life. Moreover, dreams enrich life, as they give energy for us to move on and make our life meaningful. Fish cannot live without water, and similarly, we cannot live without dreams. Life will become worthless if we do not have any dreams. The most important thing is, dreams enlighten our lives and equip us with passion and aspiration to handle every aspect of life. 'Life is just a candle, and dream must give it flame.' The famous statement written by Neil Peart, a musician shows that we should live with dreams. With our burning candles, we are able to love our life, but not to “exist” in the world. We can only feel fully alive and truly get involved in life when we pursue our dreams. When a candle is ignited, it can pass its flame to the other candles and enlighten them up. It is just like when we have a dream, we can light up other people's life as dream gives up hope and faith. So, let's take our candle and go light up the world!