Make no excuses

The topic this month is about taking responsibility, we might have heard the term ‘responsibility’ for many times by now. Whether it is from Mr Manchester in term one that we have different hats and responsibilities, or from Miss Lau that we must be responsible for our appearances or our behaviours, we Shungtakians are not strange to this term, however, what do we have to do to shoulder our responsibilities? Well, there are several ways to take responsibility in our daily lives.

Make no excuses. I am sure that we all have various reasons why we can’t finish the mathematics exercise or why we can’t submit the essay. However, deep down there, you know that there is no reason not to do something, especially when it is something that you have promised to do. Making excuses instead of taking the initiative to do your work is a sign of weakness and failure. Try planning in advance for your life, planning your work and prevent the need to make any excuses.

Even if you do find yourself doing something wrong, admitting your mistakes is a way to shoulder your responsibilities as well. Own up to what you have done wrong , learn from them and don’t repeat them. For example, when you forgot to hand in your homework, it is your responsibility to own up the punishment. Then you reflect on your behaviour and try to prevent similar occasions to reoccur in the future.

When things start to go on the slide, don’t give up. As Miss Lee always say, ‘life is tough’, however it is our responsibility to persevere and go on. The key is to keep going and never back down from challenging tasks, make sure you remember that is was you who signed up for this and it is you who need to stick to your work. Just because part B2 in listening paper 3 is long and hard does not mean that you should give up. People will start counting on you and consider you as someone reliable when you do this.

Taking responsibility is not a difficult thing to do, small deeds in our daily life can really show whether you are a responsible person or not. Make no excuse and plan ahead, own up to your mistakes and not giving up is just a small portion of what we can do to shoulder our responsibility. What most important is our mindset and our thinking of whether we should take our responsibility or not, and as Shungtakians, I believe we can all shoulder our responsibilities.

Red House
4 June 2022