The Chinese have a useful phrase that I like to quote often because it applies in all facets of life: "learn from the car in front flipping over." As in, learn from others' mistakes. I did that quite often today in frustrating fashion when cars in front of me stopped due to traffic and I had to dart often into another lane to swerve through traffic, but more appropriately it means any sort of lessons from others' failures.
I often criticize social media and the overuse of the internet, and much of those criticisms are valid, but one way in which I have benefited directly from the internet: car repair advice. I know nothing about cars, so anytime anything goes wrong it's off to the internet for me, preferably reddit, a trusted source of real users, but often there's enough good content from other websites that I can piece together info. And because my standards of car repair are super low (as in, I know how to park and operate a car, but if ANYTHING goes wrong I am lost), anytime I do fix something it's a rush of adrenaline upon completion, even if it's something basic like replacing a headlight (you have to reach way down into the hood! It's not easy and you have to be willing to get your hand dirty!) or (gasp) checking tire pressure/ operating a air pump to fill up gas into a tire. (If there was an SAT, standard achievement test, for high school students/ adults on the subject of car repair, I would have never made it to college/ passed high school). So today, when my parents' Toyota Prius battery door got stuck (thanks to my doing) and was unable to open normally, it was up to me to get on the internet, and luckily a few responsible posters shared the necessary information that there was a emergency release latch for that battery door that you would open by opening up the trunk and opening up a small compartment where there were a variety of levers/ latches, and somewhere in the top right corner (very specific advice, I like it) was a latch I had to pull to open that door. And bang! It worked! I didn't give an audible gasp or do a victory dance or anything after it popped open, but there was definitely a rush of dopamine/ adrenaline/ relief at fixing the problem and knowing I didn't have to go to an auto mechanic or something and risk getting completely ripped off by a charlatan who would charge me $1000 or something to open the door, reported by one reddit user as almost having happened to his mother. (Another great use of the internet is to avoid scams) So yes, instead of back in the old days of China when people had to physically see a car flip over in front of them to get the point, nowadays all it takes is entering a few keywords on your smartphone and seeing other people's cars and how they fixed them. Long live the internet.
Another thing I'll learn from is how NOT to be a dad. My dad has a lot of strong points like dependability, being around for my mom all the time, quitting cigarettes and alcohol when I was born, being relatively handy around the house, and being a good cook (the last 2 I wish I had!) but the thing that has unfortunately stuck out about him to my sister and I is how easy he is to get frustrated about something and starting to yell/ blame others when anything goes wrong. It happened a lot when I was a kid, even on stuff that reflecting now on, really was something understandable that a kid would do. And yelling and assigning blame when something goes wrong really isn't the way to go and doesn't make the problem any easier to solve. So I take pride in learning from my dad's mistakes and going the extra effort NOT to get upset too easily and handle emergencies with aplomb and poise. I still, however, get angry quickly in certain situations, and there's definitely a little bit of his negative energy that rubbed off on me and formed part of my personality (of course there are also good points that rubbed off, like not drinking or smoking). So imagine the extra joy I felt when I stayed calm today fixing the Toyota Prius when my dad was already starting to get frustrated and having his usual tantrum, and I stayed relaxed, logged onto the internet, found the answer, and fixed the problem, like a "I'm all grown up now dad, no need to scold me anymore," all while not losing my cool (it was hard, and I almost did). When MJ and I do become parents, I hope to pass off some good traits, but I know I have some bad ones, and I'd hope that my child will have the good sense to learn from my past failures just like the ancient Chinese learned from previous cars flipping over (and modern Chinese learning from other internet users' Prius battery doors that got stuck).
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