Do not distract us.

BELOVED ENGINEERS,

Do not allow yourself to worry over lousy overreactions to your opinion, of which you are rightfully entitled. You have tons of other things to think about other than what others think of you and how you might appear to them. If you do so, you are giving these people the means to become popular. Everybody wants to be talked about and in the process you are giving these people the very thing that they want.

Engineering is a tough course (not the toughest for others already claimed the tough spot. But to quote Janina, it came from one of the tough ten) and it requires (among all other things) FOCUS. When you are distracted from your work, buildings may collapse, factories may explode or airplanes may crash. The fabric of the world as humans made it may wear and tear and find us all helpless, if not inexistent. Distraction gives birth to mistakes, and all engineers who take the oath of accuracy treat error susceptibility as a malady, much like the allergen to their allergy.

When you are distracted, you oftentimes experience this knee-jerk reaction: You throw them the very thing they throw upon you. But remember, the worst mistakes come from saying too much and the more you open your yap, the more mistakes you commit. So if they bombard you with nonsense, put your inner noise-cancelling earphones on. Who would bother giving attention to banal outcries when you are too busy saving not only lives but above all, the world? Just keep your outrage inside, knowing that it was your opinion that sparked the belligerence. However, do not revoke your belief. It is the worst form of self-betrayal, even worse than suicide because you are still alive for the part called regret. Build the outrage within and feed it with their hatred, much like how Gokou wielded his energy ball to defeat Freeza. But here you do not use it right off the bat. Later on you will realize that FOCUS will make you use this negative energy to do wondrous tasks in preparation for saving the world. There is a proper arena for the skirmish. There's a Colosseum for you gladiators. There is a better war zone where you could unleash all your concentrated energies and win. You might as well prepare for this moment.

Aware of this fact, do not allow yourself to be called stupid. They might as well call you fascists, anarchists or megalomaniacs even haggards who don't shower, but you are anything but stupid. At the very least, if you are struggling with your course, rest upon the fact that you have the audacity to take up the challenge when you could have succumbed to the path of least resistance by living their lives. Calling someone stupid is like shouting in a deep cave. The insult bounces back many, many times. 

So the next time they perturb your intellectual serenity and oblivion seems a futile effort, show them the physical meaning of destructive interference. If you happen to crack your skull upon differential equations when the distraction occurs, throw them your book in Advanced Engineering Mathematics. I suggest you use the book by Kreyszig. It's thicker and it's hardbound. Mapalamok, langaw o boardmate na gustong maki-log-in sandali sa FB gamit ang iyong kompyuter, hambalusin nyo sila ng hardbound! (Sorry, impact impossible to translate.) It is better for one hypocrite to receive an enlightening blow than for the whole world to suffer because of one distracted engineer.

Wickedly yours,
JanMell