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Tuesday, July 22, 2014
[The meaning of life...]
I think I can safely speak for almost everyone in my generation when I say this: Our parents lied to us.
Let me explain.
Our parents grew up in very different times. It was a time when simply being able to speak English put you well ahead of the curve. A time when having a University degree was a guarantee (that’s right, guarantee) of success.
Most of our parents are not that lucky. They don’t speak English, and forget about having University degrees. They did manual or repetitive work. No matter what they did, however hard they worked, they stayed more or less where they were in life (sidebar: I guess some things never change).
Like all parents, they naturally want their kids to do better than they did. So what did they do? They pushed us to do well in school, drummed into our heads the importance of getting a degree, getting a good, high-paying job. Things they never had. Good things are supposed to follow once you had a degree. Everything, from your professional to your personal life, was supposed to fall into place just because of that piece of paper. Because this was how things worked for their generation.
But we now know that things don’t work this way. The world has changed. Society has evolved. Having a degree now is definitely not a guarantee of success. In fact, in some ways, it can even be a hindrance. Most degree-holders (including myself) are reluctant to take risks. Why trade a stable, decent salary for something risky? On the other hand, if you don’t have a degree, you have no choice. You have to take a leap of faith sometimes, you need to take risks. While the going may be tough at times, many of these people I know are doing better than I am.
For the longest time, the picture painted in my head by my parents (my mother, mostly) distorted the reality and my expectations of how life is going to and has turned out. While I now realise the picture painted in my head by my parents is wrong, it still takes some effort on my part to push out the wrong assumptions. And I still think a lot of my dissatisfaction with life is due to the flawed expectations I had due to what my parents told me. What they promised. Promises that can never be fulfilled the way they had me believe.
I’ve been thinking a lot about life. This morning, I came to realise that I’m not happy with my life and how it’s turned out so far. Both in my professional and personal life. The good news is I’m only in my early-30s so there’s time for me to do something about it. However, I don’t know what I should do.
And that, perhaps, is the biggest disappointment of it all.
^^^ by Locksley @ 10:43 AM.
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