When we were kids, life was so much simpler.
Mom would wake me up for class, I’d go to school, play hop scotch during recess, come home for lunch with my siblings, go to the playground and go totally bonkers at the monkey bar, head home to wash up, have dinner and watch fann wang and chen han wei on the 7pm channel 8 drama serial, make a fuss about not wanting to do homework, get nagged by my mother, finally do my math and then go to bed, dreaming about how I would trash the boys in my class with the new country erasers I got with my pocket money (in the rubber flipping game).
You didn’t need to think pass your tomorrows. And somewhere in my head I figured life would always be like that – have fun and share warm moments with your best friends (very Calvin & Hobbes I know).
But I guess as we grow up we’re given the gift/curse (all a matter of perception) of having to plan ahead.
Somewhere along the way we learn that every decision made today affects all our tomorrows – and that’s when we start to worry about life’s big what ifs?
What if I’m studying a totally crap degree?
What if I can’t get a job?
What if I don’t have enough money?
What if I end up as just a typical white-collared worker/zombie ?
What if I no one wants me?
What if I end up marrying someone who I don’t really love?
What if I don’t even have enough money to get married in the first place?
And that’s when people like *insurance agents and fortune tellers and bank salesmen/women make a living off our worries and insecurities.
Hoofstede’s study on cultural differences found that Singaporeans have the highest intolerance towards uncertainty. We’re so afraid of the unknown and it’s clearly reflected in our society. There are tuition classes for pre-schoolers for Pete’s sake! And this is probably the most important reason why entrepreneurship amongst Singaporeans has been the hardest to cultivate so far, (we even expect IE Singapore to handhold businessmen looking to expand into China?) Why we are so dependent on our government to nanny us into the future and why we need so many editions of the O levels ten years’ series.
But I’m glad that I learnt from my adolescent life that sometimes life just can’t be planned. Sometimes we don’t get what we want, but that doesn’t mean that everything has to come to a standstill. There’s so much around to be thankful for, to live for, to explore… we’ll never know the answers to what-ifs anyway…
So you just gotta suck it up and embrace the unknown.
Make some lemonade, my friend.
0 comments:
Post a Comment