ambition

weng leong, what do you want to be when you grow up?

i want to be an architect.

weng leong, what do you want to be when you grow up?

i want to be a pilot.

those were the days, when we used to fill in a progression card stating what we want to be. i don't see what is the point in doing this. up till now, after pondering for a moment, i can't grasp the meaning of doing it.

does this mean we would be an engineer, a pilot, a nurse when we grow up? there's no special class, or pointers to gear us in the right direction. not that i could recall.

living in an asian context, where 99.9% of the time we were spoon fed. collective culture is being practice since parameswara landed in Malaya shores, it could be way before that. conclusion is; no guidance, no move; you die, i also follow. just like Philip Morris tag line; One Force. to represent and show people that they are indeed hardcore one team that move forward or backwards.

my point is, we need to be shown in everyway. otherwise, there's not much of a chance we would take the initiative to find out. maybe i'm over-generalizing. fact is, most of us are prudent to a certain extend.

back to the main point, ambitions we have since the tender age of 7, we long for it to relish. however, it doesn't happen to most of us all the time. some of us made it, congrats to them. they probably have a heart of steel that embeded them since birth. a will strong enough towitheld challenges and be able to land their dream jobs. i respect those people. seriously.

what bout the rest of us that do not hold down a job that we state in our progression card at the age of 8. well, life still goes on. duh! and it still work out perfectly fine.

i have a friend, he wanted to be a animation designer. and his parents gladly enrolled him into the best college in town which offers that particular course. after studying for 2 semesters, he had a sudden thought of changing course. he was interested in hair, and wanted to be a hairstylist. and no, he's not gay. his mother was skeptical about it. and often questioned her son. in her perception, hairstylist is consider a lowly profession. she always urge her son to try something else other than hairstylist. luckily he didn't say he want to be a janitor in the government building. nothing wrong with that, at all!! chances are his mother will get a heart attack even before he sends out his resume.

i think the whole schema of doctors, engineers, businessman, those so call white collar professions are just societies perception. society would always differentiate and categorize every single person living in a culture as to who belong to who. i understand there's a need to have a sense of belonging. however is it necessary to have it? i feel that we humans are strong enough beings to live on our own. although, living in a bunch makes us feel more ... invulnerable.

conclusion, holding whateva position in a company, is not important. the important thing is, you enjoy what you're doing, at the end of the day, even a garbage collector has food to be put into the mouth. of cause we won't aim that low, if we have a better options.

anyway, i think it's perfectly fine if you're a DBKL sweeper, garbage collector, or CEO in a company. in the end of the day, we are all same. we eat and shit the same way. unless you have some special way, do let me know. thank you =D