Re: the singaporean dream....or maybe not
pengful;725331 said:
You can decide to be happy or sad, you can decide to help yourself or help others and you can definitely decide if you want to continue with that rat race that pays or do things that make you happy.
Yes, one just has to make sure that's what he really wants.
Don't do something because of
- parents demands
- what friends or relatives might think
- friends all doing it
- everyone around me says that's the ticket
Have to really find yourself before committing to something really serious. That whole finding yourself thing is the reason for the gap year yes? Then again, life is so broad and deep, and human life short, so with limited time everyone takes risks I guess. It's a shame that the time limit makes traps out of many paths.
Making money and having fun don't have to be mutually exclusive. Logically though, there are a much more limited number of opportunities that mix both. Also, there are varying definitions of what's enough, what's fun. I sincerely believe that many definitions of what's enough are driven by nothing but greed, with a ton of fear thrown in, especially around cities, and around Asia. It's boring and basic. Compare the response of the guy at 12:40, to everyone else in the video who gets asked the same question at 7:40 [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0oHlX8Kmxk"]Just Keep Going, You Got Nothing To Lose - YouTube[/ame]
In terms of finding oneself or helping a young person do it, I think the following helps:
- reading non stop (as soon as a kid can read I think he should do that as much as possible. Screw TV, xbox, PS3, cable, even the so called educational shows are slow and shallow vs books), especially about different philosophies, different cultures, viewpoints
- seriously interacting with others (work, or fun but focused projects)
- travelling with focus; not just for leisure, but to experience other cultures. To seriously work for at least a month in as many parts of the world as possible (africa, asia, the us, uk, europe, the middle east)
- At some point have work (with or for) or live-in stints with all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum. If the stints can be month long even better.
- Work with, live with, or at least engage in discussion with all sorts of people who hold views different and better still opposed to ones own; especially on that which forms the core of a person - moral and ethical beliefs, religious beliefs, etc. The internet is great for the plain discussion part of it.
There's limited time and resources, but if you have a young child of around 5 years old, then you have the next 15 or so years to help him/her with this.