Saturday, August 29, 2009
ytd was RGS's Be Yourself Day (in which you dressed up as yourself) and the theme of the day was "Ambition".
so my sister dug out her most ambitious shirt (HARVARD UNIVERSITY -gaspgasp-) and went to school xD
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the thing about ambition in jc is that suddenly it becomes all important. in sec 4 everyone was like "what i want to be? no idea. nvm lah study for eoys go jc then think." now that we actually are here, it becomes "how come you still dunno what you want to be? can you make up your mind already! you already in jc leh! need to apply for university! HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE YET."
and that is terribly pressurising.
the lucky kids, of course, were born with, or decided somewhere earlier in the life, on what they want to be. those are the people with the direction, with the goal, with the plan. the rest of us? pretty much "unemployed", drifting around like lotus leaves in hope of waking up one day and just. knowing. and the older we become, the more we realise that what you WANT to be, is really just a lie. rather, its more like what you CAN be, or what you SHOULD be, or for the sadder ones, what you have no choice but be. there are a hundred things to consider. financial costs, length of studying, future employment prospects etcetc. that makes the whole thing entirely different from "I WANT TO BE A FIREMAN FULLSTOP".
science students, pretty much all go through the idea of med school. i spent most of my sec sch life dwelling upon it, busy building up the credentials and gathering experience from every available opportunity. but in the end, rather abruptly i guess, i stopped, turned around, and asked myself if i could honestly do it. could i study for 15 odd years? could i endure the idea of coming fresh out of university at 35? if i wanted my own clinic, chances are i'll be 40 before it happens. and of course, why was i so intent on med school anws? was it the constant brainwashing by the society on how important doctors were? was it because i was a science student that i automatically zoned into that path? was it because i was female and thus tended towards the pediatrician route? was it because of the money, the prestige, and the promise of employment? people always say its because they want to help, but is being a doctor the only way to help people? my answers for majority of the above questions were no. there were other things in life i wanted and i wasnt going to fight my way around in med sch for a majority of my life.
so i put that idea on hold (but not away entirely. the idea of psychiatry it awfully fascinating (: ) and moved outwards to give myself more space. from medicine i derived scientific research. of all my paths this one i actually had experience in. i was confident it was going to be a straightforward path and that, with the growing biomedical industry, i'll probably find a job. but the idea of lab work does not appeal to me, and the opportunities in the field were too few. with my character i could probably grow cells for 5 years, but could i do it for 20? what would i get out of it at the end of my career anyway? the satisfaction that cells were grown for experiments that may potentially change people's lives?
my last option is the business world. the corporate ladder, which i previously shunned due to the lack of interest on a "desk job". it was the lifestyle, i guess, that appeals to me. there's so much more flexibility and variety in the business world. the more i think about it, the more i find it fits right in with my personality. they say the private sector is a cruel, cruel world and only the tough survive. but im willing to give it a go (: like i was telling vera, I SHOULD SET UP A ORGANIC FROZEN YOGHURT SHOP :D
(this has been a terribly long post. i think about a lot of shit ): )
whatever it is, future career prospects are definitely going to be of serious importance to all of us in the days to come. its kinda depressing really, to have only a couple of year to spend thinking about what you would like to do for the next 40? years of your life ):
Escaped
{9:57 am}
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