The saying You Only Live Once and Live Live to the fullest is commonly heard but do we practice this in our daily routine. We spend most of our time working 8 to 10 hours a day and stuck in traffic for another 2 to 3 hours commuting to and from work. Have we lived our life to the fullest?
We are so preoccupied with trying to pay off loans and debts that we forget we live once and there is only one chance in life. Let us start with the life of kids in Singapore. As Singapore is one of the fastest-paced countries in the world and finding a good job when reaching adulthood is a problem, parents make their kids study so hard. At least this is what I know for most of the parents.
A full day of class in school followed by additional tuition in the evenings and on the weekends. Additional curriculum activities to make them more stressed would be giving them classes like piano classes and ballet classes. The childhood memories of the kid will suffer a long time. In the past when life wasn’t as hectic as current, we will be playing after school and spending time with our friends and family on weekends but this is no longer seen in Singapore.
When we reach teenage life, schoolwork gets tougher, if you were to look at the syllabus in Singapore education, I guarantee you will not understand most of it. It is nothing like what we have learned in school in the past. Thus, this leads to more tuition and more stress for the kids.
Education is important I know but it’s not to a point where the life of the child is taken away from. You only live the life of a child once and the life of an adult for 60 to 80 years but that doesn’t mean you have to be at the top of the class to succeed or be number 1. Not everyone is cut out to be a lawyer or a doctor, let the child be paced at their own speed.
Some parents will think this otherwise and especially if they themselves are the smart Alex in the class or they are of some companies’ high-level executives. If you feel that you know someone like this, share this post with them and let them reflect on themselves to try to think and put themselves in the lives of the child.
Reaching adulthood is also no easy task, it is not as easy as sticking your hand out and asking for money. You need to work for your own survival on the battlefield. It is common to hear that education gives you a good future and prospects, that’s true, but not entirely, it also depends on opportunities and a little bit of luck.
I am not a graduate and neither do I have any diploma from any poly in Singapore but only a GCE O Level 5 Credit. Nothing fancy, but in my previous job, I also work in the same organization as my ex-classmates in secondary school who graduated from big schools like the National University of Singapore and National Technology University and we landed in the same company doing the same role and commanding the same salary. This is quite cosmic don’t you think so.
Do not spend your whole life chasing something that does not belong to you as everyone has a different fate. We are not all born with a silver spoon and the world will need its economy of balances in order for the world to turn. If everyone is to be a leader, who will be the worker. Is Singapore going to be another Dubai where most of the people working are foreign and the country becomes so expensive to live in and a plate of chicken rice will cost you $10?
Put thought into it, leave a comment below and tell me what you think.