Choosing a future

A few friends of mine invited some of their brothers and sisters to sit along with me and talk about their future. As i sat the 'mamak' stall waiting for them i was nervous about what to tell them. I mean how do you tell a bunch of teenagers how to go through life when you yourself are just 22 years old? My first thought was probably normal 'I am definitely not the guy anyone should be asking these questions to' but my friends insisted on my knack to convince people so i agreed. Which leads me back to the 'mamak' stall.

When they got there, they were a few of them, and they sat down and ordered. One of them said,

"Thanx bro sebab wanting to talk dengan kita orang." i smiled and as usual the 'dont-worry about it' followed.

one said
"Kena pikir betul-betul ni, i don't want to go to a university to do something i'm going to regret my whole life..."

another said
"Dah lah zaman sekarang ni degree dah macam tak guna, dapat degree tak marketable lagi tak guna"

and of course my personal favorite
"Taknak aku belajar tiga tahun then kena apply jadi guru ganti kat sekolah"

These were comments coming from 18 and 19 year olds. Obviously they were matured for their age and that they were intelligent. But as much as i liked the spirit they showed they were still like me when i was their age. So i told them

"Listen guys, remember this, in life what kind of education you get plays a minor role about who you are in the future. What matters most is how you face the life in a university and how that contributes to your growth as a person. You can be a medic student who is guaranteed a high paying job, or you can be an engineer destined for gritty but high paying priced job. But its not gonna mean anything if you're not happy."

I believe that, i believe in learning what you wanna learn. Go to a university and learn things you wanna know about. Not just things that will get you a good job and financial security in the future. I might not have met enough people in my life, but i have met enough to say this, people who choose to learn for the benefit of the money, might have a bigger car, and a bigger house or a much more prettier paycheck. But people who learn what they love, comes home to his wife and children everyday with a smile. Hugs his/her children take them out for a nice dinner, come home and watch a movie and go to sleep a night knowing they did well today.

Im not saying a high-paying job is not good or we shouldnt go after it. But fulfill the most important parts of your lives first. Enjoy that first kiss, or that first date, or that first time you feel "real" butterflies in your stomach (by real im trying to differentiate it with the butterflies in highschool) and enjoy what you do.

Aristotle once said, "find something you like, make it your job and you'll never have to work a day in your life."

So you can find a marketable course you think is right for you, or be lawyer or a doctor, or an engineer. But my advise sounded something like this.

"You cant worry about choosing a future because you're worrying about something you cannot control. So why worry, but you can worry about now, since you can do something about it, asks yourself, what would make you happy now? Would it make you happy to read and read and read and get a law degree? or would working with engines and theories on how to make it better make you happy? You can be anything you want, but you would only want to be something that would make you happy."

So my last words were

"Dont think what the future holds for you, but think about how happy you can be with the future you created based on what you like. Don't think about how happy you are doing a job, but how happy doing a job makes you feel...."

By the end of the day, i had to pay for 12 roti canai's, 4 teh o ais, 3 milo ais, and a few other i cant remember. Ceit.. barely into life and they're already cheap hehe bye people...