Friday, January 06, 2006
Belated Happy 06 guys!
I had a short but pretty sobering conversation with Ann today while we were out
windowshopping in town about another mutual friend/ex-colleague. We were discussing what to get her for her birthday and this sort of led to more talk about her. While talking about various assorted ex-colleagues, I mentioned that I was surprised at how long she had worked at Borders (for most of us it was at most a holiday part time thing) and wondered why she wasn't doing anything else.
When I first met her she told me she was working at Borders
(me:and?) and teaching tuition
(me: and?) and not going to school and not intending to for the time being. I remember being fairly surprised, and being a horribly narrow-minded fresh out of JC girl, under the (wrong) impression that going through the secondaryschool - jc/poly- uni/work route was the only plausible and practical option available to anyone my age.
So I was rather surprised when I was told that she was in fact studying at MDIS (or somewhere) and that she part timed at Borders, and gave tuition at the same time just so she could pay for her own school fees. Her parents were, apparently, unsupportive of her pursuing her studies, leaving her to struggle along the best as she could. I went back home, read her blog, and yeah, in between the fairly benignly happy entries there were brief mentions of the said lack of parental or financial support, the stress, and the difficulty in having to deal with so many things simultaneously.
"Having to work part time,teaching tuition and coping with studies is nt an easy task at all...". I'm not b=very proud of the fact that for the 6bmonths i worked with her I never got to know her better. We're ok friends, we've been out together rof lunch and movies and stuff, but we were never close. I've had other friends from a totally different circle make snooty comments about her clothes (typically minimalist tees and khaki pants) and the fact that she's quiet, never really hangs out with the rest of the gang, and oh well, little stuff like that. But thats another issue anyway.
I remember thinking at first how aimless her life was, like,
does she really intend to spend the rest of her life working here?. If all she did in life was work at Borders or at her tuition with the sole aim of earning money then it didn't seem as if she had much of a life plan. Like at least I was going to school; at least I was headed
somewhere. What I'm ashamed of is assuming that she chose to live that way...of assuming, in fact, that she even had a choice. I'm not rich but at least my parents can, and will, pay for my school fees; if I work I'm free to use what I earn as I wish, and while there are things that I crave/desire/want, there's nothing that I really need
(although the green velvety sweater at Esprit looked really pretty). (haha ok ignore that.)
It puts the phrase "I'm broke" (a very much used line in my vocabulary) into perspective. Who am I to complain when I spend 600bucks on a shopping spree in Thailand and have more CDs and books than the combined shelves in 3 rooms of my house can hold?
There are people who deal with so much more than the weeny little everyday troubles that plague my life. And if nothing else, I really should be grateful for what I have, instead of constantly griping about what i
don't have . I guess if you were looking for a New Years resolution, you have it
PS: Ironically, people are expecting me to post up my birthday wishlist soon. Friday the 13th guys!
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