Claud

An avid collector of your hopes and worries, a romantic at heart.

She thanks her fairies, for blessing her with people who know compassion down to an art.

For accepting her for who she is, who never fails to turn up,

in times of need as well as happiness, or just there for a loving hug.

(postscript: XY smsed me and told me how she wanted to write the exact same topic, but somehow I've already written it. Funny how similar minds think alike=) In any case, while she smsed me, I got another brainwave. I'm so not cut out for the office. And conventional office work is driving me stir-crazy.)

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a friend at Max brenner. (yes, I finally satisfied my chocolate cravings)

We were talking about plans for the future after JC. It somehow sparked a thought about how different people's lives become after that leave JC/Poly. True, while people do tend to go into University, but we're studying the most diverse things. Even within the same discipline, we all have our own specialities.

Then since we're doing different things anyway, why would an average person, who goes to University, be considered more worthy than a person who chooses not to go straight after JC. Why would a person be judged for dropping out of Uni to go into poly to do what they feel is 'right' for them. Why would these people be deemed as failures?

I used to be skeptical about people who are not like myself. That's perhaps natural because we are afraid of what we do not understand. However, people like our parents and relatives, or even some of our friends, believe that study-uni-work is the only pathway to go. For those that don't follow this path, are perhaps seen as 'losers' or people who do not understand the value of work. So often Xiaxue or Mr. Brown have been seen as good-for-nothings who do not pursue work and just sit there 'doing nothing' (although they surely entertain us a lot...isn't that obviously a form of work?).

So linking that with the idea of people who pursue unconventional work, work that pay more than you put in, why should these people be singled out as bad examples for the rest of us?

I think mainly we still value or still buy into the idea that hard work = more pay. It's a middle-class ethic that to remain comfortable and a reasonable standard of living, one must work hard for it. So when our comfortable lives are threatened by unstable times and an even more unstable economy, this ethic is also becoming disillusioned.

The question may well become, "why work when you can pay someone else to do it?"

So investment like options, stocks and unit trusts become new avenues to earn money. We have all heard of horror stories of stock market crashes, people losing life-savings etc. Then again, working has it's risks of retrenchment, restructing and rationalisation isn't it?

Unconventional just means just that, unconventional. How wonderful if money can work for you, and the time is now left to pursue whatever your mind sets on? People shouldn't be persecuted for not wanting to study-uni-work. We simply need to embrace more diversity and admit the fact that some people just have the balls to take the plunge and place their livelihoods in trust of something that does not require tangible effort on earn pay.

maybe there IS such a thing as a free lunch?

Well, I am a workaholic. But that doesn't mean I have to do ANYTHING that pays.