Choice

"So what do you plan to do next time?" is probably one of the questions asked, mostly during small talks or first encounters, that is very likely to elicit a strong reaction from the receiver of either a socially acceptable answer or one that is frowned upon.

Whichever response you give speaks volume because it is going to reveal 1) what kind of person you are, and 2) how promising/bleak is your future. Tell them you want to be a typical PME and work in a well-known firm and they will welcome you to the "club". Tell them you want to be anything else other than a spoiled product of society and they will reply with a phony "Oh, that's cool", which signals that they have one less person to compete with for the title of Mr/Mrs successful.

Then it's judgment day: they will embark on a presumptuous foray and form an impression of you. And all of a sudden, they will become curious and interested about your choice of future, eagerly waiting to fire all cylinders on why it is the wrong choice.

"Why do you want to be a/an -insert low paying job with poor prospects-? Do they pay a lot?"

Almost every time, I struggle to answer that question. Mainly because I'm overwhelmed and baffled by such narrow-minded and bigoted line of thought of these conformists whose life is shrouded by materialism, and everything must be about raking in the hundreds and thousands.

But whenever such exchanges happen, I will retreat into myself and initiate the whole thinking process: should we all go where the money goes? Work is going to take up a huge part of our lives. Should it just be a means to an end?

It's extremely frightening to wake up every morning and dread going to work because you hate your job. That's why I've always been a strong believer of doing the things I really love; however, this belief, admittedly, is wavering. It seems that the things I like to do aren't "lucrative" enough to provide sustainability in this helter-skelter society. To paraphrase what a friend of mine told me, we are encouraged to do the things we love. But we must also realize that there's a limit to it because the truth is, we're not living only for ourselves.

One moment, it feels like the path has been laid out. The next, it leads to a dead end. Society is a crazy breed; it is planting toxins in us throughout the course of our servitude; it is reminding us over and over again - Is it really about doing the things we love, or learning to love the things we do?