| Rant : Home Of The Brave Quite often, spending a significant amount of time outside the country you have come to know can give you a rather critical perspective on things back home. I�m currently in my third year of university (as I write this). Nearly two weeks ago, I came home to Singapore (from the UK) for a short Christmas break. It had been an entire year that I�d been away from Singapore � whether it be in the UK or gallivanting elsewhere during my university vacations. I�m well conscious of the fact that I have just over half a year left in my university course, before I have to go back for good, to work. I haven�t got a choice in this, something which needs further explaining some other time. Anyway, this rant has taken me a long time to write. And it will probably end up sounding so out of sync with the rest of the stuff I have ranted about. In fact, five years � hell, maybe even five months � down the road, I�m quite likely to re-read this, roll my eyes and wonder to myself what exactly I was thinking as I wrote this. But, for now, I will rant. I came home after an entire year away to find some changes. Buildings had vanished, only to have other concrete monstrosities take their place. The public transport system had suddenly become more efficient and comfortable. Friends and family still look much the same, although underneath it all, things probably had changed somewhat. Their relationships, their music taste, their fashion sense, their mannerisms, their maturity, their jobs, their views on life and stuff that matter � all transformed and metamorphosed over the past 365 days. It�s funny how you think people are never capable of changing, and then they surprise you, and you realize that perhaps you yourself have changed too, except that one is never conscious of that. People are immediately interested in whether you have lost or gained weight (I�m currently even on this aspect) and that somehow satiates them enough to not really bother with other things. Apart from the ever perennial question of �are you in a relationship yet� to which the appropriate answer would be �I got married three months ago, didn�t you hear� or �yeah I am, but the monkey couldn�t make it today �cos it�s at the vet�. Sometimes I think people actually want to hear garbage like that, nothing like some shocking piece of news to jolt their lives. Not that I would ever dare do that, no sirree. Anyway, the other day I met up with some friends of mine who have graduated and have found themselves thrust into the working world. There was much bitching and moaning and whining about their lot in life, although it seemed more like they were pining for the good ol� days of slackdom in school. Things always seem simple � that whole crap about finding a job that you love and it�ll never seem like it�s just a job. All this rubbish does not exist in the real working world, and you gotta be either a helluva optimist or a perennial drunkard in order to buy it. The truth is : life sucks, and people suck too. Monkeys rule, followed closely by dogs. People are never happy with what they have. I�m never happy, thereby causing me to rant endlessly. It�s a fact of life. The thing about having an overseas education is that your concept of the world is that much broadened. It becomes no longer a risk to buy a one-way ticket to some foreign city and re-establish yourself. You�ve done it before, it�s been invariably fun making new friends and not having to report your constant movement to your parents. Working overseas is no longer something to fear. It becomes an alternative, and not a risk to take. I found many of my friends complaining about working life here. How it�s hectic, how people are too work-oriented, how the weather is too hot, how their parents are too annoying, how this and how that. Sure, it's mostly true. That�s how things are. That�s what we have become familiar with, what we've known most of our formative years. It�s easy to bitch and whine about things, and even easier to give in to that romantic notion of re-establishing ourselves in a foreign place to start it all over again. I do this sometimes, and it was the other day when I realized that it was a somewhat cowardly thing to do. Sure, there is nothing wrong with wanting to challenge yourself. Singapore is a small place. And the desire to want to live overseas again, to obtain the freedom that comes with it, is sometimes overwhelmingly strong. But to leave simply because it isn�t good enough at home is defeatist at best. Everything has a capacity for change, I believe, and things do change given time. To come home from overseas and want to change things for the better is a challenge, and one that I can only hope I will choose to undertake in the future. There are things I want to do with my life, but even if I were to leave and work overseas in the future, there is that part of me that will do this not at the expense of recklessly abandoning my home. I am reminded of what some famous American guy once said : that about asking not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. To throw your hands in the air and say that there�s nothing one can do to change the system is the coward�s response. It is the brave person who will sit and try and change things. Revolutions have taken place that way. Change is a constant of life, and to strive to change things for the betterment of society is noble. Merry Christmas everyone, and here�s hoping the New Year will bring changes to those of you who are brave enough to let them in. |