Spent the last ten minutes reading the linked article that accurately (albeit a little dated) depicts the life of most Singaporeans and unfortunately, some people I know. I titled it as such, although it’s not the actual title, because it’s the main gist of the article. So often in pursuit for our version of perfection do we misinterpret success as matching up to everyone else’s ideals, instead of ours. 

What is sad is that some (or most, it depends on how pathetic the state of our country is right now) would argue that it is their ideals too. Chasing a pathetic piece of paper that symbolises nothing of your worldliness (or lack of it, I might say) or street smarts but instead represents how adept you are at rote learning is, sadly, the way most of us grew up. In fact there are probably a few friends of mine who are still stuck in their bubble that the Singaporean way is the way to be; to attack life with the voracity of a degree holder.

I will not deny that I have been subject to these seemingly common ideas. When I was younger, my grandfather gave my sister and I a picture representing the possible ‘life routes’ one could take. It was a factory scene: the conveyor belt held many people, some with mortarboards (to depict a degree holder) and some without. At the end of the belt, the ones with the mortarboard fell into a box labelled with a dollar sign, and the ones without, fell into a dustbin. 

My grandfather would then stutter in Mandarin to my sister and I, ‘If you don’t work hard, you cannot earn money, and you will end up in the dustbin. You must go on to university. Must.’ His words were said with the best intentions at heart, as are all words of advice from grandparents. But 10-year-old me couldn’t help feeling a little unnerved. I remember thinking to myself, what about people who cannot make it on to university? Surely they make their contributions to society too; surely everyone has a part to play in upholding society; surely you don’t simply fall off the radar just because you have no degree? Yes, ever the pre-pubescent Structural Functionalist. 

In the debate of Nurture vs Nature, who I am today is most definitely majority Nurtured, although with an opposite effect from the desired outcome. Because the conservative adults around me ingrained these ‘truths’ in me from young, I fought back against the system. I did anything I could to ensure I maintained my sense of individualism. Even when I didn’t necessarily believe I could win and it was for the better, I fought anyway. I made sure I wouldn’t end up on the predictable path of PSLE-Olvl-Alvl-University by choosing to go down the polytechnic route and then choosing to take a year’s break to recuperate the weary soul after I got my diploma. I don’t like admitting my weaknesses, but there wasn’t at any point in time, that a hundred percent of myself that believed in what I was fighting for and that I could make it. Sure, 98% believed, but the remaining 2% was bent on winging it. My dad once said of me, ‘don’t go against the flow for the sake of being different.’ He hit the nail on the head with that one. 

When my parents tell me, ‘concentrate on studying, don’t work when you’re schooling, we’ll give you money’, I know they don’t really understand. It’s about breaking through the increasingly suffocating blanket that the education system throws over us, by getting occasional breaks from the routine and meeting new people, doing exciting things (as exciting as manning a retail store can be). Sure, the constant moolah is a bonus but it is more about escaping some place than getting some place else. 

This may be a world-class nation but its backward views of the Success Story only paint a dismal picture of how we might accept (or not) future generations of artists, dreamers and idealists. No doubt this society has provided excellently for me on the material front and this place will always remain Home, but the stark reality of the dog eat dog culture is not one that bodes well for mental, spiritual nor emotional well-being in the long term. 

“Life is too short to stay in one place.” Perhaps only in Singapore would that be more of a necessary belief to keep one sane than a simple encouragement to explore the world.