at 17 today
I had the opportunity to interact with a 17 year old student recenly. It felt strange to be talking to someone of that age. Somehow, it just makes me feel older, and it seems as though i have indeed become even more jaded and skeptical through the years. Is that what growing up is all about?Speaking to one of our brightest young minds is different, i realised. She has the motivation and drive to do well. She is good, she is smart. And then one day, i asked her about plans for the future. Medicine, she says. Why? Because there's lots of money in it.
I was flabbergasted. I never thought this way when i was 17. Maybe i was naive then, because I only realised the importance of money when i was 24. There she is, a smart and practical kid. Though misinformed. Talking to friends in medicine, I have learned that you may earn lots, but the time spent in the career is really exhausting. Smart kid proceeded to tell me that if she doesn't get into medicine, she will take up a scholarship to do science. Why science? because i am good in it, she says. Engineering would be wiser decision. i thought. This coming from somone who did science, who still does it knowing that the money is scarce.
At 17, everything seems so simple. And you trust the government so much. You trust the scholarships. You think nothing of bonds. You think you are made for life once you are a scholar.
And i felt that something was missing. In the entire coversation, never once did she tell me that she wants to do somehing, because she LIKES it. Where is the passion? There is nothing wrong with going into a career for money -- it just saddens me that the youths of today, have no passion. I don't know if its a flaw in our education system. But it really sucks.
She knows a lot about the scholarships out there. I mentioned that if i could make the decision again, i might have chosen the school of architecture instead. Following that, she went "oh, you could have taken the ura scholarship". Seriously, i don't want to spend the rest of my life designing one HDB after another . Ok, I'm just being mean. On speaking with a friend who was from from Rj, he told me that back in jc days, everyone just talks about scholarships (he said"imagine the kind of conversation i had to put up with ok"). I guess life in a top jc is indeed different huh. All my friends and i wanted to do, back in JC was to avoid 1) the principal's office. 2)getting caught by our discipline master 3)as many lectures and tutorials as possible. We turned out pretty ok, and without scholarships too. 2 doing medicine, 1 architect to be, 1 on his way to a PhD, another in teaching, 1 in pharmacy... pretty good i think.
Actually, i should have told smart kid that if she wants to be really well off, she should be an MP. or marry one.
Life is made up of so much more than A's, scholarships and results. But since our country emphasizes so much on it, i guess it can't be helped that our students think this way.
Labels: life
posted by eline @ 1:02 AM
Comments: 2
