Wednesday, July 21, 2010

If you want something you never had, do something you have never done

Today morning I was listening to 93.8FM over the radio and they were discussing about whether school children should be given so much homework or remedial lessons during their 1 month term break. There were people calling in with various different opinion, some for it and some against it, but from what I gathered, mostly wanted a form of break for the kids in case of burn out and that parents should be the one responsible and accountable for making the decision whether to send the kids back to school for extra lessons.

In my opinion, I felt that the kids should be given the break, have the entire 4 weeks to themselves or choose what they want to do with it with the guidance of their parents. To me I felt that education is important, but not a must; so what if you can get a degree certificate, or a masters or PHD. Maybe I am thinking like this due to the nature of my job now, which I got thanks to my degree; I do not love doing it. On hindsight, I would definitely have live my life in a completely different manner if I can go back in time.

People now work so hard, even at things they may not love doing. All they think of is get a job, earn enough money, get married then have kids so on. Seldom do they think of whether they love what they are doing and doing it just for the sake of getting married, house, kids… Whatever happened to the passion in life? If you asked me if I can go back to when I was 21 agin and whether I would choose to go to university again, my answer will be YES. If not I would not have gone to NTU ACES and found my passion.

However, I would approach my university life in an entire different manner. Please do what you love to do when you still have the time and without the burden of adulthood. University is your last chance for most, the time in your life when you have the most freedom and least burden. For me, I would have picked up one more thing other than cheerleading, that is financial education. The schools do not teach it to you, but once you started working, then you would start to realize the importance of it, but then you would have less time to learn about it, and the younger you start the better. This shall be the key to your ultimate freedom.

I always look at some of my peers with envy, how they are doing what they love, and doing it all out - to become a full time cheerleader or coach. They are the ones who dared to live their dreams. If investing time in your education is important, I would say that investing time in your dreams is even more important. These people who do cheer full time invest a lot of time and efforts into their dreams and they dared to dream. I know of some who are earning more income than I am banking on my degree certificate. And you can imagine how much more they are earning than a typical diploma holder or A/Os holder who get a job in the “traditional sense” (no offence to diploma or A/Os holders). I even know of 1 person who can completely drop out of his degree program to pursue his passion of cheerleading and guess what, he is now earning 100USD a day coaching overseas. Not bad or what, speaking of overseas opportunities and high pay. Of course they are not earning that by chance, but by many years of effort before that, and I repeat again, because of their dreams. Of course every profession has it’s pro and cons, I can think of a couple of cons for cheerleading, but, a big BUT, you are living your dreams and love what you are doing. This is the most important.

I am not saying that cheerleading is for everyone, some may really love being an engineer, an accountant, a teacher, a banker etc. The point I am trying to get at is LOVE what you are doing, if you do not love it, don’t do it. So now to those doing your degree, probably the final lap of education for most, is the course you are in what you love doing? Or do you know where you are going from there? If not, start really thinking hard about what you want, and if you already know what you love doing, start working hard at it to become the best. There is always room for the best in every industry.

It took me 3 years since my graduation to figure all these out, it is not a waste for I have learn many along the way too, but you do not need to spend 3 years of arduous efforts and time to realize all these. I have this desktop wallpaper at my work laptop that has this 3 quotes:

“If you want something you never had, do something you have never done.”

“Don’t take the way life takes you, take the life the way you go”

“And remember you are born to live and not living because you are born”


For those who really love cheer, stick to it, do what your passion tells you to do, there is a road ahead. From afar I can see it slowly emerging from the fog. And we all need to work together to make this a reality, the only way for it to happen is if we move ahead, instead of stagnating or moving backwards due to petty squabbles or politics. Have a bigger heart for things and learn to forgive. The more you give and the more you will receive. Let’s push ahead through the fog and we will be able to see the abundance behind it.


P.S: Everyday I dream...

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