what we live for is a very complex question that can not be answer directly by one simple sentence but i rather share this thoughts to you for you to answer on your own little way and understanding.
upon our birth, we are all showered by caring, concerns, hugs, caress, kisses, love not only by our parents but also the people who are near to us. we were innocent then, an angel in their eyes, sinless, cute and full of hope. this angel sinless baby will soon stand & walk alone to struggle & fight the challenge of destiny. challenges that make us weak or strong, fail or succeed, put us in sadness or happiness, become worthless or responsible, bashful or arrogant, humble or proud, poor or rich…
we were sent to school by our parents to be educated and eventually find a good job when we grew up.during our elementary days we wake up at around 6AM ask for “baon” to our parents and go home around 12PM. its a routine for about 6 or 7 years. we study, we learn, we forgot, we cheat, we get caught, we lied. we disobey, we promise but we failed again. everybody did those. who else didn’t? we are mold to be a good student and good child at the same time and of course, we do try. but we are young enough to follow the do’s & dont’s rules by our parents, our teachers and our oldies. on this stage that we all should enjoy the happiest stage in our life: the childhood. a child who is clueless what a problem is, a child who has a right to play, laugh, cared, study, pampered, loved. while we are inside the school studying our parent/s are working spending & wasting 8-10 hours of their lives everyday and at nighttime when they arrived they are dead tired & spend less (quality?) time with their kids.
they need to work, work hard for the money, they work like a fading horse to earn a living, to feed the family, to pay the bills, to live a decent life, to go on with life. and we as a child strive to study different kind of subjects. subjects that until now, i still can not comprehend if how we can it use on our daily lives.
almost the same things happen when we reached high school we rush in the morning to our first subject & go home in the afternoon or evening, again…dead tired. in high school we’re not only learn the academics we also started to learn how to develop friendship, we started to learn how to drink, how to smoke, how to cut class, maybe some are not but most of us do. we started to take a peek of what life would be. we started to have problems & sometimes we take it seriously. problems in studies, love life, family, friends, temptations, life itself, financial, etc.
if sometimes financial problem worsens others may not continue college or stop in the middle of their studies. they were force to work, to earn, to continue life.
life is beautiful. no doubt about it but they say life is what you make it. you can make your life beautiful but you can make the worst of it. sometimes its hard to imagine that somebody’s garbage is a treasure for others, sometimes its hard to accept that somebody’ wasting food while others died and killed for it. sometimes its hard to ignore that some have the luxury of life while others died because of poverty, no food, no medicine, no friends, no wealth. what is the difference between the man who steals your money & the politicians who steals money from our taxes? life is what you make it…are the beggars in the street chose their life? are the prostitutes chose what they have become when they have enough money to feed her family? are the shoplifters still steal milk when she has money to buy milk for her kids? are the holdupper still coerce someone for money when he has money to buy medicines for his sick daughter? are corrupt practices really addictive? are we really a congenital sinner? are we all hungry for power? yes, life is what you make it but whether you like it or not life isn’t always fair.
life becomes more complicated when we reach college. you can’t be a happy go lucky guy when life seems turn serious here. subjects become harder, professors are more strict, tuition should worth every penny, temptations in many forms are coming, pressure is on us, expectations are very high, while we don’t even know what the solutions would be adding insult to injury is sometimes they’ll come simultaneously. an acid test for the youngster to become mature, innocent to become intelligent, weak to become stronger, clumsy to become skillful. sometimes your future lies on your hand, this test can turn you into someone invincible or someone conquerable.
in life there is always two choices, no in-betweens, you either: fail or succeed, finish the job well or leave things undone, decide to yes or no, move forward or backward, go up or down.
in totality, we spend an average of 4,600 days inside the classroom or an average of 15 long years. is the 15 years inside the school enough to find us a decent job? is it enough to feed our family for a lifetime? is it enough to buy our wants & our needs? may be or may be not. the success of others can not be your success or vice versa, the treasure that others found can be hidden from your eyes forever, the blessings you receive may be different from others. despite the dedication towards something, the determination to succeed, the confidence to go on, the effort you show, the knowledge you give, the skills you apply, still you can not achieve your goal. how can we go up if the situation pull us down? how can we move forward if somebody tied us up?
didn’t you notice that the more we become mature the less time we spend to our family? it is because we have to study the meaning of life and learned from it to eventually work on your own for the sake of the family, but when we are old enough to work and it’s time to spend the remaining hours of our life to our kids…they’re not kids anymore & they all have family of their own. the cycle repeats.
isn’t it ironic that a caregiver in england can’t give her personal care to her family? isn’t it ironic that a carpenter can build hundred houses while he himself didn’t have one? isn’t it ironic that a DH in hongkong clean other’s home while her own home is the one needed to be clean? isn’t it ironic that a nanny abroad cared & nursed other children while her own children here needed to be nurse? isn’t it funny that all of them serves other country while our country is the one needed an aid? that’s life. we have to accept it.
our life here is surely different from the “other life” we expected. we all have disappointments, failed hopes, frustrations, broken dreams, miseries & tragedies in this life. once in our life, we sometimes experience sorrow, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, grief & regrets but at the end of the day we should be old enough to handle these situations. we should not do things beyond our limitations ‘coz it might be the things we will be regretting after we served our life.
set aside the spiritual side of our life, the responsibility & respect to others and the commitment to our creator. the reason why we pursue our dreams, why we struggle the obstacles, why we defeat our enemy, why we find solutions to every problem, why we want our children to have a bright future, why we survive in everyday’s life, why we keep on dreaming, why we stand-up everytime we fall, why we wake-up in every morning, why we still have smile on our faces, is . . . . . . . . . . .
