Being in different shoes...

Yesterday, I was reading the newspaper, precisely the business column when I read an article that gave me some deep thoughts. It was about a young (around my age) but very successful girl. Well, I was of course a bit jealous that she’s doing so well in everything. Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking that way…that’s just impossible coz the human mind has been constructed that way. So just shut up, stop criticizing about the green monster in me and listen read on while I share my two cents.

The article got me thinking…will there be a difference if I was born to a family like hers? Will I even be happy? From one perspective, she seems to be having everything completely in her bowl. She’s pretty, smart, born to a wealthy family (this is a significant factor coz financial problems will never exist), studied at a very prestigious world-class university (it was a dream to step my foot there when I was merely 16!), works in the highly-challenging corporate world but in a very interesting industry and everything else. Sounds perfect huh?

I’m definitely not complaining about my roots but I can’t help wondering about this. Is everything really pre-determined? For instance, if one’s parents were drug pushers, will he succeed or even be as successful as this girl I mentioned? I doubt…but maybe it’s possible…that child might probably do well later on in his life, perhaps around age 40? Hah…a bit old huh?

Oh come on…am I not making any sense? Here’s another example. If your father were a bigshot, where would you be now? You probably got all the time in the world to count dollar notes, to study at any of the oh-so-big-deal Aussie Universities or maybe other countries if you have the brain, to travel all the way to Disneyland three times a year just to shake Mickey’s hand even when you were only 3 years old, to dictate other people’s life and make them miserable, just anything similar to those. See the difference now? There’s a message to all these: Money speaks! I definitely can’t deny that.

Ok now I probably need to take back a few words. You probably thought I was dissatisfied with my roots. Oh no…not that! I guess the girl I mentioned earlier might probably be too good to be true. Maybe…just maybe, she’s not happy with the pressures her father set upon her. Like I said earlier, with money you can control people’s life. I’ve got a friend whose father said this to her, “I’m paying for your studies and everything else since you were born. So you better work with me, and take over my company upon graduation. I don’t care whether you have plans to marry or stay elsewhere but you better do what you’re supposed to do...” Isn’t that a terrible situation?

Now here’s my actual point. If you have everything in the world, but you don’t have the rights to decide on your own path, what you want or love to do, then it’s useless. I tell you…it’s of no use coz you won’t be happy. What is life without having the chance to take on the wheel to drive yourself to where you’re going? Right at this point, if I were to see it from another perspective, I should be glad that I’m not in the girl’s shoes (assuming that she’s not happy with the pressures and all that). Unlike her, I’m not a rich man’s daughter and I may not have the assured chance to go to where my dreams are (will still work hard for it though), but I’m thankful that my parents didn’t say, “You MUST do this and that no matter how….” That line itself sounds very much like ruining a person’s life.

So, I still prefer to be in my own shoes…albeit a little more difficult, but what is life without hardships, trials and errors? A bit clichéd eh? Hee…