The main frustration that I have had with my life in NUS was that I felt I was never really learning anything meaningful or anything that I felt would come useful in my life in the long run. My father has always insisted that NS was a waste of time, but to a certain extent, 2 years spent navigating around a difficult routine and even more difficult people has taught me to stand up for myself, something that can never be emphasised enough.
Whereas in NUS, I knew I was never going to be an academic in the future, but here I was, studying 90% of the time. To have some life, I involved myself in CCA's, but still academics have pretty much dominated my life here. Though, every hour spend in front of my books, I have rued the missed opportunity to have spent it on something that I would have learned more from, something that would have added value to me.
It is during these moments of pessimism when you need someone to come along and give some meaning to the things you do. For me, I had one such moment today, from someone I have much respect for, not just because she is academically brilliant(in fact brilliant would be an understatement), but for the maturity, calmness and logic in the things she say
And to her I said "I want to be a social worker in the future. But here I am studying 24/7 things that are not relevant, things that I will forget tomorrow, things that are not adding value to me as a person. In this time, I could straight away go into social work and learn more about it in the next 2 years than I would studying all this stuff".
To which she replied ,"Not that I entirely disagree with what you say, but for every profession, a basic Degree earns you some respect that someone without a Degree will not get. People will trust you more to get things done. Also, in the middle of all this studying, you will surely pick up skills that you can apply in your work".
Somehow,that made sense to me.
Whereas in NUS, I knew I was never going to be an academic in the future, but here I was, studying 90% of the time. To have some life, I involved myself in CCA's, but still academics have pretty much dominated my life here. Though, every hour spend in front of my books, I have rued the missed opportunity to have spent it on something that I would have learned more from, something that would have added value to me.
It is during these moments of pessimism when you need someone to come along and give some meaning to the things you do. For me, I had one such moment today, from someone I have much respect for, not just because she is academically brilliant(in fact brilliant would be an understatement), but for the maturity, calmness and logic in the things she say
And to her I said "I want to be a social worker in the future. But here I am studying 24/7 things that are not relevant, things that I will forget tomorrow, things that are not adding value to me as a person. In this time, I could straight away go into social work and learn more about it in the next 2 years than I would studying all this stuff".
To which she replied ,"Not that I entirely disagree with what you say, but for every profession, a basic Degree earns you some respect that someone without a Degree will not get. People will trust you more to get things done. Also, in the middle of all this studying, you will surely pick up skills that you can apply in your work".
Somehow,that made sense to me.
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