Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on July 2005
Shiny happy people holding hands…
or How I Sold Out to Social Engineering
I heard the song Shiny Happy People by REM (I think) and it got me thinking about how my boyfriend and I were ’shiny happy people’. We really are the perfect people, a Barbie and Ken couple living perfect lives. It’s scary.
We were perfect from birth, achieving every milestone in the baby book, and as we grew up we just continued our streak of achievements. I was consistently a top student and precocious to a fault. I once declared at the age of seven that “I know where babies come from!” and I did. Actually all I knew was that sperm + egg = baby, but I guess that declaration was enough to scare my parents for a bit…
We coasted through high school with a long, long list of A’s in the major exams, and more importantly, so did our friends. We didn’t achieve in solitude, we hung out with other similar high achievers and became sort of a “smart people’s clique”. Even as we entered university, my friends and I continued being the children of other people’s dreams. Marry doctors? Rubbish! We’d rather BE doctors. Going to university was a given for us, the only question was which college we’d go off to.
And now we’re looking to settle into long-term relationships and kidding each other about who will be the first to get married. We’re on our way to achieving the suburban dream. We did everything our parents wanted for us, and the road ahead looks like easy coasting.
When did we sell out? When did we settle for just having a good life and having enough money? Where is the idealism that pushed us into medicine and law? I’m not saying I’m unhappy with my life. It’s just that, when you look at the big picture, our contribution is going to be so very transient. We wouldn’t have made a difference in the world.
I followed Social Engineering’s instructions to the letter. Study hard. Find a nice boy. Listen to your parents. There was nothing in there about social activism or speaking out, because these are the jobs of mavericks. I’m living the perfect suburban life and suddenly it seems so fake.
Back to jail, back to jail…
*moans* I don’t want to go back to school…
Email came from Hall Office. I have been summoned back to Yousucks and will have to check in on the 18th. Aiya, like that I won’t be able to finish reading Harry Potter 6 leh… Unless I spend all of Saturday reading it. It’s nowhere near as thick as Order of the Phoenix so maybe I’ll only need one day to finish reading it.
Why this time no buzz about the book wan? No “guess who dies, guess who” mysteries to solve this time? Only a passing curiosity about the “Half-blood Prince” of the title. Aiya. All I want to know is, does Harry pass his OWLs with okay grades or will he get super-straight A’s? After all, if he doesn’t get straight A grades (or in his case, E for Exceeds Expectations) I cannot look up to him as a role model any more leh… Some more, skali he do badly then become even more of a prick than he was in Book 5. (Screaming in ALL CAPS, being all stroppy and fighting with his mates - the lad was a real pain in the ass.)
Anyway, aren’t you glad tBlog has decided to behave normally again? No more funny alignments and goodness knows what else. It took them long enough. It didn’t really bother me, I was too busy shopping for my latest gadget - digicam. Yeah, I didn’t own a digicam until now. Too poor to get one. Always had to borrow my boyfriend’s one. Now it looks like he’ll be asking to borrow mine, heh.
Very sad now about having to return to school. Every day the sun rises is one more day I have to fully cram with meaningful slacking. Must enjoy my dog’s company. Must vegetate 4 hours in front of the telly. Must eat lots of junk food. Must enjoy not having to do own laundry. Must appreciate having an entire house, and not just a room to myself. Must DRIVE DADDY’S CAR!!!
Inching inexorably closer to the reality of the working world as I begin my sophomore year. Help.
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