"6 years still taking your degree? Getting long service award?"
"Still can't bear to leave your school?"
"How old already still cannot think?"
In case you don't know. I am a rational individual, just like you. I will want to complete my degree in preferably, 2 to 3 years. But I did not, simply because of the following reasons:
1. I have no passion in studying. Simply because.
2. I used to believe the value of having a degree brings more value to my future. But I don't see it now. This is my analysis:
The value of a degree is decreasing everyday due to the abundant supply of graduates flooding the market.
This is what Economics taught me. As supply increases and as products are substitutes for one another (i.e.: a graduate can replace another graduate), suppliers become the price taker as they are in a perfect competition industry. So graduates are becoming the price takers now, taking any salary they have as they desperately need a job.
Demand is created by employers and supply is created by graduates. The probability of more graduates appearing will be higher than more companies appearing AND have the financial ability to employ a Uni Graduate. We can say that the demand for employees is elastic while the thirst for graduates to be employed is inelastic.
And therefore I cannot comprehend why, when it is an economical sensible decision to not put all my eggs into a Bachelors Degree, people think I am simply 'not thinking about the future.'
Lets talk about things after getting employed.
Stage 1: Self-fulfilment
Well suppose you get 4K a month with your Degree and are able to bring your parents to nice restaurants and you feel good about yourself. What are you trying to acheive? Happiness. Done.
Suppose I fail my degree and get a mere 1.8K job a month, I buy $2 tauhuay up for my parents to eat. I feel good about myself. What am I trying to acheive? Happiness. Done.
At this stage, I have acheived Happiness at a lower cost than you. Yes, you may get to enjoy higher quality food than me. But that doesn't mean you will FEEL happier.
It is much akin to my $3 Char Kway Tiao and $50 Steak classic example.
However if you think I am being absurb at this point, you may stop reading here.
Stage 2: Happiness derived from acknowledgement from others.
Comtinuing from previous example, you bring your parents to a lush restaurant for a Mothers Day dinner. Your parents were so proud and proclaim it to your relatives. Everyone says you are a great son/daughter. You feel good.
Demand is created by employers and supply is created by graduates. The probability of more graduates appearing will be higher than more companies appearing AND have the financial ability to employ a Uni Graduate. We can say that the demand for employees is elastic while the thirst for graduates to be employed is inelastic.
And therefore I cannot comprehend why, when it is an economical sensible decision to not put all my eggs into a Bachelors Degree, people think I am simply 'not thinking about the future.'
Lets talk about things after getting employed.
Stage 1: Self-fulfilment
Well suppose you get 4K a month with your Degree and are able to bring your parents to nice restaurants and you feel good about yourself. What are you trying to acheive? Happiness. Done.
Suppose I fail my degree and get a mere 1.8K job a month, I buy $2 tauhuay up for my parents to eat. I feel good about myself. What am I trying to acheive? Happiness. Done.
At this stage, I have acheived Happiness at a lower cost than you. Yes, you may get to enjoy higher quality food than me. But that doesn't mean you will FEEL happier.
It is much akin to my $3 Char Kway Tiao and $50 Steak classic example.
However if you think I am being absurb at this point, you may stop reading here.
Stage 2: Happiness derived from acknowledgement from others.
Comtinuing from previous example, you bring your parents to a lush restaurant for a Mothers Day dinner. Your parents were so proud and proclaim it to your relatives. Everyone says you are a great son/daughter. You feel good.
You satisfy Stage 2: Happiness derived from acknowledgement from others. Not only you yourself think you are great, you hear it verbally from others too.
For my case, my parents may chuck my tauhuay aside because it only costs $2. Nothing goes around my relatives ears because it is just tau huay. My parents see other people kids bringing their parents to restaurants. They see me as a useless daughter who doesn't bring them to eat nice food.
I didn't satisfy stage 2. I don't have happiness derived from acknowledgement from others.
Why don't I work and study harder, get a Degree, and try to satisfy stage 2 you may say?
Simply because, Stage 2 isn't what I need, what I want, and what I view as important in life. If my parents do not appreciate my $2 tauhuay and envy a $200 meal, whose position is it to say I am not good enough or my parents are taking things for granted? Your position? Or mine?
Secondly, what differs us from acheiving different results are the THINGS WE PLACE VALUE ON.
For example, your $4K job entails you to own a life of entertainment. Together with your spouse, both of you may live in a private apartment, big and spacious. You guys then went to Paris and took a picture with 500 Instagram likes. You enjoy your high life. This is what you value. Luxury, not having to think about price tags.
My job with a mere $1. 8K only allows me to visit Pulau Ubin for cycling every weekend. Then I spot a rare species of venomous snake and I get fucking happy. I take a picture of it and I get probably 30 Instagram likes. This is what I value.
Are you able to say your happiness in Paris is more than my happiness of seeing a rare snake in Pulau Ubin? Sure, your transportation cost is 500 times more expensive than mine.
Is your happiness 500x more than mine?
It's hard to gauge who is actually more happy in this situation. The point is, spending more money doesn't mean it makes you happier. This is what makes us different.
It is not the spending, it is the value we see in things.
If you value Stage 2, if you value luxury, you are not wrong.
For my case, my parents may chuck my tauhuay aside because it only costs $2. Nothing goes around my relatives ears because it is just tau huay. My parents see other people kids bringing their parents to restaurants. They see me as a useless daughter who doesn't bring them to eat nice food.
I didn't satisfy stage 2. I don't have happiness derived from acknowledgement from others.
Why don't I work and study harder, get a Degree, and try to satisfy stage 2 you may say?
Simply because, Stage 2 isn't what I need, what I want, and what I view as important in life. If my parents do not appreciate my $2 tauhuay and envy a $200 meal, whose position is it to say I am not good enough or my parents are taking things for granted? Your position? Or mine?
Secondly, what differs us from acheiving different results are the THINGS WE PLACE VALUE ON.
For example, your $4K job entails you to own a life of entertainment. Together with your spouse, both of you may live in a private apartment, big and spacious. You guys then went to Paris and took a picture with 500 Instagram likes. You enjoy your high life. This is what you value. Luxury, not having to think about price tags.
My job with a mere $1. 8K only allows me to visit Pulau Ubin for cycling every weekend. Then I spot a rare species of venomous snake and I get fucking happy. I take a picture of it and I get probably 30 Instagram likes. This is what I value.
Are you able to say your happiness in Paris is more than my happiness of seeing a rare snake in Pulau Ubin? Sure, your transportation cost is 500 times more expensive than mine.
Is your happiness 500x more than mine?
It's hard to gauge who is actually more happy in this situation. The point is, spending more money doesn't mean it makes you happier. This is what makes us different.
It is not the spending, it is the value we see in things.
If you value Stage 2, if you value luxury, you are not wrong.
But just because YOUR path has rainbows, doesn't mean other people's routes are filled with dark clouds.
Lastly,
I am not "proud" to say I have not passed my Degree.
I am just logical enough to see that crying doesn't help.
