i have ORD for about three months now, alongside with few other guys of my batch as well. currently, the general trend for all of us would be looking for jobs and working to earn the cash. at the same time, not forgetting enjoyment and the paper works for further studies. as human beings, we tend to compare, so the only thing we ORD people would compare now is our salary per month. i used to earn a rough $850 per month throughout the second year of NS to ORD. currently, as a private tutor, i earn about half of that per month. many of my peers who ORD same time as me and are currently working will frown at that. they will go on about asking why i wouldn't go and find a proper 5-days work week job which can fetch an average of at least $1200 per month. someone even asked me if me if i would even regret earning less than the others before i enter university in August this year. well the latter remark hit me into a chain of thoughts and i'm here to lay them out.
private tutor. people always ask be why i chose that. well, first and foremost, i have the passion to help and teach others. as some of you might already knew, i tried applying for the MOE teaching internship but got rejected and hence i chose to be a private tutor. on top of that, my working hours are really flexible and i can wear any attire i like. the main purpose of me working now is to have enough money to support my expenditure from now to graduation. saving up for house, marriage, car and what not is secondary and would be primary upon my graduation. i work to support my expenditure so that my parents can worry less.
free time. too much free time they said. yeah some remarked and questioned me if having too much free time would bore be or result to me thinking i'm wasting time. well, i am not wasting time. enjoying my free time through leisure activities isn't wasting time ti me. i can watch shows, read news articles, write posts like this that requires some thinking, exercise, meet-up with old friends, shopping. i can do many things that full-time workers can hardly have the time to.
well, i foresee those full-timers condemning me as giving excuses to make myself feel better. hmm.. you might be a little correct but i would like to add on something that light up in my head the other day when i received the question. i realised throughout my entire life, which was mainly as a student, i never once regret having fun.
i can poor results and regret not working harder but not for playing too much. i can study really hard and still get poor results. then i would regret not working my ass off but i would regret more for compromising play time to do more work than usual. get the idea?
so yeah, in retrospect, i never regret having fun even if to some of you it might seem too much at times. at the end of the day, when i start spending the next few years studying in university, i know the currently life will not be repeated again. after university will come work and building a family.. not much rest. by then, i would not want myself to regret not having enough fun when i had the chance to.
some always regret playing too much or working too little. for me, i will only regret not having more fun.