Whenever I tell people what I am doing (work life vs study life), nine out of ten times, I will receive incredulous glances and puzzling remarks, as if it is a crime doing what I am doing. I guess for many people, they see no reason doing things if it is not work-related. I am totally sick and tired of this, since it has happened quite a few times!
I have always maintained the stance that why must we do something just because it is work-related? Why can I not do something simply for interest and not because it is for work? Like people have been bugging me to get my practicing license, but right now, I rather finish what I started (the course I am taking) and then get my practicing license after that. I think with better (and higher) qualifications, it will be easier doing what I want to do in the future, especially if I intend to go for post-graduate and doctorate studies.
Which is why whenever I tell people what I am doing for work, they go a "Wow" as if it is any big deal. But when I tell them what I am studying, they feel kind of let-down. Why so? Knowledge is power, so no matter what you do, no matter how irrelevant and useless people think of you, whatever knowledge gained will follow you throughout life. Besides, nowadays a lot of people are doing a job totally irrelevant to what they studied, and vice versa.
Due to this, I am always reluctant to tell people the number of courses I have taken, simply because none of the courses are work-related. I took those for myself, for my own interest, and not for anything. Like musical instruments. Like singing. Like the various dances. And cooking, baking, wine appreciation, even cycling, tennis and squash. Plus skiing and ice-skating.
I still have yet to take up photography, scuba diving, snowboarding, flower arrangement, cake decorating, scrapbooking, jewellery-making, knitting and professional make-up and nail art courses. These will be done in my lifetime, preferably before I reach middle age. But right now I have too many things on my plate.
But none of these will benefit my career. Afterall, if I am not going to make photography or cooking or baking or jewellery-making or music or singing or dancing or make-up a career, why would or must I bother taking up all these?
Again, I repeat, for my own interest. There is never a timeline to learning things, and there is never too much knowledge. Why can I not learn all these simply because I am interested in them? I may or may not utilise what I learnt, but I daresay the knowledge or skills will come in somewhere somehow.
People can go on living their lives in their own comfort zones, but at the end of the day, if they do not upkeep or upgrade, they will be the ones who find themselves obsolete. Whatever irrelevant skills I have or have not, perhaps they are the ones who keep me current? I hope to pass these on to my own children and hopefully they too will have a thirst for knowledge and never stop learning!
I have always maintained the stance that why must we do something just because it is work-related? Why can I not do something simply for interest and not because it is for work? Like people have been bugging me to get my practicing license, but right now, I rather finish what I started (the course I am taking) and then get my practicing license after that. I think with better (and higher) qualifications, it will be easier doing what I want to do in the future, especially if I intend to go for post-graduate and doctorate studies.
Which is why whenever I tell people what I am doing for work, they go a "Wow" as if it is any big deal. But when I tell them what I am studying, they feel kind of let-down. Why so? Knowledge is power, so no matter what you do, no matter how irrelevant and useless people think of you, whatever knowledge gained will follow you throughout life. Besides, nowadays a lot of people are doing a job totally irrelevant to what they studied, and vice versa.
Due to this, I am always reluctant to tell people the number of courses I have taken, simply because none of the courses are work-related. I took those for myself, for my own interest, and not for anything. Like musical instruments. Like singing. Like the various dances. And cooking, baking, wine appreciation, even cycling, tennis and squash. Plus skiing and ice-skating.
I still have yet to take up photography, scuba diving, snowboarding, flower arrangement, cake decorating, scrapbooking, jewellery-making, knitting and professional make-up and nail art courses. These will be done in my lifetime, preferably before I reach middle age. But right now I have too many things on my plate.
But none of these will benefit my career. Afterall, if I am not going to make photography or cooking or baking or jewellery-making or music or singing or dancing or make-up a career, why would or must I bother taking up all these?
Again, I repeat, for my own interest. There is never a timeline to learning things, and there is never too much knowledge. Why can I not learn all these simply because I am interested in them? I may or may not utilise what I learnt, but I daresay the knowledge or skills will come in somewhere somehow.
People can go on living their lives in their own comfort zones, but at the end of the day, if they do not upkeep or upgrade, they will be the ones who find themselves obsolete. Whatever irrelevant skills I have or have not, perhaps they are the ones who keep me current? I hope to pass these on to my own children and hopefully they too will have a thirst for knowledge and never stop learning!
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