Let's kick off with the story about my mom. She took her SPM about 32 years ago. And she got 2nd grade for her SPM. Doesn't sound spectacular now. But back then, it was way above average. On the other hand, my father is only a 3rd grader. Fast forward to the present, my mom is only a clerk and my father is an officer at the federal department. I'm sure when my mom received her SPM result, she must've thought that she is going to have a good position at this time. But she was wrong! I'm not saying that working as a clerk is a bad profession but it could've been better for her. Hey, I'm a son of a clerk and I'm telling you, I'm proud of the way my mom raised me up.
There is a story actually behind the story of my mom. A few years before my grandmother died, I asked her of all her children, who is the smartest in terms of academic achievement? She told me it's my mom. She actually told me that my mom was offered to further her study at a university but due to the hard life that my mom's family is having, my grandmother doesn't tell my mom about it and she kept the offer letter to herself. She said that they cannot afford to pay for the university fee. Pity isn't it? But it happened nevertheless. The highest education for my mother is only SPM. The best part is, my mom doesn't know this story until one day I decided that the deserves to know.
I remember a time when my family were attending a wedding of the daughter of my mom's classmate. She met a lot of her classmates and even her schoolmates. Most of them is just an ordinary person like my mother. But one particular classmates of her has become a lecturer at the Institut Pendidikan Guru in KL. She told me that the person was not a very bright student when she was at school. My mother was always better than that person when it comes to an academic achievement. But now, it's different. The person is having a much better life (in terms of position) than my mom.
What I'm trying to say here is that we often look at life short sightedly. We never really know what's ahead. Thus, we always come to a conclusion earlier than it should be. People always perceived that going to a university will always give you a good result in your life later. But this is not necessarily true. Upon coming back to Malaysia, I've worked temporarily at different organisation for a number of time. And I found that most of my co-workers are university graduate with PTPTN debt to pay for. And they are underemployed. Work as a hard labor arranging boxes. You don't have to have a degree to arrange boxes. Everybody can do it. Yes, you can argue that the time has not come for them yet but does they ever thought that they will arrange boxes one day? I bet they don't. Because they are human. And human judgement are mostly flawed.
Another example is my lecturer. One my lecturer told me the story of his life. He started his university life as a pre-science student. Pre-science is a program for those who are not really eligible to go straight to diploma. In short, their SPM is not good. They have to spend a year for that before they can go to diploma provided that their pre-science result is outstanding. A few years later, he is my lecturer with a master degree. Who would've thought that?
It is very sad for me when many parents focuses on academic achievement of their children. They scold their children for not getting a lot of A's in their exam when what they should do is to motivate them to not give up in life. Keep on pedaling if you don't want to fall from your bicycle. Yes, I agree that academic achievement is important but it's not everything. It is impossible for us to know what lies in front of the corner but it is possible for us to prepare ourselves to face anything that lies ahead.
Let's listen to this song. It has a very deep meaning.
