Why not be different?

A different path? We are all born with the potential ...

I have been out of touch with my ex secondary school mates for a long time & recently an old friend (we used to be quite good friends) called up and asked to meet up when I was in Camerons. It was a good surprise as he went off to Australia and I went into seclusion with my AIESEC stuff since 1998, so didn't know what happened to him & vice versa.

So, from my recent mamak session with other SMSJ people, he found out that I am still alive & back in Subang.

It was a interesting thought to meet up someone whom I spent quite a lot of form 5 doing study group & hanging out, in fact I should thank him for helping me get my great results (although I took another path of anti-academic since university)

So, KK anyway rebranded himself as Donny Chung (foo-la-weh) which I had some trouble digesting (it's easier for him to accept Jason as people in school know it's my 2nd name after Kah Keong).

So ... in comparison with the rest ... I found out that many are married, partnered, engaged or somewhat un-available. They have also mostly engaged themselves in typical jobs like engineers (largest group), accounts & finance (2nd largest), doctors & dentists, and IT. So typical. Even KK (or rather, Donny) is already happily attached to a partner & with his electrical engineering papers. Meaning? Everyone has taken a typical path in life (as predicted or suggested by our teachers) and will be married with kids by 30 (which some have overachieved by 25).

Me? Bummed around trying many different jobs, had my fun with projects in Europe, now with an events company & thinking of my next big paycheck & trip overeas ... is hardly anything near what I heard they were doing. And yes, started my MBA late (some of the guys in school already got it). But what can I say, I earned it all by myself, I am not rich like them, my parents cannot afford to send me overseas ... not like those others who go to UK, Australia (whatever) ... have an international experience using parents' money. In fact, while hey enjoyed post form 5 holidays, I was alreay slogging to earn my first thousand, so it was the start of a different path.

Come December 17th, I will attend the school reunion (can you believe I left SMSJ for 10 years already? feel so old), and I think I will be quite 'alone' in chasing the big bucks, thinking of doing big things and not going for the 'usual' package in life.

Looking back, I always thought that I would also take one of the paths above. My niggling yearn to do something extraordinary only exploded when I was limited by what I had & knew that to achieve an international experience & to be more successful, I cannot take the usual path; it had to be something different. As they say, you never know what the future holds.

Just thinking of how & when to be part of my own enterprise, chasing my own dreams, knowing that my only barrier to it all is ... myself.

Life is short & I don't want to waste it achieving what ordinary do, when I am blessed with the potential for more.

See you at the finishing line!