Living your parents’ dreams

I was reading these and I do not really agree that it is the society’s expectations of you. Rather, most of the time it comes from the parents. Not so much from your teachers or peers.

Sometimes I look back and wonder if what I was doing all along (prior to Grad School) is because of what my parents want me to do, and not because of what I myself want to do.

Friend: well, if that is the case, you would be in Singapore, or on some (govt) research scholarship and looking for a wife.

Me: which is NOT what I am doing now.

Friend: Exactly. You have broken free.

I remember undergrad was such a chore because of the not insignificant sum of money my folks shelled out for me for tuition. All I wanted to do then was to graduate ASAP. So there was overloading of courses during the regular semesters (I avoided taking summer terms because I didn’t want to pay tuition for those) and completed everything in 5 semesters. Commencement took on a special significance as it was more for them to see their eldest child graduate from university (and be proud of it), considering that both are non-graduates, than it was for me.

While googling this: “What can you do with a chemistry degree in S’pore?” (of the previous entry), three interesting links came up. Ah, the vagaries of the internet, and google. They are about the suicide of a MP’s son in Oxford (in 1993).

Actually I find Grad school so much more relaxed than undergrad. Maybe because
1. I don’t need to care anymore about tuition and grades,
2. I kinda enjoy what I am doing now.
Although writing papers is still a bitch, and the social life here isn’t er, that great.

From: Tan Chong Kee – view profile
Date: Mon, May 24 1993 11:30 pm
Email: Tan Chong Kee
Groups: soc.culture.singapore

I am reminded of the time I spent in Cambridge when I was the only
Singaporean freshman reading Maths for that year. Upon arrival, I met the other Singaporean mathematicians there (who all got Firsts, by the way) and was welcomed by “We are so glad you came. For a moment, we thought our Singaporean tradition was going to be broken.” I did my best putting up a brave and nonchalant front. They were all very helpful and friendly and during the course of the year had helped me through quite a few impossible tutorials. You see, the pressure did not come so much
from the University or fellow Singaporeans but from oneself. You go to an institution like Oxford or Cambridge with enormous expectations heaped upon you. That year, I got
a third in the tripos and felt such a failure that the thought of killing myself did flash through my mind. NOT because fellow Singaporeans were too kiasu or because my tutor pushed me too hard, simply because I felt that if I do not excel, I am worthless.

A lot has been said of the pressure felt by the lower percentile students in our rat race society. I am not trying to trivialize the issue, but at least for them, if they do not make it, psychologically, they still have the “well, I am not good at studying” to fall back on. For someone who has straight As, not making it is humiliating. You are either a mugger (ie. in reality quite thick and hence do not
belong in this elite club) or lazy (in which case, you have to face your disappointed parents, and having one of them as a MP certainly does not help).
Perhaps we should stop making heros out of straight As students and let them know that it is OK to fail sometimes. We are all human after all, and getting firsts really isn’t all that big a deal despite what it might seem then or, for some of us, even now. Our socity and family have too unforgiving an attitude towards failures and mistakes, be it academically, politically or career wise. It is counterproductive to expect yourself to be perfect, and to expect that of others is simply cruel. Such an inhuman attitude has wrought many misery and tragidies in the past. What we see now is but a more sensational incident. It is time we start facing and accepting
occasional human failure, not just in the Universities for straight As students, but across all spectrum of our lives.

As an epilogue, I have since given up trying to please my parents and am now researching Chinese Literature in Taiwan – something I have always wanted to do since secondary school. There will be those who see me as a drop out or simply wasting my ‘good’ education, but at least I am happy.

Perhaps sometimes, for some of us, there is a time when we have to say hack to society and just get on with our lives. Flame if you want, I only telling my story and most importantly, I am still alive.

BTW, Tan Chong Kee was the founder of Sintercom.

Edit (Mar 8) – Blogs that link here:
1. Mr Wang
2. Tomorrow (Eh, I thought I put clearly in my sidebar Tomorrow not free?)
3. gecko

General degree holders

I don’t get the point about this letter. Do you? Want to have a job that relates to your academic discipline? Do a professional degree course like Medicine, Nursing, Law, Architecture, Accountancy, Engineering etc instead.

Oh yeah, there are also the test-tube washer positions available in one of the stat boards.

Straits Times, March 7, 2006
What can you do with a chemistry degree in S’pore?

This issue “What can you do in Singapore with a degree in chemistry?” was a topic to which I was assigned as a team project in the National University of Singapore for a module entitled Science Foundation Module four years ago.

Not surprisingly, the survey my team conducted revealed that almost 80 per cent of chemistry graduates end up as teachers teaching chemistry.

Today, let me modify the title to “What can you do in the enterprises of Singapore with a degree in chemistry?” Again, not surprisingly, I am sure that about 80 per cent of chemistry graduates are unemployed.

Of all the job advertisements in The Straits Times that I have been looking at, those recruiting degree-holders in chemistry are really too few to talk about – about only 5 per cent of the jobs available.

What is worse is that these job advertisements are mostly from companies engaging in services such as semiconductors and polymers.

This the crux of the problem that I am highlighting. As undergraduates who majored in chemistry, we studied modules pertaining to general chemistry and not on specific topics, unless you are majoring in applied chemistry.

I urge these enterprises to state clearly in their recruitment advertisements whether they want degree-holders in applied chemistry or chemical engineering. Then maybe the educational authorities will look into this matter.

Eric Lim Chee Khiam

Edit (Mar 12): L’oiseau rebelle’s thoughts on this issue, and Kreps’ take.