Sometimes I get sick of people asking me why do choose social sciences instead of something more promising, in terms of job opportunity. I get tired of being asked the same question over and over again. I get tired of reiterating the same answer over and over again. It's just frustrating. It gets a lot more worst when these so-called white-collar-butt-on-the-chair-sitting-in-the-office-all-day friends of mine started questioning the importance of what I studied and work that I do now.
Why waste your money going all the way to Sabah and Sarawak asking tourists questions?
Why go all the way there just to spend your time in the middle of nowhere?
What's so important about these people?
Do you really think what you're doing is actually going to make the world a better place?
You know you're not going to get a job right even after you finish your postgraduate study?
This thing that you study is just... it looks petty...
How these questions and remarks hurt my feelings, only God knows. If a secured job is what I'm looking for I would have gone to med school right after high school. If making the world a better place to live in is my aim, I would have join the peace unit or Red Cross society. If money is what I'm after, I would have establish some big business generating money from all over the place.
I would be lying if I were to say I don't want all of the above. I do want them. But it all depends on my method. I don't have to be a doctor to get a stable job. Even doctors can be fired for a number of reasons. I don't have to be a volunteer to make the world a better place to live in. It's what you say and how you act that shape the world as it is.
What's wrong with my job? What's wrong with my research? What's wrong with going all the way to Borneo to talk to tourists?
You know what?
This job might not pay so much but the satisfaction that you get out of it, it's priceless. And I wouldn't trade it for your butt-sitting-in-the-office-all-day-making-you-fat-as-a-pig job! You have no idea what you're missing out on. At this age, young and free... you should be exploring out of your comfort zone instead of making fun of what other people do.
I will not boast and make fun of you. I just want to enlighten you on the wonders of my job.
Yes, it is tiring to travel all the time only to work instead of having fun. But working is fun enough if you love it. The best part about traveling is you get the chance to see and meet different people from all walks of life and from all parts of the world. Don't you think it's fun when you meet people from let's say France and then they start spilling out everything from education to culture? An old man starts sharing everything he knows about birds and tells you every species he had ever encountered throughout his journey. A Finnish lady treating you tea and shared with you her experiences leading a bunch of high schools students hiking a mountain.
Aren't those interesting?
It's not a job I want to do for the rest of my life. It's just a stepping stone. A transition. A time to gather knowledge and experience and prepare myself for something perhaps even bigger and tougher.
I planned. But much of those plans never really go the way I intended it to. God has a way of telling me, 'This ain't for you' Maybe not directly but read between the lines.
I just hope these so-called friends of mine would stop questioning my purpose in life and why I do the things I did. It's not like I'm dealing drugs or smuggling people or filming porn or anything! I am simply doing things that I like!
I get you don't appreciate and hate your job. But do not for once think I hate mine. I don't. I love it. It's not stress-free but it's my passion.
Thank you.
My idea of a dream job (which is still far beyond my reach)
A quote from a great man, the late Steve Jobs
