It's a boy! He was out in the world. His father held and looked at him dearly saying, "You're going to be a doctor".
Seventeen years later, the boy replied,
"Wait, what?".
"You're going to be a doctor. End of story."
End of story it is. The boy then aced his SPM examinations and proceeded with A-levels. Later, proceeded to medical school. As expected, he graduated. Unwillingly, he became a medical officer. Despite his success, he was miserable. He couldn't help pondering what would have happened if had pursued his dreams. What if...? But those were just dreams. It was too late.
End of story it is.
Yes, I'm finished with my dramatic introduction. So, deja vu anyone?
My mom told me a few weeks ago to kindly advice my friends not to take up medicine just because their parents tell them to. So here I am, telling my friends, "Don't!". See, there's a very bad phenomena going around in Asian communities. Parents here are so obsessed on seeing their children becoming doctors or anything that screams the word "TYPICAL".
Lets just narrow down our scope to Malaysia. I just noticed a few weeks ago at school, my friends brought up the topic of ambitions because obviously, we need to decide on our career paths. Soon. So many of my friends said, "My mom(or dad) tells me I should be a (insert name of stereotype job) but I'm not interested".
Natalia said out loud, "My mom never told me to what I should become", direct translation of "Mak saya tak pernah suruh saya jadi apa-apa pun". And everyone bursted out laughing. Unsatisfied, I said the same thing out loud and received about the same reaction. So this is what we have become? That it's not normal if parents don't set what their kids should be? Regardless of their interest?
I know that the real case is that these Asian parents just want a stable income for their kids. But do they know that if they force their kids to be someone they have no interest of being, they're not gonna go very far. And if you talk on religious grounds, what happens to sincerity? Allah demands it from whatever we do. Doing something half heartedly is just a no-no.
My parents have told me countless of times that there are housemen at the hospital they who are not even really into medicine. Yet they force themselves to go ahead. Some commit to this act because of their parents and some because there's a weird mentality in Malaysia that smart people should take up medicine. (Yes, there is such thing). So some of these adults who heed their parents advice become depressed. There are those who are suicidal even. Others become regular doctors but 'makan gaji semata-mata'. And there are those who are passionate. They become the most successful.
Once, when my family and I had breakfast at my aunt's. My sisters and I encouraged our cousin to pursue engineering as it was her interest but her mom was adamant on her being doctor (cue sighs). Then we told her about our ambitions, which then included being a political scientist and a wildlife photographer. My aunt stared at us as if we had just announced we were gonna donate our kidneys. Both our kidneys.
Kind parents reading this, don't force your child to be what the don't want to be (unless their dreams are really useless towards society.Ouch, harsh!) . And teens out there who find it hard to convince their parents to let you choose, don't give up or you'll regret. Talk to them nicely. And never forget to pray. He hears everything.
