Human are animals that follow
I’m listening to her in the car, nodding my head continuously, and in succession of her comments I reply with “yes yes, yes yes…”
Sitting beside me is my grandmother. She is questioning me about my study plan. Nowadays, I’m already getting used to this kind of questions. Since I am the trouble kid and the problem creator in the house, also the “model” for my brothers and sisters as my father put it, I believe that every adult in the family that “cares” for me would find time to “counsel” or “brainwash” me if they’ve got time.
She said, a Degree certificate is a necessity. A Degree holder would have higher chance to find a job and getting higher paid. I know why she would say this, every human that still have some sanity left in them would agree with my grandmother. Sure, why not? There is nothing bad about that. If you have the chance, why not?
And almost all of us, almost fell for it and jump into that “good reality”. It is easy to say. It is “easy” to get a cert. It is “easy” to find a “good boyfriend” in the university. The tone of easiness is easy to catch in the conversation. It is how our older generation looks at our life. No matter how, it must be easier than their lives in olden days.
There is this “holiness” when they talked about the word “University”. It is a place they could never reach. Even they have never step foot in one of them, they believe in them unconditionally. They are happy to celebrate the “success” of their children and their grandchildren, while the latter, maybe not as much, because that was just daily struggling for them.
“What said by most, will be the truth. What agreed by most, would be the right choice”. I believe this is how the confusion starts, and the unsaid being left unspoken. It is better not using the brain, as it is tedious and troublesome. It is better to stay where we are, and walk the path that have been paved out for us. We would obey “what’s best for us”, as others told us repeatedly. Even if we are not happy, we understand that it is part of the “gift”. We would never turn our back on the “benefit”.
In assignments, lecturers will tell us where have we done wrong, which parts don’t make sense and lack of proves. In our lives, there are many statements irrelevant and questionable. But the society doesn’t encourage us to question them, it is safer to just stay quiet.
Maybe being the first to change has not much to be proud of. But human are animals that follow. If there is the first, there is the second, and there is the third. The fact is the world keeps changing and nothing lasts, but human keeps forgetting it. It is never the same again what’s in the past and what will be happening in the future.
It is easy for me to say.
It is difficult to have to keep reminding myself.
