In & Out the rat Race
Just last week, my brother took the rather bold (or foolish) step of quitting his job.
It didn’t really come as a surprise to me, since he had been talking about it for quite some time now. Only, I never really expected him to actually act on it. He has not been happy in his job for almost a year now, and constantly talks/dreams about doing business. The company he works for went through some sort of board room tussle recently, and despite offers from his boss to come join him in another company, my brother saw it as his chance to do something different and bail out of the corporate rat race. (Ironic, seeing how at the exact same time, I just joined it)
To be honest, he is not quite sure what he wants to do exactly. As an immediate substitute, he as taken up the position of ‘casual worker’ in his church; which pays minimal salary to say the least. As a result, he is now staying in his pastors house (near to the church) and we are most likely to move out by years end. This being because the only reason we stayed there was because it was close to his former office. Officially earning peanuts now, he cant afford to pay the rent at our existing place any longer. But in the longer term, he (says) he plans to take up a Masters in Counseling next year, and hopefully by then he would be actively involve in some business start up he and his friends have been planning, selling coffee or something like that.
For now, he job consist of leading prayer meetings, meeting up with college students, having church fellowship and occasionally bringing these youngsters out for a movie and yam cha… a dream job really if you ask me… Come on..,.. your job is to bring people to the movies, chit chat, talk about God and have a good time… Can you think of a more relaxed and laid back job? Great if you don’t mind being paid peanuts. (It helps if you like peanuts).. But then again, not everything in life is about money right?
He has been getting a lot of heat from my father, who is convinced that my brother has lost his mind, and is making the mistake of his life. Their relationship in recent weeks has taken an icy turn in response to these events, and I find myself stuck in the middle, playing mediator between father and brother. One things the other is being young, naïve and idealistic, the other thinks one is being old, narrow minded, and materialistic. I think the whole situation is just plain idiotic. Let the old man have his say. He is the father after all, and at the very least, is entitled to his opinion. Let the young man be I say. Its his life, and his mistake to make. If he stumbles, let him get up with his own strength and he will emerge stronger. And who knows, it might actually lead to something.
In the mean time, I am suddenly labeled the big earner of the family, having just secured a steady job (happy to report the finalization of my employment contract!) and earning what would seem like a generous salary for a fresh graduate. How fast they forget that I am laden with debts to pay… hutang keliling pinggan. I have to pay my boss, my girlfriends aunt.. my PTPTN loan… What more, I have to get a car of my own asap… since the job requires it. Only problem is, I don’t even have money to pay the freaking deposit… I don’t even have 3 months pay slip, and there is only so much I can pay each month for installments! Man, being an adult can really suck sometimes… If only I stayed back in the
posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 6:19 pm
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