Do you know where you're going to ?
Do you like the things that life is showing you ?
Where are you going to ?
Do you know ... ?
I went running at UM yesterday evening. A very pleasant 4.5km loop with a gentle slope. I'm always reminded of my dad whenever I step into UM - how it must have been so exciting and grand back in the 60s as a young man/teenager from a small town, to have 'made it' to the premier university in the country.
We must have driven by/through the campus numerous times, when we lived in the Seksyen 16 PJ in the 1990s, with my dad reminiscing about his time there, but he never suggested any of us going to UM. Somehow, we were encouraged to go abroad. I didn't give it much thought back then.
UM has a lot going for it: gorgeous mature campus with beautiful architecture situated amidst rolling hills, proximity to the city, and world class education. Some of the residential buildings are in sad disrepair though, ironically, these are the 'newer' ones that are less than 20 years old.
I discussed this with okm last night, as he grew up around the corner, off Jalan University; and if UM was one of his choices for tertiary education. During that conversation, he referred to a world bank study that examined the trajectories of NUS and UM, which share historical roots, but diverged after Singapore and Malaysia's separation. I think it might be the one below:
https://www.academia.edu/122852472/The_National_University_of_Singapore_and_the_University_of_Malaya_Common_Roots_and_Different_Paths
tldr ...
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Coming back to home, my dad taught 6th form math and coached volleyball at MGS for a few months after he graduated. Reading math at university, and then becoming a math teacher, was the expected pathway for my dad. But this was where his path diverged from his elder siblings. He got a job with the government statistics department, and after a couple of years, he joined the computing/IT department at Shell. Apparently there were not enough computing grads locally back then, so they recruited from Stats Dept. Perhaps not many 'Malayans' wanted to go to Miri, Sarawak - but my dad being the intrepid traveler in every sense - was ready for adventure, and convinced my mum to go along as well. My grandma/his mother tried to dissuade him: the quotable quote being, "Don't go, the mossies there are ENORMOUS". It's a funny story, but she was only trying to protect him, her maternal instincts overriding the fact that she hadn't been outside of Malaysia at the time, and did not have a clue about the fauna in Borneo.
After being in front line politics for a decade, and then stepping aside, albeit maintaining a fairly public persona in academia for the last couple of years, okm recently returned to the corporate world. I asked him if it was like coming back to 'square one', and what life might have been like, had we gone down the expected, tried, and trodden 'corporate' path. His response was: probably neither 'better' nor 'worse', but definitely not as rich in experience.
(NB: On public life: It still never ceases to amaze me how people who don't know, think they know. iykyk.)
Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Psalm 90:10
I sometimes think about my parents - had they not migrated when they were in their 50s - would they be still alive today? Healthy, and playing mahjong with friends/relatives in PJ? Nonetheless, my parents were always intentional in their decisions and follow through. They loved and embraced their life in OZ. My brothers posit that since my parents had relocated so often throughout my dad's career with Shell, what was one more move. Having just turned 50, I don't think I'd be able to relocate at this age, without a strong catalyst, and much less to another country. It would have been stressful for them initially, but they were never ones to back down from a challenge, and ultimately - they had wonderful years there. Sorting through old photos now, and recalling all our conversations (thankful for technology, since many of these were via phone calls); collectively a testament to the richness of their lives, having taken the path less travelled.
