{"id":1262,"date":"2010-03-19T16:20:46","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T16:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2010-03-19T16:20:46","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T16:20:46","slug":"the_spark_within_you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=1262","title":{"rendered":"The Spark Within You"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you grow older you will realise you are unique. When you are little, all kids want ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realise you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.
\n~ Chetan Bhagat<\/i>
\nI’ve been thinking a lot about dreams lately. No, not the ones you have in the deep of sleep, but the ones you have when you’re wide awake. The ones where you picture yourself living a different life, travelling and wandering in faraway places, meeting people you’d never meet in your everyday humdrum life. About two months ago, a friend sent me the transcript of a speech given by Indian author Chetan Bhagat at the orientation programme for a new batch of MBA students at an Indian university. The quote above is an excerpt of it.
\nIt’s a paragraph that stands out because it reminded me to never let that spark within me die. The spark referred to in Bhagat’s speech is that something that makes you excited and happy about life. That spark also has to do with one’s goals and dreams. The friend who sent it to me is a bit of a dreamer herself. We’ve written to each other about our dreams and our musings about life. I’ve been thinking about my dreams and how to pursue the life I want. I’m not one of those fortunate people who could figure out early in life what is that they wanted to do. Actually I think most people are not doing what they REALLY want to do in life. Nine out of ten people I meet are not happy in their jobs. To most of us, a job is just a job. It’s a means to an end – a means to put food in our stomachs and shelter over our heads.
\nI mean I could<\/i> just be contented with doing what I’m doing now. I get a steady (though not fantastic) income and I don’t really HATE what I’m doing. I mean it’s OK, but I’m just not feeling fulfilled. There’s always this tiny voice saying ‘Surely there’s more to life than this?? This can’t be IT.’ There’s been a lot of self-reflection and self-questioning in the past couple of months. I don’t want to be one of those people who moans and moans but not do anything about the situation. I’ve always been an ‘action’ person – I don’t sit around waiting for things to happen. Friends sometimes say ‘You’re so lucky to have been able to work in London and Hong Kong. I wished I could do it too.’ To which I answer, ‘Well you could do it too. It’s just that you’re not willing to give up whatever you have in Singapore and take a leap of faith.’
\nIt’s not easy leaving one’s comfort zone and the only difference is that I dared to do so. I actively pursued what I had always wanted, i.e. to work in another country apart from Singapore. The fact that it happened for me in London and Hong Kong wasn’t due to chance. It didn’t just fall from the sky and into my lap. It’s something I chased and sought after, thus it’s not something I’d attribute to luck. I’ve been thinking ‘What next?’ after Hong Kong. I have some ideas and I hope things will work out for me. It’ll be another leap of faith which many others will find crazy and ridiculous. But heck, life’s too short to care too much about what other people think. It’s my life after all and I live the way I want it.
\nI’ve kind of made up my mind on my next step but it has to be said that it was not without a lot of wavering and considerations. However, I’ve been inspired by a few friends and acquaintances lately. One friend who used to be a programme executive dealing with the buying and selling of TV programmes is now a shiatsu massage therapist in the Netherlands. She’s Singaporean Chinese but relocated to the Netherlands with her partner. Her partner is also pursuing his own dream of becoming a mountain bike guide by going for an instructor course in Scotland. How cool’s that? On my most recent trip home, a friend announced that she intends to quit her job and go to Toronto to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Her job as an engineer pays well but she admits that engineering was the ‘safe’ option for her when she was choosing what to study in university. Now she feels that she really wants to pursue something she’s always been interested in, something that excites her. I was really happy to learn of her decision. I just hope she doesn’t back down from it because of naysayers.
\nI have still yet another friend who’s probably the bravest of all – she and her partner will be embarking on a cycling journey around the world, two Singaporean Chinese women out to pursue their dream on bicycles with video equipment in tow. Their dream is to chronicle, on video, the people around the world who have pursued or are pursuing their dreams. Follow my friend Tay and her partner Val on their journey here:
\nhttp:\/\/www.ibelievethatdreamscancometrue.com\/<\/a>
\nTheir website address is really apt and what they’re doing is very inspiring and brave. They’ll probably be away for five to seven years and they’ll be leaving in 14 days. In doing so, they’ll be leaving behind family, friends and everything familiar. What they’re about to do is the dream of many a person, but not many of us are brave enough to pursue it. Tay is a professional documentary producer and I’m sure whatever footage she gets at the end of her long journey will make for an extremely good story and programme. All the best to the both of them and kudos to them for their guts!
\nAnyway, I hope you, dear reader, can remember what your spark is. If you don’t, perhaps it’s time to reignite it.
\nAccess the full transcript of Chetan Bhagat’s speech here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you grow older you will realise you are unique. When you are little, all kids want ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-literature-writings","category-musings-mullings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}