Generation

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It's been quite long since I blogged well as usual, didn't have the time to. Besides I was busy for the past couples of night cause of some other stuff. Nevertheless I'm here. Today was a lovely Thursday indeed I suppose. The weather was fine, and for the first time in weeks we don't have heavy rains. Just a lovely drizzle with blue skies above. No rainbow though sadly.

Today my grandmother's sister (that makes her my great-aunt eh) came to my home. Well she was walking to my house actually, under the drizzle oh dear! I approached her and sadly she forgets my name hahaha. Well she knows I'm my dad's son, just that she forgot my name. So I re-introduced myself and turned out she came to visit my aunt who was at that moment not present at home. So she just passed some food for her and me, and she made her way back home.

It was drizzling so I offered her a car ride but she declines and she told me she just wanna walk (her house is near mine by the way). So I took an umbrella and walked with her but she insists of walking alone oh dear! But so did I insist to walk together with her, home. So yup thankfully it stopped drizzling so we were just walking and chatting. Until I ensured that she reached her house safely. And then I just made my way back home by myself.

It truly frightens and shocks me to know she actually walked to my house alone, and that she had to cross a busy street, and she couldn't walk quickly (I think she's 80 now?). I was so worried! I told her to be careful and maybe next time she should ask someone to accompany her. She even told me she went to Bogor by train alone and back and forth. And she even got lost once where she took a local transport here and she didn't know where to stop.

While walking home with her, she was just holding my hand and we chatted away. It really makes me sad because she reminds me so much of my late grandmother. They look like carbon copies seriously haha. And with the worry that I had about her safety and my memories with my grandma. But then again, I realised that the old people of my hometown are really brave. I know a few of my relatives and also other people who make walking long distances around my hometown something so normal and easy. Something, that many people of our generation don't feel so.

So yes which brings me to the topic I wanna talk about today - generation.

I'm very sure we all have went through those situations where our parents/grandparents/older people criticise our generation. That we are weak, incapable, not concerned about things, this and that. It has become some sort of a familiar song to us? Growing up, listening to all these words come out from people who are much much older than us. From people, who come from a generation way before ours. A generation of great differences from where we are now.

I come across a TedX talk about Generation Y by Eunice Hii (you can watch it here) and it is one of my favourite TedX talks. Because she really speaks about how I feel at times. Well we're generation Y. a generation born in the early 80s to late 90s. And our parents are generation X. A generation before us basically. Two very different generations.

On one hand, we generation Ys live and grow up in a current world where things are far more convenient than the times where our parents grew up. Lets do a comparison. Okay I'm going to term X as the years where our parents grew up and Y, the years where we grow up (AKA now).

During X years, technology isn't advanced yet as compared to Y. In X years times were rather tough too because a lot of countries are in hanging in a period of instability (wars, revolutions etc) but in Y years things are pretty much settled down. During X years, since economic stability isn't there yet, having an economically-stable family is paramount. That's why I think, in my opinion, this is the reason why a lot of Asian parents would love their kids to be doctors/lawyers/businessmen - so that they have a stable income who can support.

Where opposed to Y years now, people have learned that maybe going for your passion is more important than making money. This is why a lot of people from X years feel that no one should go to the Arts industry because you won't be able to support yourself. I suppose we live in what I call the days of dreams. Where we chase our dreams, more importantly, than our economical stability. Which is both good and bad I suppose. Nothing is perfect.

And technology truly supports this days of dreams. Let me give you an example. The internet and Natgeo magazines have helped me to form my dream of traveling around the world with all of their beautiful images of this planet. In the past there's no internet, there's no flight from Singapore to Germany, or Indonesia to Australia. Traveling around the world was so tough, so little people wanted to do it! So yes, in a lot of people's minds - traveling is a waste of time.

And with this, people go for a more secured and straight-forward jobs and they make economical stability their priority. 

I am feeling pretty thankful about where I am today. The world I'm living in today (although yes it's still pretty much a terrifying world). I've heard stories of my parents about how tough life was back then. No technology, there was war and revolutions etc. And life is definitely (not to a whole extent) much better than how it was 50 years ago.

Although people of generation X chose a more straightforward approach to life, and working. Where they choose economical stability than dreams and passions, they have helped to support their future generations. All these careful planning have made us who we are today. They're able to send us to school, till university. Sometimes even help you till you're married, or help for your marriage where they help your housing and loans and etc.

Some of my Indonesian friends call it the "father mother scholarship" hahaha.

And once again, I am very thankful to my parents because they have been supporting me throughout, till where I am now. I wouldn't be here blogging well in English if it weren't for them, who supported my study in Singapore.

But do we also mean that generation Y is wrong? That we should all just ditch our ideas of chasing the dreams and choose something safe instead? Should we just make sure we have enough money for our future generations, over choosing our dreams and passion?

No. Because I (or hopefully we) believe that we generation Y are bringing about a change in the system. I'm very sure we can support our family while doing the things that we love. I'm very sure if we pass down our morals and teachings about loving our families and so on to our children, we can make them support their families whole-heartedly too. That money isn't everything, really, to support our family and our generations to come.

I come to a conclusion, that nothing is perfect. Both generations have their flaws and beauty. And that if we can combine them both like a beautiful tapestry, we'll for a generation that is so well, so beautiful, it beats both generations. Generation X are the hardworkers while generation Y are the people that want to bring a positive change to the way things used to be. That's my opinion about these two generations. At the end of the day it is up to the people of both groups to how they see themselves and the other party. You know.

But ultimately, I also come across something:
We will never be able to go through what our parents went through.
And neither can our parents go through what we go through.
Because we both live in two very different generations, two very different ages.

I'm going to end off this post with a saying by Ali Bin Abi Thalib
"Do not raise your children the way [your] parents raised you. 
They were born for a different time"