Rites of passage

I have had a total of 4 reunions this month. One was with my school mates, second was with my ex-colleagues, third with my fellow trekking mate (who moved to Thailand after he got married) and finally with my varsity mates. As we reminisced over our past, caught up with each other regarding our present and discussed about the future, I realised that our ideals and attitudes have changed through the years. And as I met these people who have come into different stages of my life and in some way influenced it, I realised that even my priorities have changed. It was time I reflected on my rites of passage.

The eager high school student went to varsity with a lot of idealism and hope of changing the world and seeking equality for mankind. In the four years of varsity, she realised that altruism didn’t pay much and thus was seduced to realise a career in the fast paced world of corporate life. Upon graduation, still with her integrity and principles intact but with her altruistic plans placed on the back burner, she was dragged into the rat race.

Hungry to prove herself and to find new challenges, she flit from job to job, never quite satisfied with what she had and always seeking for the next challenge. Routine jobs were never her cup of tea but which job does not become routine after some time? She hated office politics but even the academic world has politics. As time passed, her principles and ideals became less clear. Answers that seemed to be black and white suddenly had shades of grey. Her goals in life, which seemed so clear after graduation, became blurry. All of a sudden, she was totally lost ~ lost because she couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Through those dark moments, an event occurred that made her realised that she had been looking at things the wrong way. It was not just the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that’s important, but the journey towards finding that pot of gold!

And as I looked at the faces of my fellow varsity mates during our reunion tonight, I read contentment there. Each of them probably has a similar story to mine but with different peaks and troughs in life. But through the years, we have finally found our own peace. However, just today, another friend warned me about not letting contentment lead to complacency. Hmmm … now that’s food for thought.

The way I look at it, life is like an economic equation. Contentment is like achieving equilibrium. And as we do not live isolated from the world i.e. we live in an open economy, market forces may change and changes in market forces will throw us out of the equilibrium state. But this state will not last long as, either through market forces or personal intervention; we will reach a new equilibrium. The important thing to note is that we realised there will always be a state of equilibrium after an in equilibrium. And sometimes we could intervene to speed up the next equilibrium.

Now, have I totally confused everyone? Am I the only one following this theory? Or perhaps there’s too much symbolism in this piece. In that case, I shall stop here and not throw in another friend’s theory about life; which he equates to Einstein’s theory of relativity. I’ll blog that another day … or maybe not. :)

Good night folks. Sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …