Weird situation....

Today was a really weird day and it was like a repetition of what happened to me in Form 2 which was in 2003? Correct me if I am wrong on this....

First it started with a msg from my bro saying my dad dun allow him to go for MSSD. Reason was because he had to skip classes. I was pretty much in a similar situation in Form 2 where I had to skip classes everyday for one whole month to attend some Merdeka dance which was compulsory.
And as expected, my result went spiraling downhill.

The funny part was that I never realized that studies were that important. All I ever thought of was only joining in the Merdeka dance which was fun btw. However, come to think of it, was it all worth my studying time?

Thinking back and reminiscing those fun days in high school... I think it was well worth it but the joy and fun has a limit to it as well.

The conversation with my dad on the phone 30 minutes ago actually made sense. This was all I could remember from the conversation with my dad.

Me: aiya.... school nothing wan la. Skip also no difference one.

Dad: Eh dun say that it's useless.

Me: but its true. Because i think tuition is more useful than school

Dad: So means school is not important now? then why should I bother sending u to school last time if tuition was so helpful? I was paying for your tuition to learn stuff. If u hadn't had tuition, would school be not important as well? Then where would you be learning? Not everyone is as fortunate as you to able to go for tuition.

Me: *speechless because it is true right?*

Dad: If the hand ball or Merdeka dance is so important, I would have sent u to a Sports school and not University of Melbourne. It would have been so much cheaper but the outcome would also have been different right? Am i making sense?

Me: erm... yeah.

Dad: Tuition is of course useful because that is the whole purpose of going to tuition is to learn and brush up on what u learnt at school. You don't learn everything from tuition.

Me: *totally speechless*

Coming back to what my dad said... It does make sense doesn't it?

If I wasn't actually going for tuition, where would I be gaining knowledge from? School obviously. But because we have been attending tuition and in tuition classes we are well ahead of school so it might seem like school is useless and we are not actually learning anything from it. And does it mean that just because we are paying for something(tuition), it is definitely better than the one that we didn't pay for (school)?

It is like watching one particular movie and watching it twice. Would be the first time watching it seem more interesting than the second time? Definitely yes because we would have already known the story line when we watch it the 2nd time.

I just realized that I had the same mentality in Form 2 although I am already 20 years old now. But because I am 20 that I realize that .... yeah my dad actually said made sense and I see why he was so against me skipping school during exam period just to stay at home and study. I was probably too naive and innocent to realize that when I was younger.

Just think of it as you, yourself being a parent and paying for your kids' education, in particular tuition. And your kid says that school is not important... Would you somehow feel hurt?

All your hard earned money that is put to their tuition is indeed important but everything else that would have saved you so much money such as school is not important at all? It's like although they do physically appreciate your money (by attending tuition) but yet not mentally appreciating it (thinking of ways to save your money / optimizing the usage of your money in the best possible way).

I used to think that parents will never be understanding of their child's' needs. But what we fail to realize that it is actually because we are both standing on different grounds.

Parents think of what is best for us. We think of what is important to us. The difference = misunderstanding.

So those younger generation out there, don't always think that your parents are so stubborn and narrow minded. It is in fact, we, the younger ones who are narrow minded and short sighted.We think that joining in everything is fun and we tend to miss out on what is actually more important. But NO it is not wrong to pursue other interests but there is always a limit to that. Do keep that in mind.