Who Cares?!

Who cares?! Perhaps not as many people as you thought. Trust me, it’s not such a bad thing.

I’ve been living in Sydney for more than half of my life. In my 20’s and 30’s, it was all about pursuing more success, more fame, more recognition and more external validation. The more the merrier that kind of thing. I was busy studying, chasing career goals, travelling a bit and trying to prove something that was worthwhile.

Tried and tested. Life never ceases to surprise me. In its subtle way, it’s led me to take many lessons, some big, some small, some repeated, again and again. There’s something for me to learn and there’s also something for me to unlearn. What can I say? I know the score damn well – I’ve failed the Relationship subject several times but hey at least I never once handed in a blank exam paper! No-show isn’t in my vocabulary.

Now, in my 40’s and soon well into 50’s. Gee! Where has the time gone? My priorities have changed. Put it simply it’s all about valuing those that money can’t buy. Also, my pride in my roots has grown dramatically in recent years. And now I can see it’s all part of puzzles. Piece by piece they form my identity.

Born and bred. MIT. Made in Taiwan. SIA. Settled in Australia.

Notably in 2010, out of somewhere I had this strong desire to re-connect with my old classmates (Class 615) from primary school in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Very slack of me! Only 4 years later, in June 2014 I finally got my act together. With a little effort, I managed to find 15 of them on Facebook.

Throughout the process, I was intrigued to see what each of us had turned out after almost 1/3 of a century passed. Some are happily married with a couple of kids, one is separated, one is divorced, some are still singe and others? I still have no idea up till this day. The truth is, none of us seems to care about anyone’s marital status or what one does as a profession or how much money we make or what sort of life we lead. What brought this bunch of older kids together again is the happy childhood we all share. In there, it is our beloved teacher who gave us tones of wonderful memories to talk about.

Who cares?! I do but only selectively…