CHIX PART 5 - LIBERTY AT LAST!

From Ji-Hup's speech:

Glorious fowls of freedom, all of us, our day has arrived! The odious humans have finally relented beneath the ferocity of our attacks, and we have signed a landmark agreement!

On the day of the TV interview with Ms Cheryl, much publicity and sympathy was garnered for our cause, and public pressure was applied on the authorities to give us our freedom! With such overwhelming support, Siang Chun had no choice but to sign for our freedom, and now we are free!

This is a great day for chickens all around the world. We will serve as a shining example to coops worldwide, that chickens and humans may live freely and peacefully together.

But we will not stop here. Our duties to chickens worldwide are greater than our own desires. After we establish our colony, we will continue in educating and recruiting other chickens worldwide to our cause. We will let them know that their lives are not condemned to an eternity of crowded pens, fighting for feed, and certain slaughter. We will let them know that other chickens have tried for freedom, and succeeded. We will give them HOPE!

Glorious beaks, our day has come! Soon the trucks will come to take us to our brand new life in the colony. A new life of freedom and hope!

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No mention in human newspapers, TV or radio about Ji-Hup....

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One week later in classifieds....



THE END... ?

And it's GREAT to have the blog back. Hehehe.... A few things I learned from this are that:

1. I have a knack for telling lame, crappy stories.
2. It's damn irritating to have your blog taken over by rebellious chickens.

And DANG RIGHT on the 2nd point. So many times I felt like blogging about something, only to realise "Dang......" So I am NOT letting my blog get 'taken over' like that again. Bleah.

Anyway, most of you all would have seen from my MSN nick that I have a life decision to make by 1st March. Yea, I'm thinking whether to 'sign my soul', as a friend so subtly put it, to NIE n become a teacher for real.

The pros are obvious: I have a somewhat more stable career, I have more money.

The cons are also equally obvious: I have to wake up at ungodly hours each morning, I have to face a whole legion of brats, I have to serve a 2 year bond.

I have to admit though. The long term plan is not to teach as a teacher, but rather to use this as a kinda backup in the future. So that after a few years of teaching, I can hopefully go back to tuition in the future. The financial part will be much more lucrative after that, and if things don't work out, I can always go back to teaching.

Not to mention other friends are currently going into NIE at the moment. Hellbound being MOEBound this time. :p Turtle may be going in. Others like Jie-Ge are already in NTU.

Interestingly though, opinions differ widely among friends, but the way they differ is interesting.

The friends who are NOT in NIE and in the private sector tell me it's a good idea for me. ( Not counting those who tell me it's my own decision to make ) They point out the salary, and the stability, and in the words of Q: "tuition you can do anytime lah!"

The friends who ARE in NIE tell me: "My God, you're selling your SOUL TO THE DEVIL!!!" In other words, the ones who are actually teaching/studying in NIE are telling me to consider my choice very, very carefully before I decide to take up that decision and hence, the bond.

I'm also wary of making this kinda decision based on the financial part. I know of teachers who have gone in for the financial benefit, and who have come up with no benefit towards themselves, or the students they teach. And it's sad to hear of such cases, because after all, there are minors who are depending on you for their future. And if you don't care, who will?

At least 2 other people are rooting for me to start a small biz of some kind, and they point out that if I can do that, and if I succeed, it's not that hard to enter the corporate world. ( If I ever get despo enuff to do so... )

When your life points in so many forks in the path ahead, it's tempting to simply plonk your butt where you are at the moment and have a picnic. Which I am also tempted to do. It's a very nice view of the crossroads where I am at the moment. ( Discounting the fact that criminals and murderers used to have their carcasses caged in gibbets at crossroads )

One thing I do regret now was now standing up to my parents more when I was young. My father discouraged me TWICE when it came to my education decisions. Once when I thought of going poly to pursue a library studies course, and another when I wanted to do Arts in JC. Now with the retrospect of almost-adulthood, I regret the naivete I displayed when it came to my life. I became used to the idea of someone telling me what to do at what point of my life, and now when I have more of a mind of my own, I'm facing difficulty one, trying not to listen to my parents as much, and two, trying to make my own decisions.

If I had my current mindset now, when I was 16, or even 15, how different would my life have been?

Ah, no regrets. They don't work. No regrets now. They only hurt.

The past is nothing now, but a lesson to remember for the future.

Advice to any friends who may plan to have kids in the future: Cut the apron strings. When you are older and ( assumedly ) wiser, there is always the temptation to impart your earthly wisdom onto your kids.

This is good, but sometimes, together with that desire to impart, there is the desire to control.

Your kids may want to do something that is unknown to yourselves, or that you think is a really dumb idea to pursue. You as a parent will want to pull them from that path. Nay, you will consider it your Godbound duty as a parent to pull them off that path of seeming self-destruction you see.

When that happens, beware. You would not be imparting your wisdom to your kids, but rather enforcing it upon them. When they are young, you will be successful in this. When they are older, they will resist, and you will feel the need to bring the full force of your unhappiness upon them.

Eventually, your kids become not individuals of their own. They become a puppet by which you achieve your aims.

Of course now I can talk. I'm not a parent, with hardly any notion of the sacrifice involved in preparing another human being for this earth.

I can only hope that if the time ever comes, I will remember this.

And never do the same to my own kids.

Then again, at least dogs are easier to train and upkeep. :p