I enjoyed uni too, but forever.... naaaah! Never!Yesterday at dinner I was seated next to the most brilliant, promising person I’ve met in ages. She was a soon-to-be-university-graduate (one semester or one year left, something like that?), had a double BA degree, one master and had won numerous awards/was engaged in a lot of student activities. (I instantly felt like a failure next to her –I –who used to be so proud of the fact that I was the sport section editor at our university magazine (OK, I invented the sport section first of all) back in my Australia University days, now suddenly did not feel like swapping stories about university activeness. I mean, no one ever gave me any award?! Pffft!). Although she was super bright, she wasn’t bragging in any way. Simply just telling me everything she had done, including as many details as possible (a LOT of them. I know what she eats for lunch every Friday, for instance).
She was talking about life in Italy and Austria and I simply could not help myself:
-So, where will you take off once you graduate? Will it be France? Italy (she had a thing for Italy I could tell!) With your academic record I bet you can go anywhere and get a great job, no?
-Eh… yeah, maybe. But I will probably try to write some more papers and then eventually get a job at the university!
-Oh, you want to be a teacher? A professor? But I though you were studying…
-Yeah well, it doesn’t matter that I did not study to become a teacher or a professor. I probably won’t become one. I just want to work for the university, so that I can continue living a comfortable life.
-Comfortable life? With that record? (No, I did not say that, but I thought about saying it!)
-Yeah, you see. We have a long, 2-month winter holiday at uni. And then at least one month summer holiday. And when I am no longer a student I don’t have to take any exams! Life will be comfortable. A lot of holidays. You can’t get that from a normal job here in China.
-So… let me get this straight. You are turning down a possibility to go any place in China and get a cool job so that you can stay at the uni, have some half-hearted job… but end up with a longer holiday?
-Yeah… I guess you can put it that way. I like holidays!
-Wow. Wicked.
First brilliant Chinese uni-chick I have met with this mindset! Go comfortable life-lovers! Refreshing is an understatement.
10 comments:
You should tell her to become a school teacher overseas (perhaps teach Chinese - it's the craze right now i heard). I would say you get better pay than in China and the amount of holiday is comparable, perhaps even more :p
Australian professors get $100,000+ a year I think, depending on which discipline you are lecturing. And you should know how long the holidays are for Australian students ;)
Anyway, very refreshing to meet someone like that, especially in China ^^
Sounds nice to me... I tried to get a job a few months ago that paid way less just so I could get long vacations and short working hours (and free tuition to a Korean language program at a Uni..)
One would have to be a senior Professor in Aus to get $100K+, academic positions usually attract smaller salaries than in industry.
With all her diplomas and degrees, she just should get the best-paid job availabe, and work for like 10 years. After those 10 years, she probably made enough money to stop working, and retire at the age of 35 of something :)
You have to decide what is important to you. If having a life that is of less stress and enjoyment with less pay go for it! Sometime we place a value on our worth by the postion we hold, when if we hold a position and do it to the best of our ability there is more worth to it! This Uni Girl might touch more lives doing that than if she worked like crazy got the big bucks and then retired.
You call that bright, dear? I call it stupid. ;)
it is funny how people perceive life, for some of us her plan sounds a little bit crazy, but I[m sure with her awards and degrees she can be an excellent teacher and who knows perhaps a researcher, she can get phd[s etc, and all of that having a long vacations, it doesnt sound that bad does it? :)
I have one friend that does research in Europe and he makes toooons of money and he gets to travel around the world! and yeap, first he started working at the university :)
kiss
When my son was finishing high school, he wanted a career with this jobs, simultaneously:
1. Movie reviewer
2. Computer game reviewer
3. Restaurant critic
4. Bed tester
5. Wine taster
That could have kept him busy. But he went to college instead, and that ruined his dream.
Pingu -I think there are enough Chinese teachers already.. seems like every second person is studying to become one. But it's true that they make much more by working overseas. Apparently it's not that easy to score those positions though?
조안나 -yeah, a lot of people treasure holidays and free time. I personally enjoy working quite a lot but I would enjoy it if I could work 7am-3pm instead and spend the afternoon at the gym, not feeling so stressed about getting home and do all the must-dos.
Jim -yeah, I wouldn't have any clue?
Melody -that's what I thought too!!
Pete -F course. I think it is quite hard to make huge bucks in China though... Hard to score that high-paying job at a young age.
C -I found her very bright and her mindset quite refreshing. Finally someone who's not simply talking about all the hardships of her life, or how hard it is "being a uni student".
Bere -I would love the job your friend is doing. Anything that includes a lot of travel (and, why deny it: making a lot of bucks would be nice too!) does it for me!
Bill Rich -it's like my little brother. When he was a kid his dream job was to work in a hot dog shop, selling hot dogs all day long! Now he's studying to become a fire security engineer. His hot dog dreams are crushed...
i like her plan...
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