The responses I got from friends and students when I returned from my trip.
“Woah, I envy you. You get to go Italy.”
“Wah so rich ah, your parents give you money ah.”
25 years old already, still take money from parents, buay pai seh ah?
They may not know that the last time I stepped into a plane for a vacation was more than 3 years ago to Bangkok, that I have been cooking and packing food to work for months, that I sold my dirt bike, that I resisted temptation to eat out in restaurants or watch movies (my last movie was Dark Shadows, a year ago), that I have not bought myself new clothes (not even for Chinese New Year) and other bling blings to flaunt on Facebook. I was living on my needs most of the time to fulfill my want to travel.
Pathetic, right? It is alright, because in the end, I still managed to go for my vacation!
Behind all the facade of me going Italy to enjoy and being able to fork out cash to pay for all my friends’ air ticket first, does anybody else know these sacrifices before hand?
There is nothing to envy. It is a matter of how much you are willing to sacrifice and how badly you want to achieve a particular goal. If they knew all these, they probably would not be saying that. If my mum paid for my trip, I would not be scrimping so hard either.
To achieve something, it is about making choices and priorities towards that goal, decision making processes ranging from, “Should I eat at the restaurant?”, “Should I take up the investment plan?” to “Should I get that new bike?”. A lot of us do not realise these but they play a part. I kept track of my daily expense for a year. In 2010, I spent $4,689.30 on my two bikes, $3,036.30 is on maintenance itself, a large portion of it is for my dirtbike. That is enough to pay for my Italy trip. I had to pay for my uni school fees, I want to go for my holiday. As much as I like dirtbiking, but then priorities and decisions to make, sorry I had to let her go.
I am not Richie Rich, bornt with a golden spoon in my mouth. I do not have teleporting abilities to travel for free, although I wish I have. I am just a tom dick harry who set my goals towards travelling. What is there to envy?
When I posted the above message on my Facebook status, it received quite a lot of comments. I realised I am not the only one with the same sentiments.
Some of the comments I received:
“Yeah man… Can’t stand it when people say: “Wahhh you went to XXXXXX so rich ah?” Hello, I worked hard and saved….”
“how i did it? work 16 hours a day, 8 days a week, work towards the correct direction, avoid ourselves into liability. i do not own a car nor do i have a credit card. believe?” – Master Goh on how his managed to do his Round the World trip.
“Shared, sharing and will share the same sentiments! It’s really quite annoying when pple start to ask judgmental qns tinted with jealousy n discomfort after a trip. U don’t know how I saved before a trip, not even so how I slept or what I eat when on the trip so please don’t say wah enjoy life ah, u very rich ah, or ask eh how much u spend there ah? Unless u can stay where i stayed, eat what n how i ate. Whatever the case, our honest answers will not satisfy u.
Worst when they r usually the ones who can well afford it better than we can, and enjoy the place in a way we prob can’t. If u buaysong I go, then u go also la. Meanwhile, don’t speak a word, go online n book ur flight.”
If you want something so bad, stop envying people and GO WORK FOR IT!