Kadir and Nico
Kadir:
As we grow up each day, we are able to think, talk and dress up well. This would be the time when our father asks our children - what do you want to be when you grow up? Would you like to be a policeman that catches the bad guys? Or the doctor who will take care of the sick people? Or a fireman that saves people through accidents and disasters?
We are all given education from Primary to Secondary. Some people are more fortunate as they have the capability to go into High School and University. But times are hard during those days. Some of us are poor, some of us are well to do, while some are rich! But we never looked down on one another.
By the time we finish school and enter adulthood with our learning certificate in hand, we should not be competing with one another, but value of life and happiness. Look at our parent's time when they have the utmost care for usI We should look at how appreciate them through sincerity.
As year come by, we learn the value of love, caring and giving, to our parents, siblings and friends. In the time of hardship, we need to learn to save for our future and knowing the values of money. I collect coins, dollars and stamps as a have and they are good worth value to keep even as a hobby.
In conclusion, for all that we do, we need to always remember our value. Good Values bring good work, good luck and good fortune. And these are all beautiful memories from yesterdays, past and to present days.
Nico:
"Good luck and good fortune", that is what anyone would have described the life of someone born with a silver spoon. We are brought into our lives, without the choice of what or where we will be born into. Like many others before me, I made no choice of where I was born in. However, fortune favoured me, to be born into a Singapore that had a booming economy, bustling streets and a first world status. Come to think of it, without a strong value system, progression would have been much harder.
Growing up in the 1990s and the 2000s as a child in Singapore was easier than any generation throughout our country's history. We had the environment, facilities, and opportunities to learn anything we wanted, whenever we wanted. I attended school since the age of 5 and continued my education for over a decade, into primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Most of the millennials, like myself, have also continued beyond tertiary education and attained a degree. If help was needed in education, help was always available in the form of a private tutor. These growing years are the true hustle for a Singaporean kid, as the experiences of a child in the 2000s was a time of the great "kiasu" mentality.
In school, we were graded based on academic abilities and scoring. The competitive nature of our school system brought about a lot of streaming and differences among students, into various academic categories. Although sincerity can be seen in friendships forged along the way, the generation was split into labels like "EM1", "EM2" or "EM3" and "Normal" "Express" or "Special" Stream. Such labels were made famous in popular local films like "I Not Stupid", moulding, making, or breaking people. I was fortunate to scrape by the entire system without failing, but in turn, without doing superbly well. Regardless, I am always grateful that the millennial generation has grown to become the most educated generation in Singapore's history.
Through the years, many values were brought into Singapore through globalisation and the vast variations of media available. Often, homely values of the past become distorted based on our different life experiences and media we consume. After graduating university or tertiary, we enter the workforce, and learn that the outside world is just as competitive as school was. As the hustle-and-bustle of working life takes over majority of our time, values like sincerity, patience and value of money are often put aside for personal gains in the corporate world.
As most of us progress through life, there is still one thing that matters to us, and that is family. Someday, I would also want to bring pride to my parents and allow them to see me bring up my own family - the future generation. With that, I plan every day to achieve my financial goals and my definition of success. But what is success, without values? Can it just be measured by monetary gain? Would anyone call a swindler "successful"? At the end of the day, the core values of honesty, consistency, conduct and ethics will still withhold regardless of generation.
