twentythree y.o. geographer, barista, yoga practitioner. University College London. born and bred in the lil' island of Singapore. constantly searching for answers. extremely flawed, especially when it comes to imposing standards on others, expecting too much, not knowing when to close her mouth (to shut the fuck up or to stop eating). too crazy for her own good and has to be taken with a massive handful of salt. adores backpacking, hitch-hiking, hill-walking, red wine, whiskey, cocktails, fine food and good conversations.
REMINDER:
"open your heart. someone will come. someone will come for you. but you'd have to open your heart first."
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| Tuesday, May 07, 2013
◔ 5:04 PM // ✎ 0 comment(s) | ❝ Priviledge. ❞ |
Writing this because something struck me pretty badly today. So much that I am just going to let my fingers run and not even bother to ensure that I am writing well anymore haha.
What happened was that during our post-lunch slacking time, I told the chefs and the manager that I was going to study Geography. We started talking about subjects, mainly the humanities. They joked that they hated History cause there was so much to remember - names, places... The manager used the example of King Chulalongkorn; she said "yeah! Like the King Chu something that Thai one. Impossible to remember his name!"
That particular manager then told me afterwards how she wished that she had the money to go back to school and study.
F&B and the service industry may be one of the most despised careers (honestly speaking, most would not even see it as a career) in Singapore, but it has taught me more lessons in 4 years than school has in 12? It is somewhere that you constantly learn everyday - from your colleagues, from the customers and from experience.
My biggest takeaway from the F&B and service industry is that I have learnt how to interact with people from all walks of lives, and it ended my oblivion towards the less fortunate in Singapore - those that did not get half as many opportunities as I did.
The awakening (this is starting to sound like Siddhartha, haha) first came about in Meritus. I heard from Jolene that some of the staff are working so hard just so that they can pay for their school fees, and although they are years behind us in education, they are much older than we are.
It really struck me at Kraze, where I work with the same people everyday and in the process get to know more about them. The full time staff earn $1600 before CPF every month and they work 48 hours a week (additionally, they have no off days on weekends). This sum may seem meager, but it is sufficient for them to survive - through scrimping and saving. Even Cadbury chocolates are seen as an indulgence.
It pains me even more when I witness the ignorance of my peers towards this.
Our relatively privileged backgrounds have given us opportunities, opened up many more doors, but in the process closed our eyes to everything else deemed inessential towards our goal of material success.
But... Even when you become aware of the way of life of the less privileged, what can you do? Other than to go on living your privileged life?
Incoherent post. I need to organize my thoughts and come back again.
Labels: random, thoughts
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