On laziness

When I look back into the past, I always see the old lazy me when I was in Indonesia. Back then, I was really a very lazy kid. I was smart alright, but I was too lazy to study and I had to go for tuition just to make me at least do my homework.

Maybe it's a blessing that I got a scholarship in Singapore, because in this place, having a responsibility as a scholar, you are told that "You should study hard or they will revoke your scholarship." I just don't have the heart to make my parents use my college funds just to pay for my high school fees in Singapore, so I tried my best so that my scholarship won't be terminated.

And it works. I became more responsible towards my school work (although I did grumble a lot, like "The hell, I have to get good marks while other people can slack.")

This brings us to the day when I taught a Maths remedial lesson for my juniors in high school who didn't do well for their end-of-year exam. I was telling them how difficult it is to get a job without a degree, like for example you can only be an admin or a waiter. I also told them that after I started working, I told myself that I would study hard in uni so that I won't end up working in a place like that. In the end, I said that they should better study hard so that they can get a uni in Singapore.

Then one student told me, "Just go to uni overseas." And I replied, "Uni overseas so expensive, where do you get the money from?"
He said, "Save money first."
I said, "So must work and save money first, right?"

And he said, "I will ask my mother to work and save money for me. You ask your parents to pay for you lah."

I was dumbfounded. I had nothing to say.
It's not like I can tell him to be more independent. After all, it's normal for children to rely on their parents, right?

And this student is a freaking lazy person, who is actually very smart, because he can always do his work on the spot and got it correct. What a pity if he does badly for his final exam.