Terminate the Vicious Cycle

3 years after a long, torturous bunch of hurdles and I've finally done my final paper of the entire course of Psychology. And being an inquisitive being, I often asked my friends the daunting question ,"If given the chance to go back 3 years from now, would you

change the course that you were in?"

90% percent said yes. Kinda sad imo. I know people who are awesome at singing, designing, linguistics, sports, photography and etc etc who are not doing the course that they are best in. Why? Well, cause their parents didn't allow them to. Their parents were most prolly authoritarian.

Authoritarian parenting = a parenting style with high expectations (often unreasonable), restrictive, punitive, results oriented, zero feedback (communication is one way) and often used in the army. Most Asians are brought up in this environment. Prolly our grandparents were in the army and brought these values into our homes.... for the past 65 years.

Then comes the job search. People who are adults and who are still under the grasp of authoritarian parenting would be taking corporate roles and a few months later, suffer from job burnout. Productivity will fall with self efficacy, they'll quit their job and are back to square one. A lot of Asian parents instill absolute values that are unquestionable, irrational and unreasonable into their kids. The sadder part is these kids grow into helpless adults, doing a 9 to 5 job which they hate, fearing authority and would just stay in the zone of approval peers and parents.

This form of Nazism in the family need not be tolerated. If not dealt with, repression occurs and as a "psychologist" soon to be grad, I don't even go there.

If you are currently in a degree that you find that doesn't suit you, pull out. Get a REAL career counselor to run personality tests and RIASEC tests (google this) to help you narrow down your options. I've always believed that if you're good at any skill (well, sex isn't included cause our porn industry is pure fail), the cash will come eventually. If you're good at singing, you might not be the winner of the next talent show but you can perform in theaters, give tuition, sing at events and etc.

If your family isn't in any form of financial difficulty, you should be pursuing what you are good at. Then again, comes the dilemma between what you're good and what you like to do (Good Will Hunting) but I'll leave that for another blog spot, if I ever bother to spill my random thoughts over an electrical realm where no one really gives a shit about.

It's your life. Live it your way. If you're living your parents' lives, wtf are you gonna do when they're gone? Give that some thought.