It's so true isn't it. I know many people who do the same thing. People who just wanna extend their student life via a very long trip to discover oneself.
Those less active ones will consider taking a Master degree instead. One of my friend told me he "just had to take a Master". That's a good reason. *roll eyes*
"...my disgust with Singaporeans doing their month-long backpacking thing upon graduation from university.
Those trips to 3,000 cities in Europe within a month, or that 'Discover-Myself-Trip to Tibet'.
Just because you stuff your clothes in a backpack (not a suitcase, mind
you), buy a Euro-Pass, and walk around more than you ever do in Singapore, then lose weight in the process, doesn't mean you have discovered anything about yourself.
It just means you learn about the European train system very well. That's about it.
Apart from its name, I doubt one can learn about a city at all, when one merely allows a half to 2-day stay per city.
And then when one gets back to town, the photographs are developed and shown to friends as a trophy of conquest.
"I've been here... I was there... I saw this... I ate that... I sat on the freaking rock which some dead guy once pissed on."
It's like the wedding pictures and video.
The experience is incomplete when consumed by oneself only.
It has to be exhibited.
And I still don't understand the obsession with the idea that this trip HAS to be carried out before work starts.
As if the big WORK MONSTER will chain your ankles and swallow your passport henceforth.
This stupid backpacking thing is just... STUPID. =)
It's the start of the BBQ LIFE.
Just another western experience an insecure Singaporean middle-class
kid/person hankers after, to become a 'complete and learned' individual
with the 'alternative' dose of street credibility.
"Hey... City Boy...
Live it out rough and tough... To become a real man!
Go Backpacking!! Discover your true self!"
"Hey... City Girl...
Live it out rough and tough...
To show the guys and, of course, the usual gu-niang girls that you are just as good, if not better!
Go Backpacking!! Discover your true self!"
And when one gets back to Singapore?
One has 'graduated' to the next level.
Like some sort of Great Walkabout in the World.
HO HO HO...
Guess what?
Everyone does it the same way.
Buys the same airticket, same guidebook, takes the same route, stays in the
same backpackers' hostel and sees/eats the same shite from the same
hotdog stand.
Comes back, and starts on the same shitty job.
So, what's so special about your backpacking trip?
And about 'the self' which you have discovered during the trip?
How different is that from 'the self' which all the other Singaporean Backpackers have found discovered along the way?
How different could it possibly be?"
2 comments:
Actually I don't quite agree with what blinky mommy wrote...btw, she used to be in URA ;)
I think alot of people, my friends included, went for long trips after their graduations more for the experience. I wished I could do that, but I couldn't due to the fact I need to start work pretty soon after graduation. And that is a sad thing.
I think overseas trips are more for personal experience rather than "clocking" destinations and 'showing off' as implied by Blinky mommy. "Self discovery" is pretty vague... but one does discover something about oneself through travels... though I don't think that is the main objective of the trip.
As for why some pple need to do it before starting work? - reason being that the average singapore only has got 20 plus days of leave a year? Minus the emergency leaves, we are not left with many days for travel. Therefore, going for a long holiday before starting work, I think, is the best way to compensate for the expected holiday "deprivations".
I regretted not travelling more when I had the time as a student (though I may be poorer)... in future, with kids around and work, even with more money, how to travel??
Oh ya, she used to work at URA.
It's not the trip per se that is "wrong". Given a chance, I would love to go on one too.
But the excuse people will give to justify their extended trips can be so... lame.
But I do agree with you on the timing of it, although I don't see it as an obstacle for people who can afford such trips.
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