It's been awhile.

But strangely, even after the prolonged lapse,
there hasn't seemed like there's much progress in my life to be documented.

A birthday passed and I turned 24,
so has the rest of my girlfriends.

At 24, there isn't much to our name.
At best, the only thing we truly own,
the only thing to our name which we are proud to share,
is our struggles in finding a place for ourselves in the big confusing world of work.

This morning,
my brother and I went to the neighbourhood macdonald's with the boyfriend for breakfast.
Over Mcmuffins, harshbrowns, hotcakes and McGriddles
(there's nothin wrong with my grammar cos the fat brother had a Mcgriddle and a McMuffin meal),
the boys began their IT talk.

My brother is currently enrolled in an IT course at Poly with specialisation in networking,
while the boyfriend is in the realm of application, with programming at its core.
I drifted into my own world as the boys began using terms I could never understand,
and discussed concepts which are as alien to me as Greek.

It wasn't until something my brother said which brought me back to the real world.

He said, " I think after graduation, I want to go into programming. "
That is something so different from what he said some months ago when he chose his specialisation.

Then, he was all about making a name for himself doing networking,
going on and on about the prospects and how lucrative networking professionals are.

"What made you change your mind?", I asked him.

He shrugged, unable to give me an answer.

"I don't know leh, after my internship, I just felt like going into programming."

That's really interesting, how one's first experience could impact on his/ her future career path.

Sometimes, the people you've met
and your first dabble with the experience could have the strongest power to determine the road you're going to take.

Take my brother for example,
his first real industrial work experience was an internship for a small company doing programming.
And everyday after work he'll come home,
full of stories and conspiracy theories of our garmen (which I shall not share here) to share.
There would be a glimmer in his eyes,
and you could tell in the tone that he used that he has complete faith in these content.
Contents which were shared by his boss.
Every one in my family could tell he had a good boss whom he fully admires, idolise even.

His boss, is one of those rare kind.
The type who is willing to take the time off
to patiently guide and impart knowledge to empty vessels like my brother.
The kind who believes in the best in people.

My brother in turn,
felt a sense of motivation he never had before,
and I believe transpose that feeling onto the job and the industry
because it was an unbelievable experience.

Given that he had no real experience in the other fields of IT,
and with the limited knowledge he has in programming,
his curiosity and desire to explore more in that regard is understandable.

Similarly, my first real job upon graduation was in the asset management industry.
Then, I had a awesome boss who showed me the ropes
and started laying the building blocks of knowledge in the empty vessel that was me.

Honestly, Finance was my weakest subject in school.
Hell, I barely passed at 39 marks (35 was the passing mark).
And here I am, right smack in a financial institution co-managing a suite of products,
when I am clueless about financial implications, figures, ratios, terms and what they mean.

Yet when I was looking for a second job,
this was the only industry I was really interested in.
And here I am,
looking to take up further studies in this dog-eat-dog world of Asset Management,
where I can't even understand derivatives,
and the time value of money as well as the risks of financial products.

You'll be surprised how big a difference some people could make in the lives of others.
How inspiring they can be.
Or on the flipside, how they could make a person decide to forever stay away.

I have a friend who used to work for a multi national company straight after graduation.
Having stayed there for more than a year,
she finally quit.
And because of her experience there, she headed into public service.
It was a complete loss of faith in MNCs, that she experienced.
Because of her bosses,
she believed that there is nothing else in MNCs but exploitation.

She believed management is screwed, selfish, and lacking transparency.
She believed she could never beat politics to survive in MNCs.
That wasn't how she thought work should be.

Almost always,
life surprises us by taking turns we would never expect.
Who is to say which is the best way to embark on our first step into society?
We were always asked what we wanted to be when we were younger.
But do you remember what you wanted to be when you were younger?
You would probably ask me back, " At which stage in life were you referring to?"

My point is, noone really knows what we want to be.
And sometimes, it takes a few wrong turns for us to find the right one
if we're lucky.
If we're not, we might never find the right one.
But so what if we never found a job we truly liked to do?
It could be miserable stuck doing something you realised you hate,
but you see, there's always the option to change.

And all that is required of us,
is just the courage to take that first step onto that path of discovery.
You never know until you try,
and life is just too short to be wasted on worrying about the "what ifs".