Archive for March, 2005

Most people after knowing that I’m about to become a teacher would ask some of these questions, “Why did I want to become a teacher?” sometimes more specific “Why did I choose to become an english teacher instead of a biology teacher?” or the inevitable, “Where are you going to ask for your posting?”
The question that I’d like to highlight is ‘where’. My answer would definitely be “somewhere close to home”. Then they would all lament about my obvious lack of wisdom to choose somewhere close to home. I digress, home is always better, and for me the best place to be.
They would say that it is better to go to Sarawak or Sabah, and earn more ringgit, as the pay is higher because of the oversea allowances. I would really want to say, “what is there in more money” and risk sounding like a hermit. But to be true to myself, I’d answer yes more money from allowances, but how much is the plane ticket? Would you just go back home once a year? or more? Not so much savings now eh?
Then most probably they would say that I should go to other places and experience life there. The thing is I love to travel and I hate to say it, but I’ve been almost to all of the states in Malaysia excluding Sarawak and Johor and also to Japan and Saudi Arabia. But then again I love to travel, thus I’ve always gotten myself on all-expense-paid trips. How? Plain lucky I guess But I’ve never had the desire to stay long.
The truth is, most of the time when people laud all the benefits of working/staying far from home, I would just keep quiet. No point in telling them what I think, when all they would care is their own opinion. Even more so when the fact is they themselves have never had to stay/work far away from home. I have a friend who works far away from home and is always happy to just get a break to go home. (isn’t that so amran? )
But lets not stop at that, let me tell you of a little comparison. When I was staying in Penang, I usually wake up to the sound of crows going “akk akkk”. It was also the same when I was in Klang, crows everywhere. Now in Cheras, it would have to be the early LRTs that sometimes wake me up. But at home, I wake up every morning to the cheerful sound of the birds, not crows certainly. I feel refreshed not stressed.
Then there’s the case of money, here in Kelantan the cost of living is low. Dirt cheap low in fact, more so if I stay with my parents. Then again a small terrace house cost only RM300 per month or so. In penang that small terrace house near the town would fetch as high as RM600, or perhaps higher in KL. How can I not be persuaded to live around here?
To be fair, if I get posted somewhere else. I wouldn’t really mind, it is always a good experience trying to get accustomed to a new surrounding. And I think, I am fairly good at adapting myself considering the fact that I lived in Penang for 5 years without any problems.
At the end, its not about where I want to go, but where I am forced to go.