The Desire to be Financially independent

It's manifesting! The clash of the individual versus the family!

My parents just received their utilities bill today. It came to a grand total of S$197. That sounds like quite a lot yeah? Indeed it is, but considering three young adults who spend a lot of their time at home with the computer either playing games or surfing the net for pornography (opps!), having such a high utilities bill is quite unavoidable in my opinion. As such the call to not play on the computer has surfaced its head once again, the exact nightmare that I have been expecting to materialize when I move home from PGP. If I had similarly repeated my feat at PGP where I leave my laptop on the whole day just to listen to net radio and this time in the home, she'll flip.

I offered to pay for the bill, though she made a valid snub - "Later you got no money to go to HK". Quite true to that, which brought me back to my innermost desire to be financially independent (and thus sever all the impossible responsibilities such as staying off the computer in this modern age of telecommunications). I just came back from the banks and checking the loans I've taken - a hefty S$18k. It doesn't matter that my school fees haven't been deducted from my father's bank account since I left for Australia and there was actually money credited into his account thanks to the loans. The figure of S$18k is such a huge eyesore that it is wrong and I am in the wrong.

I can't wait to find my first job and collect my paycheck. I'll then turn on the computer and play all I want. Childish and selfish as it sounds like, I can't imagine a world where at the age of 25, I have to think twice and end up not able to do anything whenever I need to fish my wallet to pay for ANYTHING, including miscellaneous daily money-spending activities that are quite necessary like eating out and transport. No, I'm not referring to those people out there who still rely on their rich fathers to finance their expensive lifestyles of Versace, but on the basic necessities. Imagine an IT and Communications graduate not being able to spend more time on the computer? I'll get myself a good old typewriter in no time.

Ned Nickerson