We all agree that children are very cute and innocent creatures. Yet sometimes, those angels can also turn into a noisy little brats when they badly want something. That's exactly when we take advantages of their simple way of thinking and use it to make them scared and calm down a little . Normally this is not a hard task because you can come up with anything to make them panick and sleep like frightened puppies: Darkness, the sounds of the blowing wind, or even what's hiding under the bed will do the trick.
But when I was a kid, I had another "special" fear. It had nothing to do with dark places or imaginary monsters. My biggest fear was simply... a question! yes! I'm all serious. Before you start judging what kind of kids I was, let me just explain the situation first. When you ask any kid about what he wants to be in the future, you are surely expecting sweet and spontaneous answers like how he/she wants to be a doctor, engineer, singer and even a football player. But my answer wasn't anything like that. And people's reactions to my answer made that question my worst childhood nightmare.
I really never had any interest in a specific job unlike most kids. To me, the job itself wasn't really important as long as I feel passioned and satisfied doing it. So my answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" was pretty simple: "I want to be happy". The thing is, I couldn't understand why everyone bursted out laughing as soon as they heard that answer. They said this is very childish even for a kid! (Does that even make a sense?!) But nobody ever told me why? Is it forbiden to be happy ? Is it that they just didn't expect such an answer? Or what if my answer was just stupid? I really didn't know back then.
I couldn't figure out why adults make kids link their future life with work and jobs alone. I mean don't misunderstand me, I was fully aware that work is very important in order to make money. After all, that's what my father was doing to feed my little stomach and afford my needs. He worked day and night for that sake. But is that it? Is that how life should be? Only a job can define who you are? and only a good job is your life goal? What makes this life intersting then if we all are trying to achieve the same goal? Adults life is definitely boring then!
A flood of questions soaked the mind of the 6 or 7 years-old me at the time. Of course, it is not possible to answer them in such a young age. In fact, even adults can find those questions very hard to deal with. At least, the people I asked were never able to come up with anything useful to me. Yet, all I ever got from them was sarcastic comments. It's very clear now why I hated anyone who asks me "what do you want to become in the future?".
To be continued...
Good one