Short, mid and long term goals

A few days ago, someone asked me what my mid and long term goals are. If I was asked these questions in 2001, I would have been able to reply with conviction: to be a well-known journalist with a leading travel magazine at 35-years, as well as an internationally-published fiction author by the time I turn 40.

It's 2004 and frankly, I cannot answer the same question with the same conviction as I did then.

My dreams have changed. I still hope to one day write for Conde Naste Traveller or Wallpaper, and see my name as author on the cover of the book in 13-years' time. Hopefully, I'll own a publishing house too, and publish tons of bestsellers or tales that speak of the human spirit.

But it's difficult to believe that these will materialise when you've been through trying times in just a span of 10 months when you are 24-years, that alter your whole life as you've always visualised it to be.

Imagine you're a fresh university graduate, and you feel like the world's your oyster with countless oppurtunities to carve a niche for yourself in your chosen career path. Of course, you never expect to be retrenched in the second year on your first job. Following that, it's difficult to find permanent employment as the world economy takes a nose-dive towards the core of the earth.

So you take whatever temporary work that comes your way - telemarketing, administrative support, personal assistant to director of a small consultancy firm, freelance writing, event organising, product promoter. Each job lasts between a week to three months (temporary work, remember?), doesn't pay more than S$7 an hour and at times the lull time in between jobs is two weeks.

So, I'd earn about $1K in a good month, and only $280 in bad times. Let's not forget that living alone means I'd to think of rent, utilities, bills and other expenses like transport and groceries. Say goodbye to dreams of going away to USA for your Masters as you watch your savings being depleted, not knowing how long it'll take you to amass the same amount of funds again (don't forget inflation!).

To compound the situation, you discover a lump on your jaw line that causes excruciating pain each time you try to even smile. Ouch. It's even scarier when you father just passed away from cancer about six months ago. So it's in and out of the hospital's specialist clinic just to determine if it's malignent or not. More drain on finances.

This is also the time you discover whom you can truly call friends. People whom you believed were true friends suddenly disappear. Yet an unexpected few rally around you, then you realise that these are people whom you'll never think twice about throwing down everything to help within your possible means the moment they ask for assistance.

It was a really sobering year, 2002. Through it all, I found myself. Much as I now want to say I believe resolutely in my dreams, I also know that my life on this plane is so fragile, so transient.

Happiness, something that we take for granted, can be here with us today and snatched away in an instant. Health is another gift that we overlook daily.

Overall, the life that we're living is such an immensely significant gift. Yet we've placed so little import on it. So many choose to pursue other things with great material value, but possess infinitely less intrinsic value.

This brings me to the question posed: what are my mid and long term goals?

How shall I answer them?

In the way of the world, my answer is set out in the first paragraph following the question.

I want to do a job that I love, that I have a passion for. That's writing. I don't know about all the other people in the world, but I know for sure, from the age of 13, that I want to be a writer. I wouldn't say I was born to write, but I know I'm good at it. What I feel when I write is exactly what the character Billy Elliot said about what he feels when he dances, "It's like electricity."

But really, all I want is to lead an uncomplicated life. To do and experience all the things that I love, to live life to the fullest, to love and be lvoed by people dear to me, to laugh everyday, and to be... happy.