Yesterday I finally answered the crave I have been having a Chocolate-Cookie&Cream-Banana-Royale bowl of ice cream. It was the highlight of my evening.
But what really got me thinking last night was the person who served me the ice-cream. A very nice, polite and young Saudi employee. I have seen it as a recurring trend recently, the Saudis working in stores and at gas stations, and I know it is terrible to generalize, but most of them don't want to be where they are, and they make you feel it as well.
Not this guy though, he was very pleasant, laughed at my jokes and joked back, gave me enough chocolate fudge for a wedding cake and was very polite all the way through. Although I am always proud to see Saudis working, this guy made me even more proud.
Because it is about time, we as Saudis realize that we are not all going to be lawyers and doctors and engineers. Whether is it because of plain misfortune, or because you wasted your life playing, or are just not cut out for studying, none of these things should stand in your way of earning a living.
I am not saying that people with degrees are better and are the only ones who deserve a better life (given the assumption that money=happiness), I am just saying that for our nation to rise, we will need more Saudis to step up to the plate, we need to raise a generation of workers of every class.
This posts comes from the sad feeling I get when I meet up with a few cousins of mine who threw their lives away, and haven't worked hard for a single thing their entire life, and yet still talk about how they DESERVE to be the managers and the successful entrepreneurs they were born to be.
The thing is I don't know who to blame, the society for placing this pressure on our youth? Or the youth who crumble under that pressure?
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9 comments:
Loved this post! It is indeed a pressing issue in our community but in the last 10 years dont you think there has been some improvement?
Both the society and our youth deserve a share of the blame, but then without pressure some of us wouldnt fight back and become stronger people- better people.
I believe pressure is there to distinguish between those who truly deserve everything they want and those who are too lazy and too weak to fight for it.
-- oh and by the by, if your passing by my blog my last post is a sad excuse for a post, read the one titled "genes?" its better, lol.
i promise that i tried my best to sound positive in this post lol.
i definitely think there is improvement, we have come a long way as a nation. but you still run into the one person who proves you wrong, and i keep on running into that figure regularly..
but i like your theory about pressure being there to be fought..
It's the youth that crumble under such pressure that are to blame. Pressure determines the force you need to put it to rebel, to overcome and to succeed. Good old physics, really.
Society is only a network of people and biased views of right or wrong.
I guess it all comes down to happiness. I believe that happiness is self generated. What most people tend to do is not consider their individual happiness, and judge their own lives by the collective idea of happiness promoted by society - and that's wrong.You only need to taste great elation and triumph in your own personal spheres, on your own scale - and that is success.
:)
P.S. I is hungry now, and craving ice cream. Thank you for that:P
I wish the same could happen in Kuwait. People's ego could really stand in their way in terms of making a living. As you said, we don't hall have to be doctors or lawyers. Step up for you own sake, god damn it!
Both are to blame, my friend, both.
I'm proud of that guy too, I'm proud of people who work hard. My brother is on the other side though, the family keeps trying to push him but since he gets everything for free and without really making an effort, he doesn't see the need to work!!
Alla yhdehom :)
Cool post, loved it!
This happens when our society puts more value on job titles than on giving-one's-best-in-anything-they-do.
What makes a great person is not what they do, but how they do what they do. Yeah?
More power to that guy!
for some reason u failed to mention that u had ur precious ice cream at my place!!
i demand an [edit]
but good post overall :)
Carpe Diem:
I wouldn't throw the blame in its entirety on the weak souls that crumble under the pressure, although blaming the pressure itself might be their escape goat every time they fail..
you are absolutely correct, living up to society's expectations will be (or already is?) our downfall.
skittles:
wallah all the gulf countries have this problem. and i am only talking about an exception, i see more and more saudis working in stores or has stations, but most of them make you feel like shit for asking them to help.
one step forward, two steps back? or maybe we should just support all of them until they feel comfortable..
Oh!dear:
Sadly enough your brother is a growing trend.. it is examples like this that make me blame society and the families for pampering the boys that should one day be men..
no offense :) and welcome to that pad
Diana:
If I may add something, also the fact that they are doing something. the definition of respectable job shouldn't be by the title of paycheck.. it should be by the fact that it is a well earned paycheck at the end of the month
Oobia:
I APOLOGIZE FOR NOTHING... and, you would have got your thank you if you listened to your wife and bought the ice-cream for me while i was sleeping.. i too deserve to be treated like a princess every now and then.. a very masculine princess who plays rugby and has a mustache that is..
None taken! Couldn't agree with you more.. eh :/
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