One day, a friend told me about a child who did not need to do anything at home. From young, the parents had made sure that everything he needed was there for him. As a result of great wealth, he grew up merely eating, sleeping, playing, learning and enjoying. There was always a servant to cater to his every need.
Early each morning, he woke up, brushed his teeth, bathed and ate his breakfast. For breakfast, he merely went to the breakfast table where a servant had prepared his food and drinks. After breakfast, he left the plates, cups and whatever utensils on the table for the servant to pick up and wash. Then, he was chauffeured to school, his school bag already placed in the car, the bag packed ready each morning by another servant.
Everything was done for him. His bed was tidied and made ready for him, his toys were taken out for him each time he voiced his desire to play. They were kept by a servant after his enjoyment.
As he studied, tutors for the number of subjects he studied were made available. They helped him to do his homework and fed him knowledge. There was no necessity for him to look through books to search for facts and information. There was always someone to do all that for him.
As he was quite intelligent, with the aid of so many good tutors, he managed to do well enough to secure sufficient good grades to enter the university.
For the first time in his life, he was on his own in the university. There were tutors but nobody to spoonfeed him sufficiently. As he had to stay in the university during his first year, he discovered that he had to wake up on his own. Used to being awaken by a servant, the alarm did no good. He missed lectures. As for food, he found it unbearable to have to queue up to buy food and drinks at the university canteen. Sometimes, he would rather go hungry at lunch time and take a taxi to one of the restaurants later in the evening.
Of course, not joining any of the university students for lunch, he lost the opportunity of associating with them, of befriending any of them. Except for the few roommates he had, there were few friends.
Even his room-mates found him deplorable, as he was used to having things his way. If he was tired and sleepy, he would expect everyone to keep silent and not interfere in any way with his rest. However, when he felt like it, he would have his radio loud with his favourite songs no matter what the time was. Almost everyone could not stand his behavior. Of course, in the battle for self, he was always the loser as every other person would do all things dreadful to him to avenge the times they were shouted for seemingly innocent faults.
Other than these, he had to wash his own clothes. Often, unable to settle down to such abominable tasks, he would accumulate the dirty clothes in a bag to have them taken to a laundry to be washed. Even that was so unpleasant as he had to lug it to a taxi to send it to the cleaners.
After some months, he found life so unendurable. He just could not take it anymore. He felt so wretched. This was not the life he wanted. Facing such depths of despair, he commited suicide. Despite the opportunity of a university education and possibly a good life ahead, he was a drop-out of life itself.
He opted out of life because he was not prepared by his parents for real life.
Money could get him servants. It could give him luxuries but it could never buy him the love of his friends or prepare him for the challenges of life.
According to my friend, the above is a true story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment