A tough question to answer

Sometimes I ask myself,"Have I made the right choice by leaving the kampung?"
I know I cannot answer that.

My father was a farmer in a small Chinese new village, planting padi and tobacco alternately during the year. We kids had to help in the field during week ends and school holidays. By the time we finished our 6 years of primary school education we were quite strong and knew most of the works to be done in the field.

Except for a fortunate few who were from well to do families like the shop owners, senior government officers, most of the kids would naturally drop out and adopt farming as a way of life. Alternatively they will become apprentice for various trades in the town. There were good reasons for this, the most obvious one is of course they would start to bring home earnings or boost the productions in the field. The second reason was that many could not get through the Primary Examinations hence could not advance into secondary schools. The third reason being that their families could not afford the school fees and the cost of livings in town, because the kids had to leave the village to further their studies. There was no secondary school in villages then.

My father was a very poor farmer, it looked like I was destined to be either a farmer or a tradesman. But I would not settle for it, I wanted to change it. I studied hard whenever I found time in between doing chores. When the results were out, I was one of the only 2 students who scored grade 1 in my class. It was something during that time, I tell you.

So I told my father about my intention to carry on studying. He said he had no money, if I want, I could take some rice from home and feed myself in the town. I had to ask my mother for cash because she was working as a domestic maid in the big town quite far from home. She agreed that I was too frail to start working and should wait for a few more years when I grew bigger.

So armed with RM30 and a bag of rice for every school term, I continued my study in secondary school. During school holidays, when my class mates planned for their vacations, I was asking around for jobs available during that period.

Also I was busy asking seniors and my classmates if their elder brothers, sisters or cousins wanted to sell their used text books. And I sold my used books to my juniors. Those days text books were not changing like fashion shows every year, so they could be passed down from seniors to juniors. This saved the students quite a bit of money.

After completing form 5, I joined the Government as a technicain. While working I sat for the external diploma which was recgonised by the Government. It took me 6 years to complete, and I got rapid promotions whenever I passed a stage.

I went over to the private sector later because it was more challenging. I became a computer hardware engineer. I worked for several multi-national companies before I retired.

The problem with me now is that my 2 kids are still studying in colleges, and I could not find proper jobs due to my age. If I remained a farmer, my children will be happy as farmers too. There will be no worry of whether I could support them until finish colleges or not.

Did I make the right choice?