Same Answers ??

We walked into a hall of thousands of students.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen", the chief examination invigilator greeted. He went on confirming the subject paper we were sitting for; and the standard examination rules.

Then finally said 'And you may begin, now!”.

We begin browsing through the examination questions, searching for familiar questions from our study revision, scheming through the 2-pager question paper to see if we have answers to all of them; and begin answering.

The sound from the shuffling of papers suddenly quiets down. The examination hall is silent. Everyone is focusing on writing down their answers to the questions.

Throughout the duration, we'd see some were writing down their answers profusely like they’ve hit a jackpot, some are pressing the back tip of their pen against the temple of their head, trying to squeeze the right answers out, some are calmly reading through each word and writing preciously.

Such is the atmosphere.

An examination hall filled with students who were given the same questions; and the answers to those questions are the same.

Conversely, what if we are given a set of similar answers, would we be able to figure out the questions? Aha! I bet you must be thinking, is this a trick question?

Let’s first have a run at the similar answers we were given:

1. Get a university degree in your 20s;

2. Get a job in a big corporation in your 20s;

3. Climb up the corporate ladder using your university degree by 30s;

4. If you are in business, make it huge in money and people by 40s;

5. Get married and have kids by 30s;

6. Buy a house and own a flashy car by 30s;

7. You must always have a job even if you hate it;

8. Get your life sorted by 30s and retire by doing nothing.

Sounds common?

Have we ever thought that perhaps, life is not some centralized mechanism in which we operate. All of us are living souls that sets out to conquer our own living.

In that journey, we are prescribed with different questions prompting different answers in life.

Possibly, these could be the answers some of us are looking for:

1. Continuous learning charting from creativity, practical and academic

2. Be a leader without a title

3. Building on life experience

4. Living with less is more

5. Crafting work of passion for free-living

6. Get our life sorted as we go

The questions leading to those answers come in different forms, mostly from the situations which arose or the circumstances we are positioned in. But these answers have no deadlines.

So why are we constantly chasing after the same answers as everyone else, when all of our deadlines are different.

It does sound absurd, isn’t it?

Can we imagine a world of free living adhering to our self-purpose instead of conforming to the answers pre-set for us?

Life constantly tests us on who we are destined to be.

Life constantly tests us on our resilience in coping rough moments; moments when the only support we have is just us.

Life constantly tests our perseverance during times when everything around us is pushing us to a realm of suffocation.

Life constantly tests us on our humility when we have everything without having everything.

Life tests, are more hardcore than all the things we have been storytold.

Life is very much unlike the examination hall that hands out the standard questions that requires the same answer; instead life could be the question itself.

“Time to focus on our test papers because

everyone else is busy focusing on theirs.”