Practicality

I'm rehashing the issue of practicality again.

I just watched "School of Rock". A so-so movie, storyline was kind of expected and it didn't leave a strong impression on me. What did however was the unrealistic plot.

Jack Black was a subsitute teacher who took over a class and co-ordinated them to be a great rock band. The bad guys (the parents) came in at the end of the show to interfere and was taken aback by their children's performance.

Now, the only thing wrong with this picture was that these parents were those straight-faced, money-grabbing, elitist class people and what made them changed their minds suddenly when their children were rocking in front of a crowd who smoked marijuana and pierce their nipple. They want their children to be like that ?

Okay, so back to practicality. The show ended with them taking "remedial" lessons from the man himself but seriously, does anyone foresee a good future in the arts industry?

I'm not an arty person and I was tentative when I was given the chance to jump over the fence from academic to artistic. I wanted to become a performing artist in dramas and plays but I refrained from doing so. Maybe I didn't had the talent but one strong holdback was my survival for the future.

Artists don't make a good living. They struggle to make a name for themselves and only the polished gems make it through the heap of charcoal while the rest are left at the stubble.

Artists, may they be painters, photographers or performers, they simply don't have a strong future, especially in Singapore. That is why most of us take art, music or drama as a CCA the most, not pursuing further.

Engineers, doctors, scientists. Most of us aim to take this road because that is where the money lies but still, aren't we all to practical. I believe there was once in art, music or drama classes that we were inspired or our mouth held agape at the beauty of art even though we don't fully understand it.

You could say i'm an unpractical person. I follow my interest then what reality presets for me. My parents gave me the freedom to choose the route of junior college or a polytechnic education. I picked mass communications because i did not want to waste two years studying chemistry,advance mathematics, general paper and chinese where I will in the end, only end up using one or two of these subjects as a support for my university education.

In other words, I don't want to waste my time wasting brain cells at something which I won't use in future even though it is useful. So i place myself as practical. That is why I see reason in any single think i do. I'm a practical person. period.

I do it for the grades, experience, or to just assist a friend. But when there is no reason to do something that is just expending effort and time, I rather relocate myself to more useful stuff like sleeping (helps me recharge for the next day activities). I hate it when I know I have nothing to shop and I have no intention of buying anything, window shopping is the most boring thing that I would ever do.

Thats besides the point here, but humans are practical in the end i guess. Getting a life partner to live life with you, sharing HDB installments and having babies, a reason to move on to the next phase of life. I guess there is no spontaniety in life, if you make a rash impulse decision, you will regret it as you are shunned by all the other practical people in your life, like your family, friends and society.

There is no such thing as choice. Just the most practical choice. That's life. Live with it.

- Benjamin