In approximately a year from now, I'll be officially freed from the education system, my umbrella from social responsibility for the past decade. And yet, I don't remotely have an idea exactly where I want to stand. I look with envy at my friends who proclaim their undying passion for the hospitality industry, and I feel dubious. Not about my capabilities, not about my interest in the trade, but about the plans that others have for me. 

Uncle Adrian says, 

Krissy, it's about time you start your Japanese lessons. 

Krissy, I want you to follow me to Japan on my next trip, I want to start introducing you to my business associates. 

Krissy, grow up soon, so that I can hand you my dreams, my passion. So that I can retire in peace.

But what about mine? The dreams I have, should I tuck it away? An obligation to thank this pair of hands who groomed me, invested heavily - be it time, money, love, energy, everything - in me? My first sign of resistance surfaced when I chose HTM. According to his plan, I should be awaiting an entry from NUS Oxford/Harvard/Princeton now, not developing some far-fetched nature resort or family carnival. 

I want to travel, I want to leave my footprints at every single corner on Earth. I want to live my life not as a Singaporean, but as a citizen of the world. 

I want to someday become a sommelier if possible, or if not, be able to tell the vintage, grape varietal and region from a mere sniff from the wine glass. I want to professionally swirl the poison in my mouth and accurately describe the nose, the entry, the body, the finish.

I don't want to become yet another loser I see every morning in the train, slogging their lives away for no specific purpose other than to fatten up their bank account, other than the fact that, it is what they are suppose to do (or so they are told).

It is easy to say, I want to breakaway, I want to live my dreams.

10 years from now, how many of us will become one of those losers that I've describe above?