“Let it settle…”

“Why did you graduate with a degree in Accounting and yet apply for a position that has nothing to do with your major?”

“Yes, I don't like this major at all. My mother forced me to study so that I could get a stable job at her office, so I followed her. After working for a year to please my mother, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I quit and went to Saigon to find a job...”.

The Hanoi girl's overly honest answer to my somewhat tricky question in the interview last week still lingers in my mind even though several days have passed.

“Let it settle down...." Since moving to the South, I have rarely heard this sentence, although it is a very familiar saying of many Baby Boomer parents in the North, who were born between 1943 and 1960...

"Study this major for future stability."

“After finishing school for a few years, get married to a family man for... stability.”

"Why work in the private sector? Try to get a government job for stability."

Have you ever heard similar sentences?

So what is “it” that needs stability???

Thinking hard to locate and name "it", I think "it" is the Future.

For a generation that has experienced war, natural disasters and countless social upheavals, it is completely humane and understandable that people consider the “stability” of the future as a standard of a good life. However, in one way or another, by persuasion or by force, there are still many parents who are trying to instill this way of thinking in their children under the educational and responsible euphemism: “orientation”.

But slow down a bit and look at it from a young person's perspective:

Is "stability" the mentality of accepting to stop, and being easily satisfied with what you have?

"Stability" is very close to the scene of going to work in the morning with an umbrella and coming home in the afternoon with an umbrella, receiving a regular salary at the end of the month, low is fine, but it is... "stable".

After all, “it” - the future is hardly stable, because it is always uncertain and unpredictable as an interesting attribute of colorful life. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. You, and I, we will all be equally humorous, subjective and arbitrary when talking about ourselves in the years to come.

A person who is very outstanding today, sleeps a little too long, tomorrow morning becomes a laggard. This is happening every day, every hour and is no longer rare, especially in the 4.0 era. The more modern life is, the easier it is for people to be swept away and left behind if we compromise with temporary stability.

So, “let it settle”!

Personally, I will definitely not choose anything “for stability” for myself and my children today and tomorrow. I choose to commit, regardless of ups and downs, to win and lose and do it again, rather than sleep peacefully in the shell of stability.

When I was a child, my father often talked a lot about the dark side, different types of people in society, the negative things in life, along with promoting good human values ​​that need to be preserved and respected in all circumstances. There was a time when I was naive and secretly blamed my father for always worrying too much, always talking about the worst possibilities that no one wanted to happen. At that time, my family meals could easily become a "Cautionary Tale" radio show. The day he took me to take the university entrance exam, my father shared a secret that he had never told me: He had failed the university entrance exam the first time, and only succeeded greatly on the second attempt. Then he asked, "What is your plan if you fail?". How unique!!!

I couldn’t even think about applying for a job at my father’s office, because before I could think about it, my father had already said, “If a young generation like you has to rely on your parents to get a job, that’s the first sign of a long-term incompetence. Go swim, swim by yourself, swimming slowly is fine, but it’s still better than using a life jacket.” How unique!!!

But later on, as I traveled more, engaged more, and experienced more, I finally understood the deep intention of my father - a Baby Boomer who was a bit out of touch with the generation. My father did not want me to "settle down" but to train me to "be ready" in all circumstances. Life can give us roses, but it can also test us with bricks and stones. What matters is how ready and how proactive we are in accepting "it". The future is dynamic, never static, and we ourselves cannot be static because life has never stopped moving.

Another exam season is coming, young people and parents, do you choose "let it be stable" or "let it be ready"?

“A boat must be at sea, a boat lying still on the shore can only be an abandoned boat...”.