Monday, November 16, 2015

Wants and Needs.

Is wanting something a part of being human?

I think so.

No matter how happy and how satisfied you are with your life, deep down inside, most likely, secretly, you still have that teeniest tiniest desire for something.

Something other than what you already have.

If you're a student for example, probably would want to pass the exams with flying colours.

Then after passing the exam, you'd want to graduate.

After graduating, you'd want a good job.

After getting a good job, you'd want car, house, marriage, kids, more money, more kids, better job....

List goes on and on.

If you're not looking something else, you're looking for more of something you already have.

More money. More fun. More health. More food. More kids.

More than one wife. Lol.

It's a whole lot easier to learn to be content with what you have.

But that's easier said than done.

Money can't buy happiness.

I've personally met people that has loads of money, but live miserable lives.

But you can't say money doesn't help in achieving happiness.

I've never met anyone that becomes sad when he gets money.

Money isn't everything, but everything is money.

Question : is it wrong to want more than what you already have?

Some people label this as being ungrateful.

I know some people have labelled me as being ungrateful for leaving the country.

Yet commenting on people's lives in Malaysia.

People can be real assholes sometimes.

It's as if when I took this new job, I'm now swimming in a pool of gold coins and am suddenly out of touch with what normal people go through in Malaysia.

That middle-income trap people are yakking on about? Yeah, been there, done that.

And believe me when I say this, Malaysians are one of the luckiest people on earth, but we're too busy looking at how great other countries are supposedly are, that we become so hateful to the land we are born in.

Yes, our country isn't the safest country in the world.

Yes, our country isn't the richest country in the world.

Yes, our country isn't the most (insert attribute here) in the world.

But it sure as hell isn't the worst. Yet we act like it is.

When I strive for something better, it only means that I'm working towards a goal and has nothing to do whatsoever with how grateful or ungrateful I am.

If I feel hungry and work towards finding food to feed myself, would that be considered as ungrateful? Following some people's logic, I should be grateful that I have a stomach to feel hungry with, as some people don't have stomachs due to them being removed for whatever reason.

So if I have food, if I look for better tasting food, would that make me ungrateful? Hell no.

But if I curse and I whine and I complain constantly about how sucky my food is and how I express with extreme clarity how I dearly wish for better tasting food, then I feel these are the characteristics of an ungrateful person.

At least that's how I feel.

If anything, getting more means I am even more grateful.

Although I sometimes forget.

But my gratefulness to God does not disappear with me not getting what I want.

But it does increase when I do get what I want.

I am only human. This is how we are.

I wanted to talk about something else in this post, but suddenly this topic crossed my mind. Oh well.

A thought crossed my mind the other day.

Do I really need to own a house?

I mean sure, it would be ideal to actually own a piece of property that you could call your own.

But economically, is it really worth it?

You're bound to a huge loan that you will only pay off once you're significantly older.

Forget for a moment that house prices go up each year. Coz so long as you're not selling the house, you're not really making any money.

Think about how much you would pay for a house on a monthly basis, and compare that with how much it would probably cost you to rent it.

As opposed to a car for example, it's definitely more worth it to buy a car, rather than rent one, because the rent rate is WAY higher.

And technically speaking you do make money with your car as you travel around in it to get to work i.e you can't make money without it.

But according to most people, it is better to invest in a house rather than in a car, because house prices appreciate, and car prices depreciate.

Just my weird way of seeing the world.

Speaking of seeing the world, all goes well I'll be seeing another side of the world in December. Maybe I'll post about it.

Travelling is expensive. No wonder people subtly brag about their travels on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram.

"I  spent shitloads of money coming here and I'm the only one that will know? NO, the WORLD has to know!".

Cue check-in to fancy foreign place, photo album post, tag friends to rub it into their faces.

Or maybe they just wanna share their happiness.

Well, that's it for now. Apologies if I offended anyone reading.

IF anyone is reading this.

Peace.