Perseverance
Mom is in town, so I had dinner with her and she was conveying to me something one of my uncles had said: "Tell Sunflower that she must persevere and not give up too easily."
The thing is, one first must find something that one wants to persevere AT. Like, see, I had friends who really really wanted to be lawyers, so despite failing papers here and there, they persevered, chased their dream, obtained their practicing cert, and today, are advocates & solicitors.
Technically, I persevered too. Despite not taking a degree in Mass Communications (which was what I originally intended), I ended up a journalist anyway. People keep on telling me that it's such a waste because I studied law, but I went after what I really wanted. So there. :P
The problem is that after I quit journalism, I haven't been sure what to persevere at... but now that I've decided, at least I have something to work towards.
Perseverance is a virtue, I agree. Very few people hate their jobs (coz if they hate it enough they end up leaving and looking for something else), but many are vaguely dissatisfied or at least, not wild with passion about what they do. Yet they persevere. In some cases, because they have no choice -- family obligations and financial responsibilities mean that they have to just do the best they can where they are, with what they have.
I admire people like that. I don't know if I could be as self-sacrificing and do it with as much generosity and willingness and commitment, without complaining or feeling trapped or short-changed. I don't know if I could be like Dad -- I suspect that many times, he's made up his mind to do something for the good of the family, but you can't tell whether it's a sacrifice or not because he just puts his heart 100% into all he does, no matter how he personally feels about doing it. As a child, I took many things as my due. Now I'm an adult, and I can only imagine the dreams he quietly chose to pack away, to persevere in what would be best for all instead of what would be best for him alone.
That's the scary part of having a family, isn't it. I'm still single, so it doesn't matter if I quit my job and move to a different line of work, starting from the bottom all over again. Once you have a family, there are so many other things to think about and plan for and take into consideration. And there's so much more need to persevere.
I realised, after my friend tried to encourage me to enter the legal profession last week, that there are so many options open and available to me. In fact, a former colleague at the newspaper called and said that they are hiring, and asked whether I would like to go back. You know what? I'm thankful for each and every one of these options, even the one leading back to becoming a lawyer. I'm so fortunate in so many ways. But as I don't have a family yet, I'm looking for a dream worth pursuing. One that will give me a reason to persevere.