By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
The burden of many young people in this country involves bringing their entire families to better living situations. Hence, many of our parents have tried to outline what we should do in life in order to achieve this feat. The plan is to study hard and go to college in order to have a better job than they had. They say by doing that you will almost certainly find a pot of gold that will elevate you and your families to better times.
The love of money, though the root of evil, is seen as a savior by the young, naïve and eager to help their families. I know I myself put in businessman as one of my future jobs in elementary because I wanted enough money for our family to buy whatever we wanted. And eat in whatever restaurant we wanted.
As I grew up, I could see that money was and is still important for anyone living. As a college student, I see that money is even more so important. If you have enough money you can even be best friends with presidents from all over the world.
Apart from money, I have also come to learn about another valuable resource, people. Your connections with different people helps one in achieving his goals. Knowing the right people can help us in ways we could not even imagine. After all, while money can give us many things, friendships with people can open doors leading to whole new worlds.
My best friend in elementary was the smartest kid in school. By spending time with him, for the first time, I could find joy in studying and competing academically. Before then, like many other students, I only saw studying as something only nerds do. Studying was done reluctantly, not adamantly, but my friend helped in changing that. Throughout my late elementary years were the times that truly saw my grades shoot up, and it was thanks in part to my smart friend.
Now that I’m in college the studying habits that were formed in my elementary years have helped me in having an easier time to read and review effectively for big exams and quizzes. Without those habits being formed early on in my life, I’m sure I would be having a hard time right now.
Money could never have motivated an immature me to study and compete that hard with my friend. Friendships with others and the ability to form connections with strangers is just as important to learn as any subject in schools. Since we must deal with people in the real world, we must also get used with people.
The burden of so many of us, ever since we were young, is to help our family. I have come to learn that friendships with the right people can help our families in ways we could not have done. And most importantly, friendships can help us when we are busy trying to help others instead. **
