Letter to My Child

Hi kid, Mum here. How are you? I hope you are fine, just came back from school and deciding which homework to attack first, English or Mathematics.

I'm sorry for not addressing your name because I'm now just 26 and single so I haven't thought out the name for you and the rest of your siblings. I don't even know whether you are a good looking one or a hot one but either way, you got to behave ok?

Why did I write this letter? Well, next year, you are going to be a legal adult (18 years old) and you are to make the biggest decision in your live ever; entering tertiery education (no chance of escaping, I've all planned out to enroll my kids into university although I'm still single and no sign of your dad just yet). Don't make the same mistake as I did, please. You want to know what my mistakes are? Hold on tight, here we go.

You see, I pretty much regretted my decision not to enroll in English courses but resort to Engineering faculty during my university years. I was conned by the saying that 'with an engineering degree, you will have a better chance at picking your job later. You can choose engineering, IT or management.' Honestly, those are crap. In 2008, I want you to know that I'm working as an Information Analyst, which requires writing skills and reasonable English. If I'd picked English Literature or Modern Linguistics, I will be uber happy and will not have this humongous PTPTN debt.

Kid, play your strength to the core. Don't ever be trapped like me. If say you are going to take English course (honestly, I will be your biggest supporter), you will be able to make Masters and if you want we can work it out for you to PhD. That is even better than your Mum who has an embrassing GPA for her engineering+design degree. See? You have better advantage than anyone else.

And don't even think of paying between 60k-70k for a degree here. That is seriously equivalent to a degree in Aussie and yeah, I kind of regret it. You know, I have to fight for my life if I want to continue studying with this CGPA and I know if I'd play my strength, I would have gotten better.

Your Mum is now thinking about so many things that my bestfriend and I made a plan to marry a filthy rich white guy to settle our Debt. Just in case you just got back from counting your father's liver spots, you should know that we managed to carry out our plan. If you have just gotten back from marathon with your Dad, I have magically inherited gold from an unknown acquaintance.

Mum got to go for now. As the eldest, I don't wish you to share the whole letter with your siblings. Instead, I want you to lecture them to:

A) Give you the satisfied feeling after nagging someone
B) Give them the opportunity to be nagged by someone else.

OK kid, keep this as a token from your Mum who is at the moment going to be 26, single and have humongous amount of liability. She hasn't got a driving licence and had to wait for 7 months to get a laptop. Don't lead a life like your Mum, rather be smart and study over seas with huge debt than studying here with huge debt. I will leave you with that and get back to my work kid.

P/S: don't tell Dad about my 'husband-searching method'. Promise?