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When was the hungriest you’ve ever been? Would you eat scraps from somebody else’s table?
There’s a memory I have from September 2022.
I’d finished my fourth banana of the day, but I was still hungry. On my way home, I passed by a Starbucks, where something caught my eye: A plate of half-eaten cake, abandoned by a recently departed patron.
I stopped in my tracks, then went to sit down at the table.
I looked at the cake. It was just a regular Starbucks cake – but I hadn’t had such fancy cake in a long time.
I picked up the fork.
Just then, a cafe employee walked out with her tray. I quickly put the fork down, got up and left.
On my way home, I thought about how far I had sunk.
At the time, I was only earning S$700 a month and had just crossed the one-year mark of being unable to find a full-time job. But I had S$49,000 socked away in stocks and about S$3,000 in the bank.
Sure, I wasn’t living the high life – but I wasn’t exactly destitute either. What was it that made me feel this poor?
Part of it was the constant doom and gloom around uninspiring economic prospects. Every day, there seemed to be a fresh news article or social media post about rising inflation and costs, and how we needed to tighten our belts and forgo spending on wants.
A slice of cake wasn’t a need – it was a want. Therefore, I shouldn’t have it.
It took me some time and deeper digging to finally realise that a larger part of it was the pressure of comparison with friends and peers weighing on me.
More at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/tod...poor-joy-buy-happiness-self-fulfilled-4816191
There’s a memory I have from September 2022.
I’d finished my fourth banana of the day, but I was still hungry. On my way home, I passed by a Starbucks, where something caught my eye: A plate of half-eaten cake, abandoned by a recently departed patron.
I stopped in my tracks, then went to sit down at the table.
I looked at the cake. It was just a regular Starbucks cake – but I hadn’t had such fancy cake in a long time.
I picked up the fork.
Just then, a cafe employee walked out with her tray. I quickly put the fork down, got up and left.
On my way home, I thought about how far I had sunk.
At the time, I was only earning S$700 a month and had just crossed the one-year mark of being unable to find a full-time job. But I had S$49,000 socked away in stocks and about S$3,000 in the bank.
Sure, I wasn’t living the high life – but I wasn’t exactly destitute either. What was it that made me feel this poor?
Part of it was the constant doom and gloom around uninspiring economic prospects. Every day, there seemed to be a fresh news article or social media post about rising inflation and costs, and how we needed to tighten our belts and forgo spending on wants.
A slice of cake wasn’t a need – it was a want. Therefore, I shouldn’t have it.
It took me some time and deeper digging to finally realise that a larger part of it was the pressure of comparison with friends and peers weighing on me.
More at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/tod...poor-joy-buy-happiness-self-fulfilled-4816191
