What I do not want to do when I grow up

That guy in the laboratory shrouded in white cloaks geared with a pair of big white goggles had been renowned for finding the remedy towards extreme backside pain, which earned him the Annual Nobel Prize Award- a million dollars and a specially designed toilet potty that ensures his buttocks do not go “Ouch!”

And then there is this person who made millions out of milking and selling cows in a remote countryside on his dairy farm. People called him Mr Cow Gates, his famous nickname.

Finally, more than four hundred years ago lived this Englishman who wrote a pyramid full of plays and bought a nice, wonderful cottage with his wife who was eight years older than him. His plays are still studied today.

However, not all of them succeeded eventually. It was said that the scientist died a most regretful death from excruciating backside pain, something even his own findings availed to nothing. The farmer eventually went bankrupt after wolves from the nearby forest had his entire 101 cows for dinner, and his nickname was changed to Mr Cow Brains.

Only the playwright lived a happy life and died on his own birthday late one summer, his name and plays never forgotten for the rest of four centuries.

Therefore, from a young age at three and still wearing diapers, I never dreamt of becoming the guy who invented what I wore down there, the ‘miraculous’ stuff that makes sure I do not get drenched between my legs. At five, my dad told me I was going to be the next Aristotle after I got my first full marks for a Kindergarten Mathematics test. I was not ‘over the moon’ at his words though, I said “Me is me. I am what I am.”

And I am certainly not the mad ‘Eureka!’ guy who rushed like thunder down the streets without his undergarments on after making an interesting scientific discovery in his bathtub.

I never wanted to be people like Obama, Albert Einstein, Pythagoras or even Lee Kuan Yew. No, I just wanted to be a tiny micro-organism, absent from the sight of the naked human eye. In this context, the naked human eye refers to the world, being absent from it meant that I certainly do not want my name to appear in The Straits Times or any other newspapers, or Newsweeks.

One can become Superman in society without really letting others know you are one. Take the most ideal character in society, a teacher, for example. A teacher contributes towards society by nurturing, educating and caring for the young ones, thus setting the mark for the country’s future. His or her name rarely appears on the headlines of newspapers or magazines. And even if it does, he or she must have really done a splendid job in the teaching career.

Another example would be the cleaners of the streets who rise from bed even before the break of dawn. Their contributions, although neglected by most people of today, are however, important to the society. Singapore might never have attained the title ‘Clean and Green City’ without the presence of them. Their names never appear on the news, except for the cleaner from the Singapore Zoo who was killed by a white tiger after allegedly jumping into its enclosure in a recent incident.

I have yet to decide what I want to do when I grow up, which I probably will do one day in the toilet while answering nature’s call. But I am totally conscious of what I do not want to do when I grow up, and that is to make myself known to the world. Major characters in society have every of their actions monitored closely by the world, one mistake and the bucket is kicked ‘halfway down’. Examples are like Taiwan ‘big man’ Chen Shui-Bian and father of failure George.W.Bush.

I want to be a Paramecium, an Euglena, a bacteria or a DNA molecule.

And I am certainly not altering my mindset.