listening to an auntie chewing gum

I bumped into a friend of my aunt's today. She started to talk to me. The topic inevitably steers towards my education, a topic I always try to avoid. The reason being, once old aunties know that I got a scholarship, they'll start showering me with praises and exultations on how I am making my parents proud and how clever I am and how lucky I am and yada yada yada. Gah. So I got a scholarship. Big deal. Let us all hang banners, throw confetti and declare a public holiday!

Anyway, allow me to analyse our conversation. I promise to keep it brief because that auntie is really a talker. If noise wasn't coming out of her mouth, I could have sworn she was chewing gum.

Her: So you finish Form 5 already?
Me: Yes.
Her: How was your SPM?
Me: OK lah.
Her: Your result how?
Me: OK lah.
Her: How many A? (she doesn't give up, does she?)
Me: 12
Her: Wah! 12! Good! Got scholarship?
Me: (groaning inwardly) Got.
Her: What scholarship?
Me: JPA.
Her: Waaahh... Very good ha! JPA is a very good scholarship! They pay for everything! Your future taken care of! It's so hard to get the scholarship. You are so lucky, you know? They only give it to the top students in Malaysia. Your parents must be so proud of you. They are also very lucky got a daughter like you! Get JPA is like kena beh pio. Everything paid for!

hahahahahahahahha.. She is obviously a noob in this. I can't even begin to list down everything wrong about what she said! It is not a very good scholarship, they don't pay for everything, my future is far from taken care of, they don't only give it to the top (or I wouldn't have got it), anybody who has me for a daughter deserves to be pitied and I'd much rather "kena beh pio".

Of course, she said much more than what I typed here but I didn't bother to remember. To the uninitiated, 'beh pio' means lottery. Think 4D. And believe me, she wasn't the first. Nor, I suspect, the last person to talk to me like I was a prize pig.

The only reason why I decided to write about her is as a reminder to myself.

A reminder that the majority can be wrong. A reminder that something is not 'good' just because a lot of people say so. A reminder to form my own opinions, not to rely on the wisdom of the crowd. A reminder to check up on whatever I am told, not to rely on hearsay.

And also a sad reminder that no matter what I do, I am stuck in this 'majority mentality' vortex, dubiously honoured with this scholarship that shackles me to the admiration of people like her. Admiration that I do not welcome nor relish.

I wish I kena beh pio :) then I could have funded my own education! And the painfully one-sided conversation might have ended sooner.