Abstract perceptions and opinions on a Sunday night
Let me preface this writing with my thoughts on relationships and the meaning they provide in my life.
I recently fell out of a relationship with a woman who was not only the love of my life — or so I thought — but the person who taught me more about myself than I ever thought possible. Our experiences took us beyond the bounds of my reality and taught me that there is no way for a human to ever understand him/herself without the aid of a faithful companion. The one who is able to see straight into the eyes of your inner demons, and still be the angel in your darkest days.
Of course, life is not without its ups and downs, and ultimately that chapter in my life ended in a bittersweet moment that forever altered my destiny. I won’t go into the details because I have not been blessed with enough time for me to be able to provide an objective analysis into this event horizon. However, what I can say is that I was mistaken in my belief that I understood the meaning of the term “bittersweet”.
And now for the actual article.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I think I can say for certain that any and all predictions I will make in this article could and probably should be horribly inaccurate and misdirected. I can speak with absolute certainty that 5 years ago, in November 19, 2012, I was a sophomore in a college who did not know what the fuck he was doing in his life. I was on my third semester of a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. A year later, I made the best decision in my life by switching to Computer Science while I was failing my classes. Yeah, you can’t do that anymore, because the tables have turned and the CS tables have turned from $5 plywood to $100 tempered glass.
5 years from now, I will be a boy in a 29 year old man’s clothing, and hopefully a senior software engineer. I’ve set a few milestones in my life that I hope to accomplish, and among some great and (kind of but not really) noble ones:
- Start a scholarship for underprivileged Indonesian students with a passion for computer science and/or software engineering.
- Be the Chief Technology Officer of a well-funded and well-meaning technology startup.
- Make more money than my dad before he retires — I believe that every child should be more successful than his/her parents, and even though money is not the best indicator of success, it is one of the best quantifiable measures in existence.
I have some undignified ones, namely:
I’d like to be the owner of a Porsche Cayman that I purchase in its entirety with my own money — even better if I pay cash.
I found out yesterday that if I was to buy a 2009 Porsche Cayman, my insurance rate would go up a grand total of $29 for a 6 month period. That’s right, if I got a Porsche instead of my current car, I would pay less than $5 more per month.
So I hope that some time in the next 5 years, I’ll save up enough money to buy a Porsche. I also hope that some time in the next 5 years, someone will change my mind and I’ll drop that cash on a down payment on a new home, but if I‘ll be the same person in 5 years as I am now, I would most likely drop all that cash on a Porsche and throw myself into a financial pit earlier than I need to. In addition, I’ve heard that insurance rates are significantly reduced after the ripe age of 25. I sure hope so, as I’ve spent more money on car insurance this year than I did on my previous car — including the cost of the car — in the entire time I owned it.
I think that’s all I have to say as far as confident predictions for my future self. Life is too short to spend it in a Corolla, and very few Indonesians have the privilege to work in a nation where you can buy a Porsche with less than a year’s salary straight out of college. Carpe diem, as the old boys call it, or #yolo as my beautiful and innovative generation known as “millennials” like to call it.
