Culture Sparks (2) – The guy graduated from UC Berkeley chose to be a farmer
As you can see in the title, I met a very strange person today in the English corner. At first, I just knew this guy is from America. Today’s topic was Moon Hotel, something about hotel on the moon, space trip or so. We extended our topic wider to environment protection, Avatar, global warming and so on…
I am always interested in Americans. So I asked the guy what was his major. He says it was biology. (En…I think I should change my way of telling the story to conversations. But please note that it is not exactly what the conversation was. I just pick up the pieces in my mind and put them together as much as I can.)
Me: What’s you major in university?
Guy: Biology. But now I am a farmer.
Me: Why!
Guy: After graduated from university, I worked in a lab doing biology things. I spent all day staring at the microscope. Balabala…
…
Me: Do you earn more as a farmer?
Guy: No. Less. You know, this farmer thing is like kind of investment. Maybe I will find out that what I want is … (I can not remember how he described that kind of life; I only remember it was the life of farmers…)
Me: Ideal way of life…
…
(When we are leaving…)
Me: I am applying to graduate schools in America.
Guy: Really?
Me: Where are you living now, in the US?
Guy: San Francisco, North California. Where are applying to?
Me: 15 schools. It cost me a lot of money. And including UCSD.
Guy: Oh, those University of California are good. When I studied in my undergraduate school, there are a lot of Chinese in our university. I had to compete with them.
Me: What’s you university?
Guy: University of California, Berkeley.
Me: God! You are from Berkeley, and you are a farmer now! I said American people are very strange!
Guy: …
Me: How old are you?
Guy: 24.
…
As far as I know, he is not one of those extremely rich farmers. He quit his job in a government’s lab and chose to be a farmer. I know that farmers in US are different from our China’s farmers. They have large lands and advanced machines there. But these two jobs are totally different. Compared with a job in the government in the city, in our eyes, without any hesitate, people should choose the government’s job which is more stable and profitable. I believe, even in US, most people tend to choose to be a researcher in the government agency.
However, this guy says it is some kinds of investment which can help him find out what he really wants. It is investment… Do we have any investment of this kind in our life? Books tell us we have to fight for our goals. But wait a minute, what are our goals? Do we really love the goals we are chasing? If we do not know our life goal, do we dare to make an investment like this?
This story has to be ended with questions because I have no answers.
BTW,
Dor, the Israel Jewish guy, gave us a speech today. He talked about his army life. In Israel, everyone, no matter boy or girl, should do the military service for three year. They have no freedom in those years, so many of them go around the world to enjoy the freedom.
Dor looks like Captain Jack Sparrow when he wears his cute hat.
When I asked Dor what he will do when he go back to his country, he said, “Wait for the next trip.”
People do have their own lives.
BTW2,
They recommended us watching a movie named Super Size Me.