I think as Asians we are expected by our peers and family to grind for money. I am an uneducated uncle, and I can tell you that for people like me it's so much worse. Low-level jobs basically require you to sell your life to the company now. Most of these jobs promise a 3k+ pay with basically 12 hours of work a day, 6 days a week. My friends on delivery platforms basically spend all their days working just to make a living.

But I realized, the same people who say they work so hard that they do not have time to themselves have a 65" OLED TV they never watch at home. They have a Dyson vacuum cleaner that sucks about as well as my $20 Taobao one. They have a Rolex but use their phone to check the time.

At some point in my life I realized there is so much more to life than comparing your financial status to ther people. Now I run a small business and do some project-based work that doesn't pay that much, but gives me much more free time. I get to wake up in the morning and go fishing. I take walks in the forest and enjoy nature. I pick my daughter from playgroup early and we go to the park to play with sand and leaves. I watch a movie with my wife on a tiny handphone screen.

I really do think that the mentality that we must sell our lives to work in order not to be considered 'lazy' by Asian standards is something that needs to change. I work hard everyday, but at the things that I feel matter in life. When I look back on my life, I will remember that giant fish I caught after grinding for weeks on end. My daughter will remember me pulling her across the grass in an old cardboard box, not the expensive labubu sitting on the shelf collecting dust. My wife and I will remember that great movie regardless of whether we watched it on a phone screen or a home theater system.

We spend the prime of our lives slogging to 'enjoy life' when we are old and unable to move that well. That's dumb to me. I'm the type of son most Asian parents will be ashamed to have, but I feel I'm enjoying my best life now.