The Divine Comedy

 

As children, we were always brought up to believe in fairy tales; each story has a beginning and a happy ending ever after. It's quite similar to university; we believe we will all fine spectacular jobs with amazing bosses who will appreciate us and give us high paying jobs. We rarely consider unemployment rates, nepotism, common work culture and conditions, and desperately cling to our merry beliefs. We ignore obvious facts such as the fact that a moderate percentage will not find a job. A huge percentage will not find a perfect job now or ever. 

It's fairytales like these that cause us to have high expectations and high ambitions. It's quite intriguing how, we, as children, are constantly told to try and get anything we desire in life but are told to be realistic the more we grow older. Our minds always want what we cannot have the most. Fairytales are a necessary evil that we must endure because a world without fairytales is a world without aspiration. 

I vividly remember my early years as a university student; I was quite naive, too nice, and oblivious to the way the world works. I always wondered why do certain guys get amazing girlfriends. Why can't I ever get a girlfriend? Why can't people see me for what I really am? How cool my way of thought and my principles? That question later answered itself after I made a bet with my ex housemates; Two lovely bodybuilders who always found zero difficulty with women. The bet revolved around my naivety and their real world grit. Basically, I was to go with them and have a complete "makeover", and that people would start to notice me more often and respect me. I gladly took the bet thinking that my soon to be superficial traits wouldn't sway people's opinions and that would just be quite absurd.

The bet worked and I was proven wrong... Till this day, I'm extremely grateful for the eye opening experience as I learned that people appreciate novelty more than substance. I became "the cool kid". I started dating and was even lucky enough to date Two models (one was actually the cover girl for Vogue China, but I ended up ghosting her after the First date). As I said earlier, everyone wants to live in a fairytale. Everyone wants novelty in the form of a snowhite or prince charming. No one ever realizes that novelty fades away after a few months. No one realizes that compatibility is the most important factor in all forms of relationships. 

Three years later and my happily ever after in Malaysia as an international student in Malaysia didn't end so happily for I had graduated and couldn't find suitable opportunities, so I had to return to my home, Baghdad. I was devastated at First; leaving my life of four years behind, the scents, the smells, the colors, the people, and the memories wasn't easy. A few months went by and I accumulated quite well. I actually look back now, and I'm grateful for that experience. It just was not meant to be. I just have to find my happily ever after somewhere else.

I always expected to find an amazing job incredibly quickly which brings me to my next point: Unemployment rates.

Those pesky little percentages are quite annoying as they control your opportunity of finding a job conveniently. In my lovely Iraq, it's over 30% and not that small a number. Put into consideration certain cultural elements such as nepotism where everyone's cousin or friend pretty much can secure you an opportunity somewhere and you end up applying to over 300 opportunities with no end in sight. It's been 5 months, and I'm doing an amazing job guarding my mom's basement from any hostiles... I'm starting to think I'm more suited as a security guard than a business person...

As I said, fairytales are a necessary evil... For what's worth living for if we can't aspire to achieve our own fairytale? Let's just abandon novelty aside and aspire for something better...Oh, wait a minute... Isn't that the same thing?

And that, my dearest, is the divine comedy. Swinging from branch to branch and never knowing if you've made the right choice... That's when we often discover that fairytales don't exist. Life is just a bunch of amazing experiences and other horrible experiences. Shrek is probably old now and is on welfare...I wish Disney can provide insight on that?