NYAC | 3min Read
Published on May 7, 2026
Shadows of Expectations
Shadows of Expectations
“Beta i, it’s me to start thinking about your future.” Oh that lovely, lovely phrase. To the
teenage mind it’s music to their ears. Just picture those young, lively souls on the verge of
adulthood… An ocean of possibility lies before them: Doctor, Engineer, Failure… Personally, I
recommend the la er.
Parents don’t raise children these days- just their expecta ons. I remember when I told Mum
and Dad what I wanted to be in the future.
“JOURNALIST?!” Mummy screamed. “I’ll disown you! I’ll skin you alive! I’ll murder you before
you set foot into the liberal arts!”
“Journalism?” Dad sounded like he had swallowed a lemon. “I don’t mean to be offensive, but
why can’t you do that as a… well… side thing?”
Oh the horror! Oh the indignity! Mom and Dad’s precious daughter has gone over to the dark
side.
What next? She’ll say she wants to study (gulp) philosophy?
And you wonder why your life feels like crap. The cherry on the top is that, as a child, you are
always told that no ma er what, your parents will support you. Of course Beta, aim for the
stars! And then when you declare a major in Anglo-Saxon Studies, the whole world flips upside
down.
Reputa on? Gone
That money you were going to inherit from your great aunt? Gone.
Not even a family dinner on Sundays? Nope.
But then seriously, stop lying to us. Please, let’s have lucid communica on here. Give us a
concrete list.
“Beta, I want you to study quantum physics, get a PhD in thermodynamics, become Prime
Minister of India, and win the Nobel Prize.”
Okay Mummy. I’ll do it Mummy. Let me just pack my Art History books and dump them in that
sewer outside. Fine – let’s say that you do have a point. Will I make money being an
archeologist? Probably not. But is working late nights in some dingy lab, squin ng away at a
non-existent par cle any be er? Probably not.
Maybe it’s best if we just don’t get educated. Let’s tell our children to drop out of school! Run
free like monkeys on the savannah! No need to learn about the deadliest wars in the world,
or mass genocides, or even God for that ma er (because isn’t religion an art?)
I just don’t get it.Oh Elina – maybe it’s because you work in the “liberal arts”.
Then tell me, Madam Doctor. Educate me, Mr. Engineer: why do you scorn the arts when you
find joy in dance, sing to your dead, and paint to capture memory? Why do you scorn the arts,
when art is where you find solace? Why do you scorn the arts, if you are reading it at this very
moment?
At this point, I think it’s best if we just quit school. Solves all our problems. Join the movement!
No-o school! No-o school!
Save our society!
Discard the educa on system!
Build a fair and equal world, where the sciences and the arts are on an even foo ng- because
you won’t learn about either of them!
***
“Beta, it’s me to start thinking about your future.”
Mummy – I figured it out. I want to become a baboon.
