I was talking to a friend the other day about life. She said something so interesting that I've been thinking about it for a couple of days now. The comment was that our Korean Christian parents' generation pushed us into becoming doctors and lawyers (or enter any other professional title that makes 6 figures), but didn't necessarily know what kind of lifestyle they were pushing us to embrace. In their minds, the salary, prestige, and the notion of making a difference to others was the aim. Getting straight As was the expectation in high school, so that you can go to a good college, so that you can go to a good law/med school (etc.), so that you can make lots of money, so that you can settle nicely and be comfortable.

But sometimes there's such a huge class difference once you make a ton of money. At times, it can clash with your own parents. They might still expect you to go to church regularly, get married and have 2.5 kids by age 30, cook every night, clean your newly bought house by yourself, and be available during the holidays. There are certain social and economic changes one might go through when entering a higher socio-economic class. You work long hours. You hire people to do things for you. You don't have time to have kids, or even get married. You can't always get to church on a Sunday morning. You might have to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas. You may enjoy fine dining instead of sub-par Japanese restaurants like your parents. You may become a little more shee-shee-fu-fu. But is this a good thing?

One of the effects of becoming shee-shee-fu-fu is that your standards are so high for certain things that you can't help but look down at other people. I see this in my own life sometimes. For example, I am appalled when people don't grate their own parmesan cheese. I grew up with American single sliced cheese (and I still love that, btw). I ate it with everything. I thought it was the ultimate CHEESE. But then I discovered other cheeses as I became more shee-shee-fu-fu. I went wine-tasting. I took cooking classes on how to eat and store different kinds of cheeses. I'm at a point now where I stick my nose up in the air at the powdery grated cheese stuff you buy in a container to sprinkle over pasta. I need to at least grate my own parmesan cheese. You might think this is a silly example, but it's nevertheless an example of changing my ways as a result of entering into a different class.

I don't know what I think about all this. I know that money is the root of all kinds of evil. I know this to be true. And perhaps that is the temptation I must overcome every day. To not give in to the "all kinds of evil" that wealth opens up. Perhaps some of you know what I'm talking about, and know it better than I do. And perhaps some of you don't know what I'm talking about, but want to know. In any case, I'm grateful that my parents didn't push me to pursue a profession that makes a lot of money. Perhaps they knew I wasn't smart enough anyway. haha. j/k. Maybe it's because I don't know yet the meaning of being "settled," but I don't mind struggling month to month in the Bay Area. And it's not even struggling in the sense of making ends meet. It's struggling to save, really, when it comes down to it.

Do I want to be rich? Do I want to be poor? I wish I could stay a happy medium.