winner or loser?

Recently I talked to a friend who works in Shanghai, let’s just call him JW.



Fact: I don’t like some shit stuff he did in the pass to my girl, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like him, I just not like the things he did and for real, if that’s what he need to do to survive, I have no problem with that.

 Somehow we start talking again in MSN, I knew from a conversation with SW recently that JW is on the way to the “dark side” and really need some positive energy to shake him up. In MSN, JW start to complaint about the coldness of this world and how he is sorry for what he did and he try hard to change it but its just too late, blah blah and blah.


One thing that he said really make me think, he told me his father is not in a good health now and he is worry, then I ask him why cant he relocate back to Taipei since he is just alone in Shanghai and I don’t see any good reason for him to stay there especially his dad is sick, he told me that he doesn’t want to go back, first of all the money he got there is good and he feels if he do go back to Taipei, he will be a loser.


Here is the thing! Why people think if you ever go aboard to study (because that’s what he did, he went to UK for a degree) and if you didn’t stay for some reason and you go back to Taipei, you are a loser, WHY?


I remember a presentation from a manager of Emirate airline, she told me in Dubai, one of the craziest and busiest and most fast growing city in the world now, there are so many young people/ artists go back there to give back and find their roots again, they go aboard to try to bring the knowledge from bigger country/world to their home country to make it better, this is such a beautiful thing! aint that the first reason why people go aboard to study? Go different country to see different things and bring back the “differents” to make theirs better? For personal or not personal.


But JW think go back to Taipei is a sign of loser. Be honest, if you just tell me the pay is good and you are doing for your own future, its ok for me, everyone works for paper, money cant buy everything but money can make lots people feel secure, no doubt about it. But you think you are a loser? for me, that is just not right, and not just JW think in this way, I know many people they feel this way, WHY?


Let’s say you come all the way to NYC to study and by law, after school (not the language one) you can legally to work here for a year, and if luckily you find one job, the company can sponsor you to stay as long as you want. Why not stay? The pay is better then Taiwan, and you live in the most fabulous city in the world (forgive me; I love this place too much!) but what if you don’t get an offer? and what if you do get an offer but you don’t like living here? Not everyone can live in another city easily just like that, hell no! I know I can’t! I just got lucky I married to a New Yorker and I fit in the life style here right away and perfectly. So do I want to move back to Taipei? Not really, but if there’s a good offer and we can live comfortable there as here, I will do it! I love my country as same as NYC, it just mix race marriage, there is so many things you have to make a choice, and for this moment of my life, we live in NYC.


And is that makes me a “winner” by living here and didn’t go back? Hell no!


Living here in NYC is REALLY hard, the living expense is high, same as all the big cities, its $5 a day just to go to work by subway, and don’t let me get to the rent part! Its average $1000 a month for a shoebox size studio, TRUST ME! It’s very hard to live here by money wise!


So if it’s so hard, why I stay here? Well, just google it! Google why people like New York and that will be the reasons why I like New York. Plus my love is so call the typical New Yorker (what’s that mean? I don’t know! haha)


But at the same time, google why people HATE New York, I believe there will be a lot pages show up too.


So, winner or loser? It’s not base on where you live, its base on what you do to your life and if your dad is sick and that’s not a good reason for you to go home for, hmm…. You to judge!