'To do' list

I call it 'The Over-achiever's Malaise'.

You know, how one person decides to do a master's degree in something complicated like financial engineering (what does that mean, anyway? Cooking the books?) and then you realise another person is applying to law school in the States and meanwhile someone else you know has packed their bags to study at Harvard Business School. At least two people around you speak more than two languages. And when you ask them what they want for their future, they have it all mapped out: they will become rich, marry at { } years old, have { } children, buy a house (they probably have a good idea of how many square feet it will be and where their furniture will come from) in { } and retire at { }. They will do { } to repay their debt to society and so forth and so on.

You can only marvel at their determination to keep on achieving things.

As for myself, I am staring down at a list of things to do today:

1. Pick up laundry (been there for four days now)
2. Buy more Panadol
3. Send cheques
4. Book veggie meal for flight

You get the picture. I'm a typical under-achiever. I'm happy that I managed to learn two languages by fluke, that I got out of university without screwing up too badly, and that I earn my keep at a decent level. If you ask me what I want to achieve in the future, I don't know if I'll be able to give a clear-cut answer. Maybe I should add that to my list:

5. Work out plans for future.