giving up a career for a passion

Giving up a career for a passion

by Jasmine Yin

18 September 2006 | TODAY (Singapore)

WHEN it comes to choosing her career, Ms Tan Joo Hymn, 37, adopts a simple - yet unconventional - philosophy.

Happiness is her primary concern, never mind if the choice is not "right" by societal standards.

The professional track record of the president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) is not for the faint-hearted.

In 1998, she gave up her illustrious legal career - she worked for law firms in England, Hong Kong and Singapore for three years - to teach at a pre-school.

Then in another drastic switch, she chose to stay home after she got married and became a mother of one.

She also started volunteering at Aware.

How did a successful lawyer trained at Warwick University get down to the decision to first, take up childhood education, and then, to give it all up to stay at home?

"You have to know what you want. I say this not in terms of what you want for your whole life, but what you want for now or the next few years. There was so much pressure to make the right decision when I was younger, but I gave up," she told Today.

"Many Singaporeans feel pressured and tend to put aside their happiness and personal goals for monetary success. We're so concerned with doing the right thing that we forget what we want, what will make us happy."

Naturally, her parents - who had egged her on to pursue law - were not thrilled with her decision to become a pre-school teacher, she recalled.

"It was easy to quit law in the sense that, I have been through the whole system and knew with every cell in my body that it was not something that I want to do."

It was not a burning desire that prompted her to become an early childhood teacher for five years, Ms Tan said, conceding that she had several other interests to pursue after quitting law.

But she chose this profession because she liked children and felt that pre-school was "the most liberal and progressive segment in education in Singapore", where there is more leeway for creative and individualised learning to take place, unlike the more rigid Ministry of Education syllabi that teachers have to follow at primary and secondary schools.

Her path to social activism was a more instinctive one, thanks to her undergraduate days of debating social issues with professors and nights spent at the kitchen table with college mates from around the world.

"I was exposed to a lot of views; people were not afraid to speak up. The whole British premise of university was where kids go to argue themselves silly, find out what their values are and hopefully become sensible adults!

"That was a time when I really started to question a lot of things and started to read up a lot on feminism."

Her prime interests in law were on women and the family, such as family violence and divorce. Ms Tan had even devoted a major paper on how lesbians were denied custody of their children during a divorce.

It does not make sense to her why it is easier to get married than divorced, especially if there are regulations imposed by various government agencies in Singapore about home ownership that forces "two people who just cannot live together anymore to stay together for economic reasons".

And it is to address such social inadequacies that Aware comes into play.

"I heard about its reputation and decided that I wanted to have a part in what it was doing," said Ms Tan, who joined Aware in 1999.

Looking back, does she have any regrets about leaving the lucrative legal profession?

"If you do what makes you happy, you will have enough money because when you are happy, you think more clearly, you're more passionate about wanting to make whatever you do succeed.

"I had the hang-up at 18 years old to want to plan for the rest of my life. But nobody does something for his or her whole life now. People change jobs, switch from one industry to another."

And if you do not know what you want, Ms Tan proffered: "Most people know what they do not want. So make a list of what you are keen on exploring, then experiment with these options and keep crossing off the options until you arrive at a point when everything just falls into place."

Do you, sometimes, like Ms Tan, toy with the idea of giving up your "rational"

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Follow your passion, discover what makes you truly happy

- Alka Chandiramani- Agnes Meurzec

25 September 2006

Our On The Go column featuring Aware president Tan Joo Hymn last week struck a chord with many readers, who wrote in to share their thoughts. We extract a few here:

"We have so many possessions, be it materialistic or otherwise, that we lose focus on what truly makes us happy. We all have secret wishes and desires that we've buried under the needs of children, family and work - things we've been meaning to do, but haven't gotten around to doing. When we abandon our dreams in the face of a busy life, our life becomes a bit blander. Being passionate about something and having the willpower to carry it forward will not only electrify but enliven our lives as Ms Tan has shown."

"What you want to do can be different from what you should do. Happily doing what you like may not make you live happily.

"I was trained as an engineer and I love engineering. But when I had children, in order to give them a comfortable life, I took up an offer to venture into business. I've earned enough to fulfil my wish, and I think I am happier now than when I was an engineer. To be an engineer was my dream, but so was the goal to provide well for my children. One job makes me happy immediately; the other gives more satisfaction in the long run. It is good to explore the various options in life - to search and review our priorities." - Tan

"I was deeply moved after reading about your choice of passion over your career. I am a property agent but every morning, I get up without feeling the excitement of a new day, but with the feeling of missing the true meaning and purpose of life.

"I have been a member of Aware, SCWO and Breast Cancer Foundation for years. I feel it is vital to support those associations for women and it is every woman's duty to be involved, supportive and part of it.

"Born and raised in France, I have been living in Singapore for over 15 years. My husband and I separated eight years ago. I want you to know that it is partly because of pro-active associations like yours that I did not hesitate a minute to raise "alone" my little girls here, knowing that they would be respected and heard.