"So what are you going to be?" My dad asked me that day.

It was like standard one all over again, when the teacher asked me what my ambition was. Or were. I had to give three. I think I said Lawyer, Teacher and a Veterinarian. A Lawyer because I used to talk back a lot since I was very young and people keep telling me that I could be a lawyer (buruk). A Teacher because I was told that my mother used to be a Teacher (I had no idea what my father was working as at that time) and a Veterinarian because we used to always have cats at home.

I didn't know how to answer his question. Do we really know what we want to be? Or we just do things until we become something or someone? Because ambitions change all the time as people become older and face new experiences.

When I was 8 years old, we were staying in Sarawak back then, I wanted to be a Hotel Manager. That was because my dad always talked about building and running a hotel. I used to sit in his office and draw numerous versions of his hotel which we named "Sham Hotel".

Well, he got to live his dreams. He did build a hotel and ran it for a few years, although it was not entirely his. But isn't that it? The things that you think you want to do, and when you get to do it, you will feel some kind of achievement. There is no such thing as figuring out what is the one thing or job that you want to do, you can do lots of things. My dad was a lot of things, although his sometimes deluded daughters think/thought that he missed a lot of opportunities, but perhaps those were his decisions.

But he was concerned about me, his still unmarried daughter who was about to leave (according to him) a very stable job. So I searched deep within me to give the most honest answer, and gave it to him. Perhaps it did not make sense to him at that time, and to me too, because I am reluctant to share my answer here.

But then again, now I get to do a lot of things that I have always wanted to do. No matter how silly or insignificant they could be to other people.  

Perhaps, deep down, we just want to be happy.