Things I wanted as a child and the different alternatives I got instead 04 Dec 07
There were many material things I had wanted as a child, most of which I had wanted my parents or other adults in safe financial situations to purchase for me.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any of them as gifts and instead opted to purchase the alternatives when I got older. It’s probably for the best, anyway — some of the stuff I wanted was lame, expensive, or (now) obsolete.
Digital organizer - It was my belief that my father had promised to get me a digital organizer if I ever got good grades in school. After all, he got my younger brother a nice set of pens when he did well. Lo and behold, in 2nd Grade I placed at the top of my class and had my profile featured in the school courtyard. I didn’t get the digital organizer, as my father always denied ever making such a promise.
Years down the road, I bought a Palm Vx PDA instead, and it had many more features than that old digital organizer would’ve ever dreamed of. Alas, it didn’t come with a sense of achievement, and as a result I grew disillusioned with trying to succeed in school for the sake of my parents. Yeah, I’m blaming that for my poor grades and study habits.
I currently use a Palm Tungsten T5, but I have no idea what to do with it since it’s overpowered.
Electronic dictionary - the immigrant students in British Columbia could all be from different countries, and speak different languages (Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Croatian — you get my point), but they all had one thing in common — they all had an electronic dictionary to help them through school. All of them except for me. These devices were nifty because you can look up the definition of penis and have the computer voice say it out loud while the teacher wonders who was silly enough to utter the name of a male genitalia out loud in class. They also translated words into different languages, in case you wanted to know what fuck was translated into in Chinese.
I know I probably had no such need at all for a Chinese-English dictionary, but that didn’t stop me from envying my classmates. If a psychologist ever wants to know the root of my gadget-whoreness, they can simply delve into my electronic-dictionary-wanting youth.
There was a good lesson in not getting the things I wanted in childhood though. I learned at an early age the difference between wanting something in contrast with actually needing something.
Or perhaps I could’ve simply asked for a $5 toy like all the other kids.
This ClashBang.com article was written by Chris Chu. Tired of privately venting his frustration in vain, Chris decided to share his discontent with the rest of the world.
