Achieving Your Wants

A while ago, I overheard a boy having a conversation with his father on the train. The boy was playing with his Nintendo DS and asked his father if he could buy a new game. His father responded "No. I bought you this game a week ago. If I buy you another game, you're not going to appreciate it anymore." I agree with what the father said. Keeping your kid from getting what they want will teach them to be wiser with their money as they grow older. It did for me at least.

When I was a kid, I always thought that I didn't have as much as my other friends. My toys were the ones my older brother lost interest in, my clothes were the ones he couldn't fit anymore, and my computers were the ones that weren't fast enough for him.

I never asked for much as a kid. Nor do I ask for much now.

I remember when my birthday rolled around, one of my older cousins would take me to Toys R Us or Best Buy and demanded me to pick out something. I really had no interest in anything but he told me I'm not leaving the store until I pick something out. One year, I picked out this video game with the biggest 12"x10" board controller, where I can draw and play mini-games on the big tube-TV. To connect the TV to the system, you have to line the pins up correctly. As a clueless kid, I just kept trying to jam the plug in the console and the pins inside the plug eventually broke.

The next birthday, I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color from him. I thought it was the coolest thing ever because everyone had GameBoy Pockets. GameBoy Pockets didn't even have color and Gameboy Advanced was not released yet. I was one of the few who had a horizontally-held portable game console. Sonic the Hedgehog was my first game and I got a few more games after that but eventually, Neo Geo stopped releasing games. Now, when I mention Neo Geo Pocket, people don't even know what it is.

My parents, on the other hand, was a whole different story. They were the complete opposite of my cousin. When I was around 9 years old, I went to Queens Center Mall and I spotted a Super Bouncy Charizard Ball. I wanted it! I cried in hopes of getting my parents to buy the $8 rubber ball for me. After what seemed like 10 minutes of crying, they finally gave in and bought it.

Thinking back, I wasn't even crying for the toy. Since I do not ask for much, I simply wanted to test them to see if they would buy the toy for me. I know it's hard for parents to not give their kids what they want because they can't afford to waste money on useless toys, but when I compared myself with my other friends, their gifts on their Birthdays, Christmas, and Chinese New Year were incomparable to mine. The Charizard Ball was the biggest waste of money ever, but after this experiment, I found out if I try hard enough, I'd get what I want. I always wonder how I would feel about them if they didn't get it for me though.

Now that I'm older, they would ask me to choose a restaurant where I'd like to go out to have dinner on my birthdays. Most of the time, I'd respond with, "anything is good" because I think my birthday is not really anything worth celebrating. Plus, midterms usually come around my birthday so I'd rather spend my time studying rather than going out for dinner.

I never feel like I need any presents either because if I want something, I'd do research on it and buy it. I don't wait for it to be my birthday so I can feel good about buying it.

I realized I don't need much spending money except on my life necessities.