A lot of us aspire to work in what we consider “successful” jobs however, life has a way of throwing curveballs at us, having us make do with what we have at hand in life.
A young man had garnered traction online for his occupation as a sanitation worker in Alam Flora despite being only 20 years old.
At 20, most of us would be on the way to further our studies however, the young man, Wan Othman, decided to help support his family and put his education aside.
“Behind all this hard work, is a son who had to be strong to fill in his father’s shoes just so I can see my siblings grow up in a loving family.
“Without my mother, I would not be as strong as I am today,“ Wan said in his TikTok video.
According to a report by Wau Post, Wan, who has three siblings, has been working in this line for two years, and confidently says that he is happy with his job, despite being stigmatised as something ‘lowly’.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of working here”, he said.
The young man has also worked other jobs, after having dropped out of secondary school at 14 years old, starting out as a waiter then working with his father as a tow truck driver before his current job.
Besides Wan, his older sister also put a stop to her education prospects after dropping out at 16 to contribute financially to her family.
“We have two younger siblings, and we want them to have better education and opportunities. Hence, we decided to drop out and give them the opportunity”, he mentioned.
At the end of the day, Wan hopes that others seeing his daily life on TikTok will not feel ashamed of their job.
As we move with the times, our society should shift the dialogue of what is considered a “good” job and work to remove the stigmatisation and criticism of certain industries and professions.
