I graduated from undergraduate in 2011. If someone has an annual salary of ten million, no one around me has achieved it so far. If someone has a net worth of ten million, that's easy, just because of the rising real estate prices. My family is very poor, living in a remote mountainous area. For example, when I was studying at your prestigious school, I once saw a table in Yannan Garden where people finished their meal without cleaning up the plates. There was a plate of leftover ribs or chicken that I noticed and went over to eat when no one was paying attention, and then I took the plate. Because of poverty, I worked hard during my studies, doing various part-time jobs such as giving speeches, tutoring, teaching in coaching classes, and saving up tutoring books, as long as I could make money. Of course, my grades were average, I just managed to graduate, but I managed to save over 300,000 yuan through part-time jobs. I never planned to pursue a master's degree or go abroad, I just wanted to work and make money as soon as possible. After graduating, I joined an ordinary state-owned enterprise. In the first year of work, with my salary, I managed to save up 500,000 yuan. At that time, I was already thinking about buying a house, and I bought one near my workplace in Xicheng District. Looking back now, it was difficult to buy a house in Beijing on my own in the first year after graduation. The house in Xicheng District was old and small, 60 square meters, priced at 1.5 million yuan. I borrowed some money and paid a down payment of 600,000 yuan. At the end of the year, I received my year-end bonus and realized that I had been too conservative. I regretted not buying a bigger house. So, I continued to work hard and save money. In 2015, with my salary and a consumer loan, I bought a newly built school district house in Xicheng District, 140 square meters. The next year, the housing prices doubled in almost a year, and I started to regret why I didn't use more leverage to buy two 140-square-meter houses. Now I own two houses, one big and one small, totaling about 200 square meters, with a total value of over 30 million yuan, and the loans are almost paid off. After more than ten years of work, I bought old-age insurance for my parents, the kind where you pay a few thousand yuan and receive the minimum retirement pension. Although they only receive a little over 1,000 yuan per month, they feel satisfied because they have retirement benefits. I also bought medical insurance for them. Recently, my father came to Beijing for surgery and spent over 100,000 yuan. Fortunately, the commercial insurance covered all expenses beyond 10,000 yuan, so they no longer have to worry about not having enough money for medical treatment. As someone from a poor rural background, I changed my fate thanks to the times and real estate. Although I can't be considered wealthy, I am already satisfied. My parents are always proud in the village. When people ask where their child is, they proudly say "Peking University, XX company, Beijing, a house in Beijing," and now they have a grandchild, and their faces are filled with pride. Thanks to the times, thanks to Peking University, thanks to the real estate boom.
I graduated from Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in 2021. Due to depression, I had already delayed my undergraduate studies for two years, and after graduation, I stayed at home for another year without doing anything. Last year, I tried to pick myself up and took the postgraduate entrance exam for my major, but I didn't pass the interview. Now, if I try to find a job, I can probably only find something at the level of a vocational college. Although I know that I am just an ordinary person who happened to score high on the college entrance exam and entered a high-scoring major at Tsinghua, I still can't accept that I have become a laughingstock in the eyes of my relatives and friends. I feel like my life has completely failed, and there is no hope for the future. Yesterday was my 25th birthday, and my parents still prepared a table of food for me and talked about what they were doing at 25. They had me at 25 and took on various family burdens. But when I heard these things, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I hated myself for not achieving anything at 25, for still making my parents worry about my future. Thinking about these things makes tears uncontrollably flow, but I don't know what to do... I feel like the biggest disappointment in my life is my parents. I not only failed to repay their nurturing, but also caused them great psychological pressure and criticism from relatives.
For a while, I often searched for the resumes of my undergraduate and high school classmates on LinkedIn, and I also peeked at their social media posts. Some of them are already pursuing PhDs at top foreign universities, some have entered prestigious companies with high salaries, and some have joined big companies in Silicon Valley. Most of the others have received offers from top banks, consulting firms, or domestic big companies. But I have nothing, I have become a complete failure. Relatives and friends laugh at me for not being able to find a job even with a degree from Tsinghua, and staying at home for so long has caused some friction with my parents. I don't dare to contact my former classmates and friends anymore, and when I feel down, I feel like the whole world has abandoned me.