Squid Game: Lessons for life
This show displays the abuse and vulnerability that people face due to financial issues. Even though this show is completely fictional, it does give one a moment to reflect on how to avoid or proceed in a crisis situation.
So what is the show really about?
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Directed by Hwang Dong-hynk, this show is how for approximately 13 years 456 different people each year, who have been drowning in debt and in desperate need to pay their loans, agree to participate in 6 children's games, with the winner (survivor) winning the cash price.
What does Squid Game teach us?
Saving goes a long way
Once you start growing up you need to save, may it be saving money or getting insurance, saving is something a responsible adult must follow.
Gi-hun, the leading character in the show is, divorced, filled with debt, and relies on his mother, unable even to treat his daughter for her birthday. Being a part of the majority that decides to leave the game the first time around when realizing what “eliminated” really meant, Gi-hun returns as he needed to collect money for his mother's treatment.
This is where the importance of saving and insurance comes in. Saving and maintaining insurance requires discipline. Put aside money when your salary comes in, forego unnecessary spending, and use it for insurance payments or into your savings. Doing this will ultimately become a habit, making it a permanent part of your life, a good part of your life.
Nourish the connections you make
Filtering people in your life becomes a part of you, once you become an adult. It is, however, important to maintain the relationships you do have or the ones that may potentially blossom, into proper functioning ones.
As it happens most of the time, the people that matter to you, don’t necessarily think of you the same and vise versa. There are also moments when even though building a relationship does not seem necessary to you, it means the world for another. The friendship between Sae-byeok and Ji-young was a bit like that.
These two characters had disheartening and saddening pasts, which made Sae-byeok more hardened towards people and the world, while Ji-Yeong yeared for something that she hadn’t.
During the show, these two girls start realizing how important friendship is and how they do need someone to lean on. They leave us with the lesson on valuing relationships. Not taking the time to nourish and cultivate our relationships, or taking the time to get to know someone, would only leave us lonely and regretful.
Too good to be true? It probably is
Remember those texts where if you provide your details you would win a large sum of money or a very expensive gift? This show is a bit like that, and well, most of us know how that ended don’t we? Believing and entertaining these would leave you scammed.
Not trying to be negative, but the fact is that earning money and success has no shortcuts. You earning success and money through the fast way would only result in you losing it in the same way, or worse, you would have to pay a very hefty price in the long run.
Be kind and stay blessed
Being kind costs nothing. No matter how dark the tone in this movie is, kindness is portrayed throughout, by the characters. By creating a bond, Gi-hun ensures that everyone works together to protect each other. Even though the old man tried to convince Gi-hun that humans are all about greed and selfishness, he did not get persuaded.
Gi-hun bases his decisions on how his friends would benefit and how it would help them, even after the game is over, he takes care of Sae-byeok's younger brother and Sang-woo’s family.
By being kind and compassionate helps all in the long run, no matter what obstacles you could face during it, in the end, kindness always looks back on you.
Gambling and Stock futures are risks
According to the show, Gi-hung and Sang-woo are childhood friends, who did everything together but ended up taking two different routes during adulthood. One grew up to be successful, whereas the other wound up being a failure.
They both end up, however, in the same place, in the same game to win money to find the solutions for all the poor choices they made, one by gambling and the other by getting involved in stock futures. With everything getting harder and harder, the both of them decide to take the easier path, taking the gamble, even if it is to end in death.
Right now, there are many opportunities like this, easy schemes to earn money. However, these usually have a catch to them, which in turn does more harm than good. So be wise. It may take some time to be successful if you are doing it the hard way, ‘but what doesn’t come easy, does end fast’.
Conclusion
In the end, Gi-hung wins the entire game and wins the prize money. Even though Gi-hung now has money, he does not see a point in it. He lost his mother, his friends, his daughter is gone and he is haunted by nightmares.
So it does not really seem worth it, does it? All that pain and agony, for what?
This show clearly depicts the race and the kind of society that humans live in, for one thing only: to make money. We take shortcuts, we take easy routes, we gamble, we invest, we put in our time and effort to make money that we do not even realize how much time has passed by us and how much we’ve missed, how much family and friends have been taken for granted, how much has been lost.
So take your time, prioritize what really is important, and everything would fall into place, at the right moment.
