Not a second of melancholy

Every AED lesson is always very inspiring. Here is a quote that caught my eyes today.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
William Arthur Ward

Increasingly, I am drawn nearer to the whole idea of teaching. But if you were to ask me, if teaching is a profession or a vocation, I would say that it is both. Not just a vocation alone. Day in day out, I think of my students all too often.

Jennifer had a bad start for today. She actually screamed at her HOD.. “Shit man..” When I was listening to her, I understood perfectly why she did that. The HOD was over-demanding to ask her to be culpable for something she could not even recall. Honestly, out of the 1000 drawings you have marked, will you even remember who drew a durian? Up till now, the HOD is still pressing her for the CA marks. So many missed calls and SMSes in a day. If I were Jennifer, I would have.. Well, tensions with HOD is really inevitable, but one smart advice, is to win his/her heart. I still have to work hard in this ministry.

Before I end off this entry, I want to write about my Best Friends in NIE canteen. They are the Malay couple and the Auntie fruitsellers. Over the past two years, I have established very good relations with them, maximizing my sanguine temperament. Kai Ming joked before that the Malay couple might have eaten too much of their own sardine and hotdog rolls, and not to forget the samosas. The Malay auntie seems too lazy to move even a bit. Nonetheless, I love them and they love me a lot too. It’s not about them charging me cheaper than others, giving me more food, or always calling me ‘sayang’, ‘pretty’, it is that they are very genuine to me. Though I don’t have much of chance to chit chat with them often, it is good enough to help them buy drinks when they need to, to find out how they are, I remember the Malay uncle used to tell me those NTU ghost stories which I had shared with my classmates to freak each other out. Sometimes I wish I can mould them into a pair of sculptures like those by Duane Hansen, to freeze them in a moment of time, to capture their facial expressions in the most intimate way. For the Auntie fruitsellers, they are really nice people. There was a time when I was helping her to translate what she wanted to convey to some Indian students. Well, I hope I did a good job though. Above all, I know one thing, is that, my smiles never fail to cheer up their days.

It is these little bits of life that makes my days joyous and being celebrative, I know such joy emanates from within and peace comes from above. So good that we do not even have to know each others’ names to love one another. Because I still know I am small when I am near the oceans, and that one door opens when the other closes, I hope I can continue to dance in this stage of life.