Sunny days & Starry nights ... Friday, May 30, 2008
Sweet to da max
Perhaps this is the sense of solace teachers feel after pulling their hair countless times and screaming their voices hoarse at students...
...this little girl from my group, Yi Ling, actually wrote me a letter using a cute strawberry shortcake letter pad and sent it through SNAIL MAIL!
How Sweet Is That!
What really warms my heart is the words coming from her,
and i can really see that my efforts in nagging at them, going the extra mile to make sure they are fine and being extra strict did not go to waste.
Here's an extract from the letter:
Here are the top 10 things that i appreciate about uou:
(1) You helped me and everyone with the things that we do not know how to do.
(2)You gave us a lot of encouragement.
(3)You cared for us.
(4) You did not give up on us.
(5)You are jovial and not strict.
(6)You taught us how to be faster and to care for others.
(7)You understood us.
(8)You appreciated us.
(9) You did not demand anything in return after all the trouble we've caused.
(10)You are the BEST GF ever!
Ps, Someone like you can only be met once in a lfietime.
Truthfully, every single word that this 10-year old wrote touched my heart dearly. Although she wasn't the most well-behaved, although she refused to take her flu medicine, although she did argue with me and call bobby fat... she isn't such a lil'terror after all. At least now i know, somebody understood when i screamed" You guys gotta help one another!", " teamwork!", "rule #102: there's always a time for play , and a time for work" etc etc .
if you were to ask me,
do i miss the chaotic days with the kids?
i'd say...
yes. i really do ;)
Alright, the funny thing about this letter is that, it had to be sent by the postman right to my doorstep! Why? My dear Yi Ling has forgotten to paste a stamp on her letter! whahaha... cute isn't it? For her absent-mindedness (yes she's very absent minded, having forgotten to take her medicine for 2-3 meals & leaving belongings behind ), i had to pay $1.25 to receive the mail!
Perhaps that's the price you have to pay.
but it's all worth it.
As in the starfish story, it is near impossible to reach out to every single entity But what's most important is , " You made a difference to this one"
Part II
oh no i think i really am missing my favourite kid #1, shawn ang. He's a pretty peculiar kid, a poor thing i would say, who nobody has taught what's wrong and right. Reason being, he seemed shocked, or somewhat baffled, when i told him that winning is not everything. He's thinking is that " if we are not going to win already, what's the point of competing?" yes, and he feels pretty strongly about that. when we were losing the telematch, he exclaimed " S3 sucks", and this elicited disapproval and ostracism from his peers. However, this boy did not see anything wrong with what he said. Not when i told him, "shawn, how would you feel if your friend said the same to you?"
.
his immediate reply was
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" then i will accept that i'm a sore loser."
yes, i was pretty taken aback by his response. Then i went on to explain that really, winning is not what we are after. It's the spirit and attitude you bring to the competition that we are looking for. As long as you fight the battle with the"never give up" attitude and complete what you have started, there's already a reason to cheer. You might be the only one left in the race, but you are already a winner in our eyes- the eyes of your fellow group members.When i told him that, he seemed ...dumbfounded.
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I felt kinda sad that no one actually told the kid that and he had actually been believing in something so wrong.
.
Nonetheless, i'm glad that he had understood my message. Another kid, Hannathon, added on " what's most important is that you have fun." Yes, how apt. You are not playing to win but playing to have fun, no? I hope that lil'shawn will keep the lesson in mind and not be confused anymore.
.
And something i observed about this kid is how he's longing for somebody who understands him. He doesn't join his peers most of the time but he's always very keen to have a chat or game with me. When i mentioned that after the camp, he will be able to go home and enjoy what he could not have during the camp, he told me, perhaps with a tinge of indignance,
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" i'm not going home. I've to go to the ymca student care upstairs ."
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Silence. & i felt pity.
.
what a sweet and misunderstood boy.
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from what he told me, he has a younger sister who's at the baby sitter's. So he's a big brother, i thought. All the more, he would be assumed to be the more mature child and be given less allowance for mistakes. Perhaps that why during the camp, i gave him a little more attention.
.
Then. an hour or two before camp breaks, the girls were all coming up to me, eager for my contact details. But lil'shawn was at a loss.
..
I knew he wanted to approach me, but he did not know how.
..
At last ,he found some power within & handed me his small blue note book. I opened it and found only 2 names. The other's bore a page of details.
..
Something i cannot ignore...
.
i can still remember the look in lil'shawn's eyes when he walked away with his baggage. ...
.
When announcment was made that all kids were free to go, some of my charges went off eargerly to their parents, the others walked off without much regrets.
.
However, when i was done saying goodbye and turned into the foyer, lil'shawn was only a few steps away from where he started. Burdened with his duffel & sleeping bag , this little kid turned & looked at me, raised his chubby hand, and gave me a little wave.
,
he was waiting to say goodbye...
,
& i waved back.
.
i will always remember the way he looked at me,
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that tinge of relunctance which were well hidden in his eyes...
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& his inability in expressing them.
& Lazy afternoons ...
3:48 AM :D
Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
