~5 lessons to make you think about the way we treat people~~ from email, my comments in pink

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.


During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance, and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..

It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.

Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

This is quite relevant to what i had been facing now. the geeky boy who is very ahead of time always wants me to give him remedial when he is already safe and guaranteed an A1, yet, he still have to come and find me everytime aft sch.. at 1st it's ok, but i realised he's just too reliant on the teacher.

then i start to realise that im shortchanging him, i'm being quite rude to him, cos i ran out of patience. never did i really stop to think that he appreciates whatever i've been doing for him, not like some other students who takes u for granted.

and maybe he's just waiting to save up enough to buy a bottle of apple tea for me?

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

As what happened yday, i felt that the stone was too big to be moved. and it keeps getting stucked there, hindering my progress.. maybe i should just lift it up, and continue along the path, instead of sitting down there crying and said that the stone is too big to be moved, when i have never tried to move it in the 1st place.

MAybe when i had it removed, i might get a bag of gold?

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

as what i was saying yday, i keep talking about not being able to get out of this situation, cos i felt that i wll die right away if i attempted, the actual fact is that i shd attempt to get out of it so that i can benefit everyone else. even if it gets me killed, at least i can say that i've done my best?

but actually, i felt like i'm wounded yday.. cos i did try really really hard to do my best and get assurance to proceed, yet, i still do not see it materialise, maybe that's why i'm almost dying?

Anyway, i would like to thank my ah boy for counselling me, being my personal psychiatrist when i feel down and him for taking his time off to tend to me.. thanks a lot dearie..

and i would like to thank all of u who have commented or offered ur vote of confidence, i'll do my best so as not to disappoint u all.. love ya all too!!

~~ yun updates ~~

yesterday was one of the worst days of my life.. many things didn't go well, didn't go on up to my expectations..

1. i had things to print early in the morning before lessons started but yet my sis sounded so damn kiam pa by saying why im so selfish that i want to go to sch 1st when the order is always im in the middle. damn angry with her i left home early to take a cab to sch. i hate it when every morning, 1st thing she say to me is something that'll ruin my mood. telling me this and that i didn't do, telling me that i drive really horribly, telling me that i shdn't wear this outfit, telling me that i'm slow, every little thing that she feels im wrong.
2. then in sch, the stupid photostating machine was so bloody slow and spoilt it took a super long time to print. and i hate it to have no time to rest b4 lessons.
3. i feel so sad that i did not get notification to sign the contract with MOE whereas my colleague is going to sign it this Sat
4. i didn't know whether it's becos i got affect by this that i had super bad mood for all my lessons. i screamed, shouted, scolded them. but cos they were noisy, not paying attention, all over the place. i was so damn irritated by all of them. the saving grace was that one of my normal tech class, the last period, i had their lesson.. was teaching them and almost everyone knows how to do. they were very nice kids, nice to me, and wanted so much to learn, cooperated so much with me.
5. after sch, i realised that a deadline is near. but the thing i'm supposed to do is that i dun like, and dunno how to do. i think it's not necessary but i had to do it.
6. all this stress in school put me in such an imbalance, that i didn't know that that is called "stress" until when i went for facial.
7. facial was agonisingly painful. but i was quite able to withstand the pain. i need to get well (my face) but i dunno why it's beyond my control. but there was 1 point she asked me what time i sleep and wake up and she told me that's no enough, my skin needs time to rest, recover. but i can't, i had to do work. i had to mark papers, i had to cream my face, i had to do this do that. i felt so stressed, i started crying.. the pain from the facial is the smokescreen for my tears.. but in the end, i couldn't stop tearing, even aft i left the beauty salon. i sat by the road in the dim and dark bus stop, but my tears keep coming.
8. i thought of my life, i thought of job, i thought of how much i've acheived so far, and how much i can't acheive even if i try real hard. i thought of going away to some place alone to think about things, to escape from this crazy world and crazy people. i feel quite psychotic that i think at 1 point in time i needed a psychiatrist.
9. and when i went back home, my mum was mumbling about how we dun help her do housework and this and that.. i really wanted to help, but i'm so stressed up, i have things to do, i'm v tired.. i understand she's also v tired when she return home, she needs to cook for us, she needs to wash the clothes and do other household chores. but if she really needs me to help, i'm sorry to say i can only help if i quit this job (which im really considering) it's really driving me crazy! and it's not that we need the money she's earning now, why can't she just stay at home to be the housewife? at least it takes off some stress from my household.
10. so i was crying and crying when i fed the rabbits, i was crying and crying when i sat on the toilet bowl, i was crying and crying when i was washing my face, i was crying and crying when i bathed. finally i stopped crying at bath. i feel so psychotic. am i going crazy??

In conclusion, i feel that im going crazy, i feel that the world is unfair and it's just my opinion, dun get affected. haha.. today im ok, with a big headache cos i slept late last nite and an undying desire to fall sick since monday. and why am i still so strong?? wish me luck to get sick. gimme a break..

~bday Updates~

today i'm going to show u wat i got for my bday so that i can thank those who contributed over here. :)

1st one to gimme my bday present 1 wk b4 my bday is my dearie.. it's a pair of indian-style earrings. haha.. i think he is going against his gut feeling.. but it's really quite pretty eh?
Subsequently, i have my mentor, mrs ng to gimme another pair of shiny earrings on my bday itself! hee.. i haf got many many pairs of earrings now! by the way mrs ng has a really cute son. if she gives me her son, better still! haha..

~ more happy and sad things~~~ fall down~~~

one thing that happened to me today was the most tui xue thing! i fell down at the stairs leading to the exit from the cinema at cineleisure at orchard!!! sprained my right feet and scraped my left knee.. like a primary school kid.. haiz.. but the most worrying thing that crossed my mind when i fell was not my feet or my image, but the laptop i'm carrying.. haha.. silly hor?

before that, i left school at 2 pm(1st time leave sch so early since 2006 started) for lunch and movie with my colleague. we went cineleisure to get tics for this show called "Transamerica" which is about a transexual finding back his/her son etc etc.. it's R21 rated by the way.

went to Yaki Yuki for steamboat and teppenyaki and ice cream teppenyaki buffet lunch. sneaked past the cashier with student passes of myself. hee.. the 2 of us used my ez link and nus matric card to get 2 bucks off the bill for each of us. the steamboat and teppenyaki is only normal, but the ice cream is yummy!! maybe cos we "fried" the ice cream on our own, so more flavour and felt more tasty when we were eating it. we tried 11 flavours of ice cream!! breaking the record of my other colleague with only a record of 9! haha.. yummy!!

in case u dunno, yun LOVES ice creams!!in fact im crazy over ice creams of any sort.. gelato, sundae, sorbet, ice cream, chocolate, mocha, green tea, rocher, raspberry ripples, phish food, chunky monkey (monkey in the bush??).. LOL.. and i get cravings at least once a week.. hee.. but fattening hor? intended to got for a swim tml morning but look at my 2 legs!! damn, hope i dun grow fat!!

prior to this yday was my bday, if u dun rem.. my students, all knew, due to the efficiency of the rumor -mongers.. i received little bday card from my geeky student(read below) and he bought me a packet of chrysanthemum tea again.. *shakes head* also, my colleague(Art teacher) drew me a pic of 4 "me- to - you bear" on a canvas.. so cute!! they're suppose to represent the clique of the 4 of them in the staffroom that sits around me and im the most close with.. take a photo to show u all one of these days. my other teacher who was sort of my supervisor previously also bought me a pair of earrings.. similar to the pair dear bought me 1 wk ago for my bday present. but hers is more shiny, very-her taste.. i love all my gifts!

today, i received a small box of chocolate from a student as well.. aiyoh, so paiseh, next time dun tell anyone my bday. and then this other rich girl (got a long story abt her, must say next time) she gave me a present as well, unwrapping it, i found a set of 5 miniature lancome perfumes!! gasps.. i can't even afford a decent bottle of perfume on my own and she gave me 5 miniature ones!! so i said, next time dun tell anyone my bday.

then i went for dinner with dear at the ulu country manna at s'goon gardens, guess who i saw? 1 of my netball girls with her mum!! super paiseh, cos she was sitting diagonally across from me.. *blush* to think that such a pathetic no-customer place can meet my students!! so we quickly ate and left the place. and as usual, i get my sweet secrets cake from dear and it was wonderful as well! who dun love anything chocolate and moousy and sweet and cool??

and the BIGGEST news of all is, despite all the bad reports and bad feedbacks, i'm finally getting into NIE! dun worry, i promise to improve and not allow myself to make anymore mistakes again!which means that i can go in with all my NUS guy frens and KX!! hee.. so exciting.. yup, so wish me luck.. but i know im gonna miss all my colleagues and students.. :)

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