Thank you…

Last week, an ex-student from my Form 5 classes last year contacted me to invite me to a barbecue that they would be having to bid farewell to their friends who will be leaving for further studies – matriculation in Labuan, JPA scholarship and all that and I went….. I must say I was flattered as I was the only one invited (Or maybe the other ex-teachers are not so greedy so they did not show up! LOL!).

It has been a few months since I last saw them. I was there each day when they sat for my subjects in the SPM Examination just to give them a bit of encouragement and moral support…but I could not make it when the results were released due to some family commitments.  Thankfully, they did outstandingly well…and that means more than anything to me, their teacher.

There was a lot of food, that goes without saying. This is Jacky, one of the nicest students I have had in all my years of teaching, taking charge of the barbecue pit…

I don’t actually care very much for those chicken wings, fish balls and sausages…but that night, I just could not resist…

…the pork belly/three-layer pork and it certainly did not help one bit that they gave me one whole plate of it all to myself…

And that wasn’t all. They had a buffet spread catered from a local hotel/restaurant. I did not think of taking the photographs before everyone started eating (I was so hungry, you see!) but I managed to get a shot at one of the dishes…

Well, apart from the food, it certainly was nice to see all of them again and I hope the feeling was mutual. I remember something that Jacky wrote in some kind of an autograph book that they gave me on my retirement…

You leave no poem for the world to read, you leave no written words to tell…of your noble thoughts, your kind acts and deeds. But in the throbbing pulse of human life, there shines a brighter gleam of joy and hope…because you have lived and loved…and given of yourself unselfishly.  Your life is a poem in itself, not realised by those it has touched so richly through the years but living still…to spread its rays of gladness and of cheer within the hearts of all humanity.

That meant more to me than anything else in the world…and as teachers, we must realise that what we give today, we will one day, get it all back in return…a hundredfold! I have said in one of my earlier posts that it distresses me greatly that there are so many teachers who are disillusioned, who do not seem to see any meaning in what they are doing. I believe that is exactly what their students feel about or think of them as their teachers. Love them and you will be loved much more in return…

And to all the boys who were at the gathering and those who were not, I thank you all for the affection over the years; nurture it always in your hearts for it will surely help in no small way to make you become better individuals in the years to come. May God bless each and every one of you in your undertakings.