Well, it isn’t a picture of you actually but a picture of me…
I’ve mentioned here, there and everywhere that I am retiring from teaching for good so I was starting to clear some of the stuff that I have accumulated over the years – I don’t think I would be needing them anymore…and I came across this sketch that my student did of me a long long time ago and the memories came flooding back…
I had given them work to do to be handed in at the end of the lesson and I was doing something at the teacher’s table in front. When the bell rang, everybody submitted their work promptly including this boy who, at the same time, handed me a sketch that he had done on a piece of exercise book paper. (I had to get the lines removed so that I could publish it in the school magazine that year.)
Gosh! I was stunned by the likeness to yours truly (though I think the chin could have been toned down a bit! LOL!!!)…and the amazing thing was that he could do it in just a few minutes. His classmates asked him to draw a few more as they also wanted one and he did – I wonder how many of them still have them now.
I could remember what he looked like – quite big, pleasant and cheerful and a bit quiet or shy…and I could remember his surname was Wong and he was in Form 5S2 but I could not recall exactly which year that was. Eventually, I flipped through some old school magazines and found his full name and thus, I was able to reconnect with him via Facebook – he’s in Kuching right now, married already and blessed with a pretty little girl.
Well, TK Wong, that was way back in 1998 and I still have your picture of me…
To some, it may seem like something so insignificant – a hastily-sketched drawing on a scrap of paper but to me, it is something done in all sincerity and given from the bottom of the heart, something that shines like a little beacon that lights up the darkness along life’s long and dreary road.
The little things that we do may mean a great deal more than we think to others as they plod through all the twists and turns in their lives and believe me, these little wonders are few and far between…
So, go on – reach out and touch someone today…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 