When I was stuck in the airport in Singapore, one of my oldest and good friend, Tee (I've known her since I was 7 and she is a good girl whom I really like) messaged me on whatsapp to ask how it's going and I told her all the problems. She said things don't always go smoothly when one is travelling, and she asked me to take it easy and to always use my secret weapon - my mouth. That made me laugh, and it made me feel better too. It reminds me of a saying I read on Facebook (who says Facebook is frivolous?) - "the answers are within you, think."
My mouth may be my secret weapon but I actually have an even better arsenal - my brain. I didn't discover my brain until I was 10, and it was quite by accident.
When I was 10 and in Standard 4, we had a lovely teacher named Ms. Ma from Malacca. When we sat for exams, what happens is that our cumulative grades are added up to see who gets first in class, second, third etc. By 10, I had already learned how to write and how to converse in Malay. I also had a good grasp of general knowledge and current events thanks to my reading habit, and my habit of reading the newspapers everyday which I inherited from my father. But in school I was ignorant of any type of grading system, and all the teachers (who of course were out to get me) had already written me off as stupid and useless, and I believed it and didn't care.
Enter Ms. Ma. She wasn't a racist to begin with, God bless her soul, and she was fair and kind and she introduced me to my brain. She announced in class one day that for the first term exams, I emerged last in class, and then for the second term exams, I came in second in class. She said this is a tremendous achievement and she asked the class to clap for me. Never before had I been given any form of recognition in school. Suddenly I was celebrated. And funnily enough, it was only then that I became aware of the grading system in school.
I am thankful to Ms. Ma to this very day. I've always told this story with pride. However, now that I think about it, this may have been the beginning of my downfall because with the discovery of my brain, I could never go back to being blissfully ignorant. Imagine if Ms. Ma never opened my eyes, I would continue to believe that I am stupid, and I would never have achieved what I have achieved thus far. And who knows? Maybe I would've been happier.
My mouth may be my secret weapon but I actually have an even better arsenal - my brain. I didn't discover my brain until I was 10, and it was quite by accident.
When I was 10 and in Standard 4, we had a lovely teacher named Ms. Ma from Malacca. When we sat for exams, what happens is that our cumulative grades are added up to see who gets first in class, second, third etc. By 10, I had already learned how to write and how to converse in Malay. I also had a good grasp of general knowledge and current events thanks to my reading habit, and my habit of reading the newspapers everyday which I inherited from my father. But in school I was ignorant of any type of grading system, and all the teachers (who of course were out to get me) had already written me off as stupid and useless, and I believed it and didn't care.
Enter Ms. Ma. She wasn't a racist to begin with, God bless her soul, and she was fair and kind and she introduced me to my brain. She announced in class one day that for the first term exams, I emerged last in class, and then for the second term exams, I came in second in class. She said this is a tremendous achievement and she asked the class to clap for me. Never before had I been given any form of recognition in school. Suddenly I was celebrated. And funnily enough, it was only then that I became aware of the grading system in school.
I am thankful to Ms. Ma to this very day. I've always told this story with pride. However, now that I think about it, this may have been the beginning of my downfall because with the discovery of my brain, I could never go back to being blissfully ignorant. Imagine if Ms. Ma never opened my eyes, I would continue to believe that I am stupid, and I would never have achieved what I have achieved thus far. And who knows? Maybe I would've been happier.
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