A Minute to Reflect & Relate (Part 2)

Let me share you a story about a little bear who used to belong to a little girl...

There was once a Little girl who had a lot of toys when she was little and one of them was a Little teddy. It was given to her by her grandmother as a gift on her 5th birthday. As you could guess, she received lots of gifts on her birthday. Little teddy did not mind of course as he knew that he was always going to be the little girl's favourite toy...at least that was what Little girl thought. Anyway, Little teddy used to describe the little girl as beautiful, innocent and gentle. All in all she was a good nurtured individual - the symbol of pureness although Little girl never realized this. However, as time went by, little teddy noticed that the little girl was happy playing with her other toys even though he saw the same look whenever she played with him. Little bear was left alone when Little girl started attending kindergarten. 

Little teddy began to think that he did not deserve the little girl's love for him and decided to leave Little girl instead. Little bear thought that Little girl would be better off without him...Little girl was devastated obviously. She did not know what to do. She had been kind to little bear and she even took him to bed with her every night. He was as precious as diamond to her and yet he left. 

The little girl began to blame herself for Little teddy's actions. Was it because she was not good enough for him? Was it because she used to play with other toys instead of him? Or was it because she said or did something that hurt him? Perhaps she did not have a time to spend with him? The Little girl pondered upon these questions almost every single day. Her tears were dried up as she swallowed all her sorrows trying to find answers to her questions and every day the Little girl hopes that she will be awake with Little teddy back into her arms again.

Well it never happens...

Everyone promised to get Little girl a new toy but they were never the same. Nothing was able to replace Little teddy's place for sure...

At the window she looked through

Tears fell down her cheeks

.....

she awaits for his return

.....

They all come and go 

bringing smile to her face

Tears still falling

like raindrops

"There will be sunshine soon

Yes...it will be, soon..."

A Minute To Reflect & Relate...

So...I was watching television this afternoon...the sky was gloomy and inspiration popped in...

I'm not a poet though and I write poems for fun (seriously)...I wonder if you guys ever experienced having an urge or perhaps the best way to call it: An inspiration to write or do something you're passionate about...

Well, I do. The things I wrote about are just plainly my observations on people and things around me, thoughts, opinions, feelings and maybe a little bit of emotions too...Sometimes I find it difficult to express them and well the best way for me to do so is by writing. The best thing about writing poems: Well,  I could indulge myself in the world full of fantasies or fairylands. To compare life with things which are impossible is FUN to me!!! Not to mention the chances you get to play around with words expressing how you feel at this precise moment. Ahhh...The Beauty of English Literature...

Anyway, here are some poems I wrote. It may not be like the ones written by the great poet of all centuries---William Shakespeare (That's what I called him...) but then the point is that I get to taste the beauty of expressing my thoughts through writing and that is all that matters. Take a minute or two to read them and well...enjoy!!! 

To Free

As a child held her mother's hand                                                    

So her soul seized the day

Reluctant to let go

As days passes

Longing and yearning

Memories were screaming

Like a child fell on the ground

Hurt his knees...

"To free...To free...To free"

She whispered...

Silently in her heart and mind

Can she be heard?

"No..." said mouth

A smile is enough...

Yes that's what mouth did...

Throw a smile...

Even though inside

knees still hurting...

Silent scream:

"To free...To free...To free..."

Mi "CORA"

She saw him there

Waving, Smiling

Calling out her name

COR was her name...

Perhaps it was Cora...

Who knew?

But he was calling...

And COR or Cora 

Well, She was alone...

Her Attention was seized

by someone she barely knew

but it's unpleasant to have such thought

COR or Cora

whatever her name was,

Fell...Fell...

Oh the wind...

Bless the moon and the stars...

the beauty of it all...

As she fell, she wondered...

Was her name COR? or Cora?

or neither?

How did she fall anyway?

Did he push her?

or was it just a careless fall

that would only scratch

and scars disappeared into thin air

Or will it be deep enough

to last for eternity?

The Silent Monologue of A Teacher...

A student of mine told her friend, " I will not bring my composition book nor will I do Miss Larissa's homework."

Kids nowadays... 

I was a bit shocked to hear what my student had to say about me. How did I find out? Well, let's say I have my own ways in finding out stuff from kids. Children would actually tell us a lot of things if you were to spend some time with them. 

Anyway, as a teacher, I find it pretty difficult to teach students who frequently refused to complete their homework or do their revision at home. How am I supposed to tell them about the importance of education? Was I too hard on them by giving them homework? Seriously, one particular student of mine refused to do her homework and bring any of her books. She would not even pay her tuition fees. Note that she does not come from a poor family as both her parents own a restaurant. It is pretty weird to me though as they refused to pay their fees and books which cost only RM5.10. I used to complain that surely her parents will not allow people to owe them after having their meals at their restaurant? As a teacher, I did inform her parents about this but well as you can see, they would throw me a smile and promised to pay the next time their children attend my class. They never pay and when I tried asking my student about it, she would laugh at my face as if I was joking. Did I also mention that her parents paid their daughter's tuition fees for other subjects except English Language? It is very unfair indeed! I am not sure why on earth they're doing this but all I can say is that some people can be very ignorant and selfish. 

Throughout my experiences as a teacher, I noticed that most parents usually expect us teachers to educate their children and to help their children to score As in their subjects. Did they realize that as parents, they play an important role in their children's academic performances too? Often, when students fail to achieve good marks in their examinations, parents tend to put the blame on the teachers. They would complain that the teachers did not know how to teach or they're not fit to be teachers. Were they aware of their children being lazy at home or at school or did they ever try to talk to their children about their studies? Nope...most parents  were too busy working and all tuition centres and music centres will eventually turn into daycare centres. Parents expect teachers to do all the jobs in assisting their children's studies. Sometimes, like in my case, besides teaching, I get to babysit children as their parents had to attend important meetings or work overtime. Parents would only fetch their children late in the evening after work. I once asked a particular student of mine about how she usually spends her weekends at home. She told me that, "Mummy will send my brother and I for music classes every weekend." I asked her whether she gets to spend time with her parents and she replied me, "Mummy and daddy work every Saturday. Aunty took care of us. She made us sandwiches." I asked her again whether her parents ever took her out on Sundays and she said, " No...mummy and daddy got tired. Daddy would prefer reading news and watching TV at home and mummy would sometimes bring me to the market but I never like going to the market...It's dirty and smelly." I was shocked to hear what my student had to say. I am glad that when I was a child, my parents used to spend their time with me by bringing me out for lunch or dinner and they would also bring me to the museum, beaches and shopping malls.  Often, we would just sit together at the table and just talked about our day drinking hot drinks and eating biscuits. Indeed, I had wonderful time with my parents throughout my childhood days and I felt pity for my student that her parents never took the chance to spend time with her and her brother instead they send them to music classes and occupy their time with other activities as they work throughout the weekends. 

Sadly, this is how it works nowadays...We tend to neglect our responsibilities as adults in educating our younger generation.  It is no surprise that these children, as they grow up, would in turn neglect their responsibilities in taking care of their parents and instead sending their parents to old folks home. Their excuse? No time of course... 

So a little advice for parents: 

Teach, guide, care and love your children as much as you can.

Try spending some quality time with your children as they learnt the meaning of life. Listen to what they had to say about themselves. It might be about their day at school or the new friends they just met. Parents can also take the opportunity to learn about their children's performances at school, relationships with friends and teachers' comments. Also, try to understand them. As parents, you might be surprised to find out that you can actually learn a lot of things from your children...

"Kids spell love T-I-M-E."

- John Crudele -

Oh Relationships!

I had a conversation with a guy through an online chat room the other day and the issues on relationship popped up. He was telling me that he is not into having a serious relationship and he even whined about how 'suck' it is to commit to your partner. I presume he might have an experience whereby his ex-girlfriend wanted to get things serious but he was not prepared back then. It is not an unusual thing to me as I think I had to agree with him that one should not rush into things just because the people around you are. Like they said: Don't be in a relationship because everyone is in one, it is neither a fashion nor trend. Another guy I spoke with also told me the same thing when I started asking him about his recent breakup with his girlfriend. He said his girlfriend would go crazy whenever there is an advertisement about wedding promotions. They had been living together for years even though they are not married to each other. I was relieved when he told me that they both do not have kids throughout their relationship as it could be terrible for the child or children to not have both parents around due to separation. He even told me that his girlfriend was gaining weight during that particular time and he is no longer attracted to her. Sex he described to me was not as exciting as it used to be. I was quite surprised about the fact that he is no longer sexually attracted to his girlfriend because of her weight...I thought perhaps they had been together for a long time that his girlfriend had 'forgotten' to look good for him...but usually to me, guys who break up with their girlfriends because she is either too fat or too thin are real jerks.

In fact, such things are usually the 'norm' in a relationship but there are several questions which came into my mind that day...(Married couples are excluded)

Number 1: Is relationship all about sex? 

Number 2: Is sex the only thing couples can do in order to enjoy each other's presence?

Number 3: What about spending time looking into each other's eyes? or

Number 4: Walking hand in hand along the beach enjoying the beautiful sunset?

and...finally, another question to ponder about...

Number 5: Do guys usually talk about sexual stuff with ladies they barely know? (this only applies to people on chat rooms)

Personally, I think that my answers to question number 1 and 2 are definitely 'No...' To me, relationship is not all about sex. Also, the things you did together as a couple are not important but instead it is the time that you get to spend with each other that matters. There are a lot of things for couples to do in order to enjoy each other's presence...Question number 3 and 4 are few examples I could think of. I think most ladies would agree with me. I have a friend who used to say that a guy does not always have to pamper a girl with expensive gifts or cash but instead it is the little little things he could do to show his love and appreciation towards a girl. If you are a guy (who happens to read this) and you thought that purchasing expensive gifts for your girlfriend is the actual way to please her then you are sooo wrong! In fact, there are many ways to please a girl like perhaps you can prepare her a breakfast or dinner, eating burgers/ice-creams and holding hands or surprise her with a note saying 'I love you.' and a rose on the table before you leave to work. Try them out and you can see a whole lot of changes in your relationship.

And, lastly but not least, for question number 5...

Do guys usually talk about sexual stuff with ladies they barely know especially through online chat rooms? As a lady myself I would call you a pervert if you speak sexual stuff to me. I can be an open-minded person but showing your thing (you know what I mean) makes you a pervert and for a girl like me definitely it's a turn off. It gives me the idea of guys like that acting immorally in public and tell me guys, you don't ask the girl sitting next to you at the bus stop to comment on the size of your thing right? Think about it guys...

"An intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than sex."

-Edgar Wallace-

Problems...Problems...Problems...

I guess you guys must have guessed what am I going to write about. Yes, it's about problems! Family problems, financial problems, relationship problems, job problems, transportation problems, health problems...etc. No matter how big your problems are, they will always remain as problems and believe it or not small problems may turn out to be bigger ones if there is no attention given.

Anyway, what makes me to write about problems? Well, it's because problems seem to be like a norm among people that I decided to write about it. It all started when I was facing problems in teaching one of my students. She is going to sit for her government examination soon and her mother had just enrolled her into my tuition class. At first, I thought that I was able to teach her without any problems as she looked hardworking and obedient to me. I decided to test her in her writing skills and I tell you it was one easy composition! Her writing was so terrible that she could hardly spell and I found out that she was very weak in English grammar. I tried giving her basic English grammar and even gave her exercises from primary school books but it was no use. And yes...of course, I was devastated and to hear what others said about being a teacher is an easy task. Trust me...it's not an easy work to do. 

Anyway, I decided to meet up with that particular student's mother and I told her about her daughter's studies. As a teacher, I had to do so and her mother was so grateful that I told her about her daughter's studies. She told me this because according to her, back at home, her daughter actually refused to listen to her advises and she started to share me all her problems including her marital problems. All I could do was just listened to her problems and sympathized at her condition.As she was telling me this, it actually made me realize the fact that each and everyone of us indeed has our own problems but somehow I have to admit that I do whine and complain when things do not come my way (yes...even little things). Her story about how she had to send her children to tuition centres to prepare them for their upcoming examinations despite the terrible weather is very touching that I could not help myself by reflecting the times I often took things for granted. I began to reflect the sacrifices of my own mother towards me when I was a child as she told me that she would rather carry all the sins, burdens and bitterness throughout her living just to see her children succeed in their future. I did not know what to reply her but I could only smile and nod my head as a sign of agreement. Even though I may not fully understand a mother's feelings as I am not one yet but to look into her eyes and the shadow of her burdens are all enough for me...

Only mothers can think of the future-because they give birth to it in their children.

-Maxim Gorky-