Dinner

Just got back from a dinner gathering. It's always nice to sit down and have a nice chat..be it with a close friend, a teacher or just someone you'd just met.

The conversation tonight revolves around life in general, school, university, family and values. As I grow older, I enjoy listening to people and absorb the lessons they've learned in life.

My teacher said, "Life is a learning process."

This teacher has touched our lives and in a way, made us better people. I've always wanted to be a teacher because I've had great teachers along the way. They've inspired me to be like them one day too.

I admire their dedication and passion to impart what they've learned to us. Mostly because all my teachers have had a positive impact on my thoughts and life.

Now, after 2 years of leaving school, I would still get the urge to go back for a visit when I come home for holidays, just to say 'Hi' and catch up with the people who have touched my life.

My teacher is a kind man who always goes out of his way to care about his students. Besides seeing him as our teacher, he is also a father figure to us. Perhaps life isn't always kind to kind people. Along the way, he met students who took advantage of his kindness but he continued to be kind anyway.

Maybe you don't always get what you give.. people might take advantage of you, step over your head and hurt you in every possible manner, it still never hurts to be kind. In the end, it isn't about you and them anyway.

Perhaps people would find this thinking very silly and naive.. yet I choose to stand by this. One day, life might make me cynical..but just let me be for now.

From our conversation tonight, I'd also realized that things aren't always what they seem to be. There was an incident in school where almost all of us misunderstood this teacher because of something she has done. Almost everybody blamed her for being a home-wrecker. We believed what we've heard and chose to accept it at face value. Perhaps until today, many would still have a bad impression of her. But things aren't what they seem to be. She had her difficulties that none of us would have imagined. I am ashamed to have judged her without considering the other side of the story.

Now, I tell myself to reserve judgments for later, if at all. Mother Teresa said, "If you're too busy judging other people, you would have no time to love them."

In these short 5 years, I've seen and experienced a lot of things for myself. Came to understand that things aren't always what they seem to be.

A lot of people have come and gone in my life. I'm thankful for that, even if they'd just stayed for a little while. For those who have stuck by me through thick and thin, I really appreciate and treasure your friendship.

My best days were those I spent in school. Some people advocate home learning, but I'm still very much pro-'school'. The point is to mingle, meet new friends and these experiences are invaluable. I'm proud to say the friends I've made in school are those I'm going to keep for the rest of my life. And I dare say that I've learned the important lessons in life from my relationship with them.

I also hope we're the kind of friends who will keep one another grounded and down-to-earth. After all, no matter what title people have bestowed to us, we know we're still mere human beings at the end of the day.

Perhaps some of us might have the advantage of enjoying a certain level of glory at this point in time, but in the end, we're just the same.