Do you remember me?

Friends, they come and go from my life. Some left me with good memories, some with bitter memories. Some left me temporarily, some for good.

I can take it well, I can live with it. People come and go from our life. I do that too. It's OK, it's only normal.

Be it sweet, bitter, happy or sad memories, I accept them all. Although, I used to hate bad memories. I hated it so much that I thought if there were medicines invented to erase bad memories from people's head, I would take it, along with the risk of losing my good memories. That's how much I hate them.

However, life has taught me that everything happens for reason. If it left us with joy and happiness, praise god and enjoy it while it last. If it left us emotionally wounded, still praise god and let it be. Time will heal it and soon or later, we will find ourselves naturally moving on.

Yes, people come and go. This fact doesn't sadden me at all.

Nonetheless, there is a thing that sneakily managed to sadden me.

It's the people who have left me with nothing to remember, except for their name and face. Other than that, zero, nil, nada.

How could it be?

It saddens me because I want them to worth something in my memory. Remembering name and face is not good enough, I want more than that. What's good of having them in my 'hard disk' if they don't worth a pinch for the 'space' they take? Having to remember someone really mean and manipulative is way better than not being able to remember anything about someone I 'remember'.

Or, is the whole idea about them is 'remembering' their name and face? Maybe so that one day in future if I saw them again, I could save myself from embarrassment by remembering their name?

Oh, well.

Some Say

(Author Anonymous)

Some say the donkey's grumpy
Some say the donkey's dumb

They pile its back with bundles
And scold it when it grumbles
And thump it when it stumbles

No wonder it is so glum!

Some say the donkey's stubborn
Some say it holds a grudge

If I were so mistreated
And got so overheated
I'd threaten to be seated

And never ever budge!!

(My students love this poem. They thought it somehow funny, yet very true. Shame I don't know who to give the credit for this awesome job.)

Big? What big?

Student C.Y.L: Excuse me, Miss E. May I go out, please, please?

Me: I'm sorry dear, but we are in the middle of dictation activity. If I let you go right now, we will have to wait for you to come back before we can continue our activity. Can you wait for another 5 minutes?

Student C.Y.L: But I gotta go, please, please? You know when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Me: Alright. In that case, I give you 3 minutes and you have to promise you won't wet your pants or shoes or head so you have new reasons not to be in my class.

Student C.Y.L: Yes, Miss E. I promise.

Me: OK. Off you go. I expect you to be back three minutes from now.

(Student C.Y.L grabbed the pass card and rushed out)

One minute..

Two minutes...

Three minutes....
He's not back yet. Alright. Give him another minute.

Another minute was up. Still not back yet. Give him another minute.

Another minute was up, no sign of him. Total of 5 minutes now. OK. Maybe he's having a poo, give him another 2 minutes.
.
.
.
.
.
Two minutes were up. Still no sign of him. I started to be impatient.

Me: Ban Chang, can you check him in the washroom? Drag him out if he doesn't have important business there.

Class Monitor: Yes, Miss E.
(Off he went)

Five minutes later,

Class Monitor: I'm sorry, Miss E. He's no where to be found. I tried the other nearest washrooms but he's not there too.

Me: Thanks for your effort. Alright. If that is the case, we have to resume our activity without him.

We continued our dictation activity.

Riiiinnnnggggggggggg!!!

Me: Times up, children. Don't forget to bring your drawing block for our art class tomorrow.

Students: Yes, Miss E. Thank you, Miss E.

I went to the staff and dropped my stuffs. Grabbed my rotan, changed my high heels into a comfortable flat sandals and went on a 'mission' to locate this C.Y.L.

I started with all the washrooms in the school. He was not there.
Next was the school compound. He was not anywhere to be seen. Tsk!
Then I had no choice but to report his 'missing' to the management.

I was about to go to the office when I heard the loud scolding tone from the security officer's post. Though I didn't understand what they were saying (I don't speak Mandarin), I knew it was about my student. I went there and there he was, without even a slight of guilty feeling, he glanced at me.

Me: You lied!

Security Officer : (In a 'failed' Bahasa Melayu) I found him running around the car park area. He had a ruler with him and I thought I saw him scratching a few cars.

Me: Right. Thank you Mr. X. I'll take him from here.

I was too angry so I chose not to deal with him. I sent him to the management instead. I explained to them what happened and mentioned this is not the first time he 'strayed' away from my class.

Later in the afternoon, I asked myself. Is it my fault that I could not tackle that one particular student. I never got the 'chemistry' with the boy, no matter what I did. Last week in my art class, he refused to participate. Never mind that, but what pissed me off was that he disturbed his classmates. He purposely ruined their drawings with wet paint brush and found it amusing when his classmates cried. I tried to approach him with all those 'nice methods' taught to me in college but to no avail. He seemed to be 'deaf' when it comes to advice and friendly reminder. Finally I lost it. I have no right to physically punish him, so I sent him to the discipline teacher. You know what the teacher told me after meeting that boy? He said he hated me because I don't speak Mandarin and he doesn't like English or Malay language.

There's more. He said another reason was because my breast are big!!

For four-letters-word sake, kid, what do you know?! My breast are not for you to observe or anything, you are only 8 years old for heaven sake!

How could he make such remark on my breast? I can't do anything about my breast, I didn't have a choice on how big I want them to be. So you, little brat, I wanted so much to call you 'pervert' but because you are only a minor age and you don't understand what it means anyway, you are safe.

I will not give up on him, big no. He is maybe the hardest student I have so far but I refuse to give up on him. There must be ways to get through him, I will find out how.

Ya, I am furious for what he did and said. But he's only a kid, a kid can't rule me. I will get into him one day. I promise. I will make him understand, just because I don't speak Mandarin, it doesn't mean I am a bad teacher for him. I'm not the most perfect teacher but I believe I have enough qualities to deserve the title of a good teacher .

And for his 'low opinion' on my breast size, well...kiddo, I can't do anything about it. You are allowed to exercise your freedom of speech and opinion. Just so you know, if it not because you are a minor age, I would take your remark as a compliment. Oh well. One day when you grow up and start to notice your opposite sex, maybe you'll change your mind about it. Ha Ha!

Kids these days, ei? Tsk, tsk, tsk!