masterwordsmith-unplugged

On a non-typical Sunday afternoon, I met up with a number of my former students at my favorite hangout DOME, Island Plaza. I had just met up with Kat and Patrick yesterday and today I met up with Kat (who drove me there), Ruttigone(whom I had not seen since 1997), Nital and the best surprise of all was reuniting with Yee Lin whom I had not seen since 1990 (that works out to 19 years GOSH!!!).

Yee Lin, now a mother of two, was the second group of students I taught and she was the monitor when I was form tutor. An accountant by training, she is now on maternal 'sabbatical' devoting herself to nurturing her five year old daughter and nursing her three-month old son. Happily married to a lawyer, Yee Lin always displays such a witty sense of humor and I totally cracked up while comparing parenting experiences and aspirations. I wish her and her lovely family God's blessings as she gives nothing but her best to her loved ones, family and friends.

Ruttigone is currently in her final lap of her PhD studies at RMIT, Melbourne while working in University of Melbourne. Even when she was in Year 9, I had told her that she had a great future with her zest and energy for life, exuberance for making new discoveries and again, a wonderful sense of humor. To this day, I still have some of the projects she submitted for my Sociology classes. As it stands, I am dying to read her PhD thesis which is on such a wonderful topic most relevant to Malaysian students. God bless you and may you get your doctorate soon. I am certain that you will be making waves in the international scene or even in the field of research.

Kat who currently works in KL is my goddaughter (together with her cousin Maybelene who is pursuing her PhD studies in Economics at University of California, Davis). Throughout the years, Kat has showered me with so much love, gifts, time and understanding and my family love her very much too. With a heart full of love, Kat has always been very patient, loving, kind, generous and helpful. While studying in Melbourne, she would never fail to bring some chocolates for me each time she came back for her vacation as she knows how much I love them. I will miss her terribly when she returns to Melbourne in the near future. I do not know where she will be doing her postgraduate studies but I certainly pray that God will bless her, guide her and provide everything that she needs...

It is so uncanny that while in Year 9, Nital was so terrified of me that she did not attend school for a couple of days. I did not know until I called her home to find out what was wrong. Amazingly, we became good friends and she worked so hard in my Economics class and we kept in constant touch with each other from the time I left my post till today. She has always been very consistent in her relationships with all of us - honest, candid, warm, kind, helpful, loving, diligent and a most responsible and industrious engineer now in a MNC(Penang). I wish her God's blessings as she awaits the results of her applications for PhD studies.

I do miss teaching so very much. More importantly, I miss those former students of mine from the international school and college and I know that my life is so much richer because they are now my dear and beloved friends. Thank God for Facebook!!! We can now be connected to each other so easily!

So here's old me saying Hi and I miss you guys loads to all my former students who are reading this post...and the same for my friends, relatives and blog readers. To those of you who kept in touch with me through challenging times and encouraged me to buka kedai here again, thanks a million. I could never have done it without you all! God bless you!!!

I would like to dedicate the following song to all of you out there who had faith in me, prayed for me and stuck with me through good times and bad times. Click and listen to Michael W. Smith's "FRIENDS".