I will never forget the last class that I taught in college. That motley crew was a nightmare and the sum of them put together was enough to put me off teaching for the rest of my life. It was not that I could not handle them but it was their attitude or the lack of it. Seriously, I hope those kids have matured and have become responsible citizens. In that cohort, there were many who plagiarized assignments (but these still turned out real bad because they plagiarized the wrong stuff and the whole assignment did not meet my stringent course requirements at all!), those who were only present to meet the attendance requirements, one who ran away from home, sons and daughters of datuks and datins, one spoilt princess, rich and rude students and gosh - it is too stressful to remember them ...Previously, for eight years, I was teaching top students in another course until a change in policy directed me to that department.
One of them even said to me, "Miss, we pay fees to ****college. The college pays you. Do you realize that we are your bosses? So, if we want to fail it is our business and if we don't want to hand up our assignments, you don't have to chase us."
You would not want to hear my response. But the reason why I am bringing this up is because that particular girl, who is actually a very smart girl, crashed another student's car one night after the college prom. I was not there at the prom for I hate such glam affairs and would much rather lounge around in my jeans or shorts :-).
The next morning, the class was in a commotion as I walked in. Then there was silence.
"So did you guys have a good time?" I asked politely.
One of them related the incident to me. Just as she finished, the girl walked in, smiled at me, sat down and took out a cheque and passed it to the girl whose car she had crashed.
Later, I discovered that it was a cheque for 10 000RM.
My heart sank. What if they had not been so lucky?
Two years earlier, another student had totalled his mom's car along Kelawei Road. He came late for my class and when I asked him why, he said he had an accident the previous night and had spent the night at the police station making the report.
"Really?" was my skeptical response. Then he showed me the pics of his car crash in his cell phone and I gave him a few words of advice. This boy is a much more sensible and well-brought up character than the ones in the other class and to this day, we still keep in touch.
The reason why I am telling all these tales is to prepare you for the set of pictures I put together in the next slide presentation.
Life is so short and sometimes, when one is not careful, not only could one risk his/her own life, but that of others. Worse still would be the serious injuries that no operation can put right.
So, if you have any children, friends, neighbours or relatives who drink and drive, please send them this set of slides and raise awareness about the dangers posed by drunk drivers.
When I first saw the photos (which were sent to me by my sister-in-law), I was very upset. In fact, I cried. I felt the physical, searing pain of the girl, I felt her anguish at the way her life would never be the same...and empathized with her for I know the road to recovery is not an easy one. I felt the trauma and heartache of her parents and her friends. To live the way she looks, to forgive and to move on - is certainly not easy but Jacqueline is certainly a woman with nerves of steel...and an inspiration for us to live with an attitude to forgive...
* A word of caution : If you are fainthearted, please do not view these slides. Sorry if these offend any one. My intention is to raise awareness and not to shock.
Drive safely...take care and may God bless and protect you and yours.
I am boiling mad today because I did not have internet connection for 2.5 hours. Of course, I am deeply relieved that the connection has been restored but truly, it has been so stressful for me.
A few weeks ago, I did not have access to the telephone AND internet for three days!!!
Then last week, my feeds were not updated in blogrolls - it is still like that now. Sometimes, my posts are only updated in blogrolls like FIVE hours later, sometimes NOT AT ALL!!! For instance, today itself, my second post called "True Freedom" and my fourth post ironically called "Paths to Inner Peace" were not updated at the point of typing this post. I have left many messages in Help groups for Blogger and Feedburner but no one except for Vin responded. I wonder why they feature such forums and then not take any action to help bloggers. For my other blog at The Motion of My Thoughts, my last post was only updated in other blogrolls after FIVE HOURS!!! Most stressful. I am going to have my own domain once I make a decision about which host to use. The thought of this url http://masterwordsmith-unplugged.com is most alluring :-), tempting and ecstatic. The only downside is, I might get even MORE addicted to blogging than now and God forbid!!! My husband is already up in arms with the hours I spend staring at the laptop in comparison with the time I look into his eyes LOL!!!
OK. Jokes aside. Back to my rants. Seriously, something is very wrong with our internet connection.
When I called 1 300 88 9515, I had to use my son's pre-paid line and waited until I ran ouyt of credit!! Shhhh He does not know yet :-) The guy I spoke to at 4.20p.m. said it was either my settings, my modem or my router that was giving problems. Then when I FINALLY got through at 6.30pm again, a very nice, friendly and polite staff told me what was the problem - outage in many areas of Malaysia and restoration is in progress either in a few hours or later. Phew! Thank goodness I can get online for if not, it will have to be a night out at a cyber cafe....
I checked my blog traffic and indeed it was pretty quiet from 5pm onwards till about 6.30p.m.
Well, this is life in Malaysia.....Malaysia BOLEH!!!
Boleh what?
You can never be sure what might happen next with so much electricity in the air now...
So, I am going to eat my dinner, shower, cool down and hopefully blog something rational and less emo later.
For the rest of you, I sure hope you are not having connectivity problems. Do leave a comment if you are/were in the same boat.....Have a lovely evening and I will blog again later!
So here's hoping that this blog post will be updated in blogrolls....*sigh*
On weekends, I love to go to the beach and to sit there under a shady tree...on a mat, reading my book. When evening comes, the view of the sunset has such a calming effect on me. Often times, I derive a lot of pleasure just watching the lapping waves. Of course, the sea in Penang is generally calm compared to the other places I have visited. I am not a photography expert but I have often wanted to capture the beauty of waves so you can imagine my excitement when my sister-in-law sent me this set of photos which I have converted into a slide presentation. Please wait a while to let the file upload. Enjoy these beautiful slides and have a nice day!
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk being called sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk showing your true self.
To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd
is to risk being called naive.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest risk in life
is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing,
is nothing, and becomes nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot
learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.
Chained by things that are certain, he is a slave.
He has forefeited his freedom.
Only the person who risks is truly free.
....Author Unknown
Did you wake up today and ask “what am I doing with my life”? Or perhaps you find yourself wondering if there’s more to life than the daily grind of work, home, activities, day in and day out .. the same old thing.
Are you happy, like your job but feel there’s got to be something more out there?
Do you want work to be more fulfilling, meaningful and fun? Would you like to jump out of bed each day with a smile on your face, a real sense of purpose and excitement? How wonderful would that feel!?
Not that long ago I was hopping from job to job. In an 11 year working career I held over 15 jobs in 7 industries. The longest I ever stayed in a job was 9 months. And I managed to take a total of 4 years off in between jobs.
That should have told me something but it was only last year that I finally figured out what was going on.
You see, I really don’t like working!
That’s right, I said it. I still don’t.
I left my first advertising job due to a clash of values with my boss. The second job in financial services because I didn’t feel right about convincing people to hand over their life savings for 120% returns in the stock market. And so on. New jobs, new reasons to leave.
Looking back I can see clearly now that my CORE VALUES were not being met in any of these jobs!
There was no courage, love, openness, fun, freedom or growth in any of them. No wonder my spirit rebelled and my mind quit the party 5 minutes into it.
You know what’s one of the saddest things in the world? Living a life of mediocrity and indifference. Like I did for so long.
Living on autopilot because that’s the easy thing to do. In fact, it’s the hardest because of the price we ultimately pay.
Being ok with waking up every day to go work in a job you can’t stand, to make money that you spend too fast, for 2 weeks of vacation a year and dreaming about the day you’ll come into money or get a great break or have the guts to up and out of this so-so existence to actually MAKE your dreams come true… That is truly the saddest misuse of our lives on Earth, a gross waste of time and talent.
When you find your purpose, the contribution you were here to make in this world, discover your potential and tap into your inner self where all the answers already are, you will never work another day in your life.
Even if you spend 50 hours a week following your heart and living a life of passion, it won’t ever feel like work. It can get challenging and hard at times but it will always, always, ALWAYS be worth it!
And that my friend, is how life is meant to be lived.
With passion, courage and love. Making a difference in this
world. Making each day count.
The world desperately needs people who are living fully, with authenticity and passion. The world needs YOU to come alive. Have you? Isn’t it time?
written by Tia Singh
Author's Bio
I am a Co-Active Life Coach, trained by the Coach Training Institute and a Certified NLP Practitioner, recognised by the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
In addition, I am a Psych K facilitator and use muscle testing, LOA, NLP and other techniques to help change deep underlying beliefs that are stopping you from progressing towards the life you wish you were living.
