Proud and Blessed..

It brought me into bliss... to seventh heaven. It was such a wonderful feeling. I was right, I would gain so much fulfillment in this new-found career.

When I saw Patrick crying, I was moved. I nearly hugged him. He used to be the brave but ill-behaved student of mine. He disobeys a lot of school rules and brings a lot of headaches to his teachers. But this time, I saw the other side of Patrick...his better side. It was the first time ever I saw him cry. Most of his classmates were all blabbing on how Patrick misbehaves in school. Patrick is like this... he’s like that... he did this and that, etc...etc. He was deeply hurt because of that. I know somehow how it feels to be blamed by everyone and to be looked at as someone who only brings mischief. I talked to him, this time in a different tone, in a different character. It was like a mother talking to a son, heart to heart. He could now look into my eyes as I explain to him, to the best of my ability, why everything is happening. That moment, he was not the Patrick who would make face and who would reason out when being corrected. He listened to every word I said and I felt that he realized his mistakes. He promised to change and do better this time.

Later on, during the mass, he did listen to the sermon of the priest, which was unusual for him. He said he could really relate to what the priest has just said. The priest talked about how we could associate ourselves to a pencil and that there are actually five lessons which we can learn from it. To put it simply, below are the lessons he mentioned:

1. A pencil leaves a mark. Just like human beings, whatever we do, good or bad, it will leave a mark.
2. The pencil has an eraser for you to rub out something which has already been written, just like us, we can still erase the unpleasant things we had done in the past.
3. A pencil, without the lead, will not serve its purpose, so what’s more important is what’s inside.
4. A pencil needs to be sharpened from time to time. In life, we will also experience being sharpened once in a while.
5. To function well, we people, just like pencils, must allow those who have a hold over us to be in command of us and control us.

Patrick is indeed one of the many pencils the priest was talking about. And I hope, as his teacher and his second mother in school, he would allow me, not actually to manipulate or control him, but to influence him to be the best person he could be.

As I went back to the faculty room, there was a smile on my face and an overwhelming feeling in my heart. Words cannot really explain the fulfillment I have been experiencing at work. I feel so proud, able and blessed to be given the chance to work with wonderful people just like my students. Yes, they give me headaches and loads of work, but, a cliché it may sound, it doesn’t seem work anymore because I like what I’m doing.