23 January 2015

Dare To Dream

Today,

when I was observing one of my teammates teaching in the classroom, I received a sad news. A boy, whom I met and talked to during in my motivational speech in a new school last Friday was dead. He met with an accident and passed away in the morning.


I was stunned when I read the news.
I couldn’t believe that, the Form 5 boy whom I met just few days ago has left. Although I just met him for an hour, he and his gang have left a strong impression on me.



Photo credit: Nuruddin.

Surprisingly, I had been thinking this bunch of boys since the past 2 days. The 3 of them were the ‘talking group’ during my 1 hour sharing session, which lead me to facilitate them more during activity so that I could understand the reason why they talked. I found out that 1 boy was struggling to put thoughts into words, hence his friends helped him by translating from Tamil into Malay words that lead to constant laughter.


Photo credit: Angie & Kit Yen



I managed to read this boy’s Life Map and found out that he wanted to get married in 5 years time and secure a good job so that he can take care of his wife in 10 years time. I still remembered, how supportive I am towards his intention to take responsibility of his future and partner, and even prompt them further on how he could secure a job of his choice and support his family. I couldn’t remember the exact phrase but I have vivid picture of him saying that he wants to further studies, secure a job and go travel in future. Then we laughed together before I left for another group facilitation.


P/s: I used to think if a person set him/herself a marriage plan at a very young age (24-25), he/she is not ambitious enough. However, being married, I must say my perspective has changed.







Above: One of the students’ life map


After the news, I did not have a proper time to digest the information until I was done with school visit and caught in a heavy jam. The night, rain and quiet car had naturally created a space for me to reflect on life.


”How fragile it can be.”
”The ability to raise in every morning is an opportunity to learn life another day”
”Today might be your last day of seeing this person”
”Every person you met is a ‘yuen fern’”
”Life is short”
”Do things that you will not regret of”


P/p/s: am just blasting my thoughts in random sequence.


Then, it lead me to think of today’s team’s fun question lead by Angie on “If you are famous, how will it looks like” and I excitedly shared my answer (because, I occasionally thought of this too since years ago #buapaisheh). I confidently shared that I want to write a book that inspire people. I want to write based on my experiences. I want to write about personal development related topic. I want to be famous because of the legacy I left before the end of a journey.


Well, at the end of my sharing, I was laughing and told my group that partially, they were jokes. However, at this point of time, thinking of the boy whom I just shared, I know that I want my words to come true (at least half). I want to continue touching lives and help people, including myself to gain self awareness, grow and reach our ultimate potential. Suddenly, I feel that to be able to do things we like and satisfied with personal achievement are seriously a privilege.



The only thing that hinder me from achieving these are my inaction. I dreamed, I planned but I did not take action.


I don’t know how I could stand the heat (didn’t switch on the fan) and stayed awake till midnight, oh well.. I am glad that I am writing something.


Note: I am grateful for the opportunity given although it was a last minute call (like 15 hours before). There were 112 students and it was successfully conducted by me with the support from Angie. Listening from 2 girls who were brave enough to accept my request by going to the front of the stage and read their 5 and 10 years go to the crowds. 1 of the girl would like to pursue her dream to be a fashion design in overseas and would want to come back to her Orang Asli community to design clothes for them (also to her teacher, Kit Yen). Another girl shared that she wants to be rich by owning luxurious cars (with specific name slike Ferrari, Lamborghini & etc) and give good life to her family. Hearing from them caused goose bumps all around my hands.



Colourful envelopes that contain students’ life map and dreams.
I am a dream collector


By the way, here was the closure activity (known as exit ticket) where students will have to write their hopes and possible action taken on their Life Map. Next, they will insert their paper into the colourful envelope with name, class and ambition written boldly on it. Then, they passed their past-presence-future to me. The plan is that, they will collect them again at the end of the year to reflect back what they have written and take necessarily action to achieve their dreams.


Dream will always be a dream when you think and do nothing bout it. Writing down the dream will be the first step in turn it into reality.



Side note: This blog post is actually written on 19th January 2015 but could only be published today due to some issue with Blogger. Anyway, here I am, trying my best to post this up before end of the week.