Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Tough Girl


It happened quite sometime ago.

A young school girl was looking for me during the school's break time. I was strolling along the road in front of the school administration block when she called me from my back.

She came to me asking for advices. She didn’t know what to do. She was going to move school because her family was moving house. She looked very frustrated because she couldn't find a nearby school that offered the same combination of subjects. And she was undecided what to do.

I looked at her and realized that she was my student sitting in the middle on the left side of the classroom. She seldom smiled and laughed in my class but when she did, it was so unnatural and unreal. Somehow her eyes didn't look happy. I remembered she was always very interested and attentive in my lessons. And she was not afraid to ask questions. Somehow she impressed me.

We had a long talk analyzing the problem. She was more settled after that. Hopefully it helped to lift up and ease her burden.

Later, I was told by a fellow teacher that she was a daughter of a broken family. Her father had left her and her mother when she was a child. It was a big blow to her, losing the love and support of an irresponsible and violent father.

He also told me that the father continued to visit them when he was broke. I was very unhappy after that, and it took me quite a while to calm down. After much contemplation and reasoning, I realized that they were moving house most probably to escape from the father.

It hurt to know that a fellow man could be so unreasonable, irresponsible and unloving. I only wished that all my relatives and friends were not like that.

I took special notice of that girl after the incident. I understood why she seldom smiled and laughed. I understood why she could not express herself well. I understood why she was so scared and nervous to talk to people. Oh young girl, you acted so tough and so strong around others to cover all your weaknesses and infirmities.

Oh girl, I salute you, you are so strong.

3 comments:

Twilight Zone said...

I can relate, I was 5yr old when my father abandoned us (3 siblings) but my mother did her very best to raise us and tried all kind of work/job just to make sure that we have food at the table and we could go to the school.
Were still lucky that we have the Mother.

Kikit said...

What we don't or couldn't express in words, we express in other ways. :)

Evergreen Thoughts said...

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