"Mom,
Wan wants to talk to you," Adik called out to me. I
was outside helping Abang to pluck some mangoes.
“
Yes
mother,” I spoke into the phone as I continued to watch Abang
using his parang to clear the bountiful pandan trees.
“
Can
you ask Man to come over and fix my porch lights ? It’s giving me
problems again.” My mother’ s voice sounded a little tired
and upset.
“Ok
Mother, Mr Fix-It-Right will be on the way soon!” I
reassured her in the manner that always seemed to lift her mood.
We
reached her house just moments later. After fixing the porch
lights, Abang and I had a chat with my mother. After a while,
we asked for an excuse to leave as earlier on, Abang had
ordered pizza for dinner. We wanted to be home when the pizza boy
arrived because we did not want the kids to deal with a stranger.
As we were driving home, we received a call from Adik. :
“Hurry
up Mom ! The pizza boy is already here!”
“Alamak!
That was fast! Please tell the boy we’ll be home in no time !”
When
we reached home, I literally jumped out of the car and said sorry to
the boy for keeping him waiting. The boy was not at all angry.
Instead he smiled and said these words which I feared most to
hear wherever I go, “Hi teacher! Don’t you recognise me?”
Alamak,
not again ! He was one of my former students from those years
when I was still teaching in school!
The
best part is, such an incident had happened to me so many times
before. Let me see... Yes, almost everywhere I went I would find
myself bumping into them. It seemed like they were everywhere; at
the immigration office, food stalls, market, Gambang water park,
clothing stores, Giant hypermarket, hospital and even in
public toilets !! Sabar je lah !! This is the "tragedy"
of living your life as a teacher ! Ha ! Ha! Just like
you are being stalked by them all your life ! No wonder people came
up with such Teacher Quotes :
Most
of us end up with no more than five or six people who remember us.
Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of
their lives.
(Andy
Rooney)
Teachers
don't impact for a year, but for a lifetime.
(Anonymous)
Guess,
I just have to live with it !!
