The first miracle

GCE ‘O’ Level exam results were finally announced a few minutes ago. He was surrounded by many facial expressions – happy faces, contented faces, sad faces, dissatisfied faces. He walked out of his class and down the familiar school hall to the good old tuckshop where his classmates were. It was full of familiar faces, teachers, uniformed students, the aunties who manned the stalls. He finally found his group in the midst of that emotion-packed school day haunt.

For him, it did not quite matter what his GCE ‘O’ level results were. He did not put much hope in them anyway. His final year exam marks weren’t too encouraging. He managed to save a few subjects but he still failed English. He expected for the worse to happen. He thought, even if he managed to pass some other school subjects, definitely his English would end him nowhere. He might have to repeat his Secondary 4 studies.

It was 10am in the morning. The result was pinned just outside the principal’s office probably the night before. School was opened at 8am but he deliberately left home a bit later so that he will not be too embarrassed by his own marks.

Everyone was pushing their way to see their grades.

“Hey!” he heard one student say, “stop pushing.”

“You saw my marks?” Asked another. “Where is it?”

“WOW, I got 4 A’s!” Exclaimed a student.

He stood from afar, afraid to face his own fear – the fear of yet another failure – yet he knew it was something he could not avoid. His turn finally came.

His eyes followed his finger as it searched carefully for his Exam ID No. and his name.

There. His eyes went immediately to the English marks – C5! He passed! WOW, he could not believe his eyes! He cleared five subjects out of seven and he passed his English! But that was just the beginning of a bigger miracle he was about to witness! No doubt C5 is not much of an achievement for most, but for a less-than-average guy like him who still could not tell the difference between a verb and an adverb, it was quite an achievement. He was overwhelmed.

His steps were light, the young lad was galloping to the tuckshop. Now, he could not wait to tell the rest about it.

‘This is bad. There was only two passes in our class this year.” He heard someone say loudly. He could not believe his ears.

“What? Can you please repeat?” He was doubting what he heard.

“Most of us failed English.” came the reply. “Only two managed to pass their English.”

There were about 30 students in his class that year. Only he and one more student made it to the next grade. Could it be a mistake? Before the result came out, he was still one of the worst performers in class.

Unbelief was the word but it was not a mistake. It was a miracle. It was March, 1984.

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Shortcuts in life

There are many shortcuts in life. Some are good, some are not.

Some try to make a quick buck through illegal means, that is a bad shortcut – although legality does not guarantee that it will be good. An example is legal gambling – making it legal does not necessarily make it good.

I have tried to cheat in exams during my school years, that was a bad shortcut. I remember climbing up someone’s tree to steal some guavas. From hindsight, that could end me up in a really bad fall and a regret for many years to come.

There are some really good shortcuts too – they are all around us and can be downright inexpensive. If we use them wisely, we will definitely gain from them.

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I bought a bicycle some years back. The bicycle cost me around a hundred and fifty dollars. But I have found that expenditure to be one of most worthy investment I have ever made in life.

Here’s why:
1) it saves me money for short journeys – on “Feeder” buses even taxi fares
2) it saves me time waiting for those “Feeder” buses and for having to walk to and fro grocery stalls and errands (heaps of time)
3) it allows me to get more exercise than if I have no bike
4) i can afford to explore more places as a result
5) it is so convenient – no parking problem, no petrol cost, etc.

To date, I have gotten back many times my investment of a hundred and fifty dollars. Many times.

I would recommend getting a bike (and riding it, of course).

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Another shortcut I have found to be very, very useful and has yielded good ROI (Return on Investment) is the learning of the Spanish language (or in effect, any second language).

Because of the language, I gained access to many opportunities, employments and experiences. I will elaborate that in the following posts. There is an interesting story behind all this and I promise to tell you the details as you read on.

Whatever we do, have graduated from and wherever we are, learning a second language will only serve to enhance and diversify what we already are doing. Let me explain myself.

Supposing you are a lawyer, you have graduated from the law school. You have a specialised set of skill that you can use to serve the community. The sphere of your professional influence can be expanded by just learning a second or third language. There are many lawyers around us, but how many speaks both English and Spanish? Just because you have an extra set of language skill, you will find that you can do a lot more what you could not do before. You will suddenly be the odd one out, the one sought after, the cream of the crop.

Make sense?

I would definitely recommend learning Spanish (and making good use of it, of course).