Mid twenty

One Voice Forum - on stage with Chief Rev Dhammananda

25. I’ve been alive for a quarter century! Haha… the word century does not hit me as much as the word, mid-twenty. Mid-twenty. When I realize I’m in my mid-twenties, I was freaked out. I still am.

It reminds me of “mid-life crisis”, normally faced by people in their 40. Argghhh… *don’t wanna think* *don’t wanna think*

How time has passed. Fast. Silent. Smooth. I was caught off-guard. In fact, I couldn’t do anything. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. They are the most selfish thing in this world. Maybe they know that they are priceless, and thus they upped their ego and refuse to wait for anyone.

25 good years. Wasted? Or fully utilized? Both.

Sometimes I felt I wasted my time. No thanks to Mr. Procrastination. But often than not, I try to remind myself and live by what Mark Twain once quoted.

“20 years from now, you will regret more at things you didn’t do than those you had done.”

This is the quotation that I used to subdue Mr. Procrastination. Hey, it works! Really. And I use to remind myself of what Tony Robbins said in his book too, to fight off Mr. Procrastination.

Let’s take a walk down my memory lane. (Listening to Rod Stewart’s Greatest American Songbook album…)

What’s significant from my past 25 years?

Baby years.
I don’t remember much about my baby years, but I remember sleeping in the swing. You know, those swing that they put babies to sleep. I remember vividly sleeping in it, and looking, my views were like, “up down, up down, up down…” But I think I was probably already 1 year old then.

I also remember drinking milk from the milk bottle, lying on my mom’s lap. Haha...some might say I couldn’t let go my past, but I’d say these are the memories that put a smile on my face.

When I was very young, I used to go to my father’s shop. It’s a biscuit confectionery. Used to be one of the top in Perak, but…

My grandmother used to bath me, and put those whitish-cooling-powder on my face. Hahaha… And when we hear the sound, “ting ting”, we’ll rush out from the shop. I think most of you should know what “ting,ting” was, and is. I used to like those toffee sweets, in a small box of the size of the Wrigley’s chewing gum, and I think it cost only 10 cents back then. Memorable.

My dad often likes to ask us (my bro or me) to massage for him, and then he will give us 10 cents. Sometimes he forgot to give us, and we will go to his room early in the morning, before he goes down to the shop for collection. Hahaha…

Chung Chen Night School
Chung Chen is a famous Mandarin night school in my hometown. I was enrolled into Chung Chen for standard 1 when I’m only 6 years old. I was really amazed by it, considering that my best subject is Science. I’ve never scored lower than 75% and my constant score for Science is 90% ++. I was surprised myself, when I saw my Chung Chen report card. My worst subjects back then, are now my best. I fared badly in Bahasa Malaysia, English, and Mandarin. Unfortunately, I quit Chung Chen after just one year. I don’t know the reasons, maybe time constraint, or maybe my parents thought I didn’t do well, so they decided not to enroll me for standard 2.

Tadika San Min
I was enrolled into Tadika San Min when I was only 5 years old. Talk about early education now. It was already a normal practice in my family back then.

My most memorable time in Tadika San Min, unfortunately, wasn’t really my happiest time. Haha…but it’s memorable though. I was dead tired one morning, guess I stayed up late playing with my cousins the previous night. I was so tired I refused to wake up to go to school. So, my mom caned me. I was crying right from brushing my teeth, changing, breakfast, until I reach my tadika.

I refused to get down of the car. My teacher had to come out and persuade me to get down. We were walking towards the classroom when we stumbled upon a snail. My teacher caught the snail and brought it into the classroom, just to cheer me up.

Another memorable event during my time in Tadika San Min is during one of the lessons, it was the last lesson of the day. My teacher gave us all a picture of an apple, and asked us to color it. My third sis, the artist of the family, just taught me how to color the day before. Everyone was pressing their color pencil hard on the paper while coloring. I was coloring my apple softly, with some skills taught by my sis. I was so proud, as my apple stood out, when everyone had almost the same apple color. Coincidently, my mom and my sis came over, and my sis told my teacher that she taught me the way of coloring just the night before. :>

There are a lot more memorable events in Tadika San Min, like the Hari Kanak-kanak, picnic trip, Konsert Tadika San Min, sports day, and etc. But it’s too long to write here.

Tadika Assumption
My next kindergarten is Tadika Assumption. It’s just right opposite my future secondary school!

I remember the classroom. Even though it’s small, but I think it can fit around 20 students. My class teacher was an Indian lady. She was really nice.

Oh yeah…the best part of it is that we have a canteen! In my previous kindy, there is no canteen. The teacher will serve the food and drinks on our table for us. We have a canteen for this one, and every recess time, we’ll have to line-up, holding hands, two-by-two. Haha… this sure ring a bell in everyone.

Haha…I think that’s all for now, and will continue later. 25 years old, surely there are a lot of things to look back on. Will post up some pics, hopefully, during CNY. ;)