A Teacher's Day

I received an unexpected text from my student tonight. It read,

"Happy Teacher's Day! Hope u hav a wonderful day!"

I was totally caught by surprise. I had no idea May 16 was Teacher's Day. I'm aware of its existence and this isn't the first time I've received well wishes from my students but I never made it a point to remember the date. I kind of start to wonder, why is that so? Perhaps I'm afraid of being disappointed that none of my students will remember. So, I guess it's best to just forget the date and let it pass by unnoticed. And if my students remember, then great. But if not, I'm not going to feel disappointed (Ah... do I sense a lie there?)

I guess for someone like me, a person who tries to give his all to the ones he loves, it's quite impossible not to feel disappointed when there is no sense of appreciation on the other part. But this isn't to say that my students don't appreciate me. I know they do and I'm going to sound really big-headed to make a fuss out of this so I'd rather not. I'll just accept whatever gratitude that comes my way and be grateful for that.

So, was today a wonderful day? My plans for a class reunion totally failed. Only 3 could make it out of the 16 and even then, I had to call them one by one to confirm. I'm not complaining so much about that but rather that it's so hard to get everyone together again. Well, not that I didn't know either. It's the same with every graduated class every year... they leave, grow up and live their own lives... I should know better. But that doesn't change the fact that I miss them and I'll take whatever trouble to organise a reunion... if it means we can be together again, then I must keep trying.

After getting over the disappointment of the failed reunion, I had to face the prospect of seeing Manchester United win the Premier League title with a 0-0 draw against Arsenal. Sigh... another season gone and Liverpool still can't win the title. Non-football fans must be scratching their heads about how this can be anything so terrible? Well, football fans, I'm sure you understand exactly how I'm feeling right now huh?

Then, as I was driving home, feeling that today had been a really lousy day, I got another text. Another surprise,

"Happy Teacher's Day. Hopefully i'm not too late."

And then, the disappointment of today's events seemed to roll away... I smiled as I thought to myself, 'How can it ever be too late to be happy?'

=)


*Special thanks to Yan Wei and Jia Min. I appreciate you two a lot.