I Have Almost Forgotten . . .

Students come and go every year. There are so many names and so many faces that pass through my hands, and through time, they fade into the deep recesses of my memory.

This afternoon, while visiting The Reading Bus, I had the opportunity to meet a former student of mine, TK, whom I taught a few years back when he was in Form 6. After catching up for a while, I found out that he's now a temporary teacher at a neighbouring school in Miri.

In the midst of a very chaotic room with lots of children and adults milling about, he came back to tell me that he remembered being in my choir. That was in 2006, when the choir team managed to secure a third place in the SUPP inter-school patriotic songs competition. The victory came as a surprise, but we were of course so ecstatic.

TK went on to tell me that being in the choir and winning the competition was really memorable for him. "Sangat best, cikgu!" TK said to me.

I was really touched and inspired, listening to him, because for all the things that he would not remember about school, he would remember and cherish his experiences he had in my choir because it had impacted him in some way.

I had nearly forgotten about the choir episode. It had after all been four years. However, as I reflect, I am reminded that I can do all things, as long as I put my mind to it. That, and of course a lot of hard work. I am also reminded that teaching is all about making a difference in somebody's life, whether in or out of the classroom - like it had impacted TK.

Of course, at the time, all these notions took the back seat as I was most concerned about getting my team to sing and to sing right.

Come to think of it, I remember quite clearly how the choir came about. Well, I was approached early one morning by my new principal then, about sending a team of kids for choir competition. I was rather reluctant at that time, because there was only a month and a half before the competition. I had no songs to sing, and I had no singers.

Nevertheless, I started recruiting members. I had Form 1s right up to the most senior Form 6s in the team. A leader among them was quickly identified, and she naturally became the conductor. H****** was a really great leader as she could keep the team unified. She arranged practice times, and she made the choir sing again and again to perfect the tune.

We decided to sing Warisan and Sejahtera Malaysia. I had to arrange the songs myself since there lacked music scores. And practice was carried out almost every afternoon. The kids practised really diligently.

The principal popped by one afternoon, and was pleasantly surprised that the kids could actually sing like a real choir. He started dropping by more often, listening to the kids singing. I knew he enjoyed listening to them.

To cut the long story short, the kids did well at the competition night, and our hard work paid off when we got 3rd, behind SMKB and RRSS.

For me, the victory that year was really sweet.