My very first Toastmaster Club's Speech. I will never forget this and am so glad i still have this copy even though I crashed my harddisk a few months back...........................
‘Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get’.
Definitely, my mum didn’t know what she was going to get when she had me.
Imagine, nine whole months of an excess baggage limiting her freedom, getting morning sickness and getting an occasional acrobatic kick in her tummy.
I didn't have much recollection of my life during my infant years. I was told, in my later years,my granddad was a wee bit disappointed that his prayers for a grandson went unanswered. That had not made any impact on my parents. To them, their child is a joy and reward of their commitment of love towards each other.
I was’t born with a silver spoon and I was taught that money did not grow on trees. My dad enrolled me in a missionary convent school. It was there where I experienced my first taste of academic education and my appreciation of religion.
I had my fair share of fun and laughter in school. Me being pint-size, together with a few outspoken friends, we would ‘terrorise’(in inverted coma), our classmates with our cheeky antics and mischievous pranks, making sure that school weren’t all books, notes and theories only. In order to keep up with the school syllabus and being a Malaccan, the streak of kiasuiasm’ left me no choice but to go for additional tuition classes in the evenings. Young as I was at that time, I was quite a ‘gung-ho’, spending most of my afternoon in school participating in numerous extra-curricular activities. With such hectic school life, it was no wonder I had learn to appreciate sleep as one of the more precious commodity. So much so I had learnt to cultivate sleeping as an art.
Chapters of my life in college and in University was liken to the movie Braveheart, the final part where Mel Gibson cried,‘FREEDOM’. Being away from home made me understood what ‘dusk to dawn’ meant, I can go out at dusk and come back at dawn, no question asked. Considering the amount of time and money Malaysians spent in mamak stalls, Well at least I did, I often wonder
why no one thought of listing mamak stalls with the KLSE. Many of us would have been filthy rich shareholders by now.
Perth, Western Australia was where I had the chance to breathe foreign air on foreign soil. I was quite a health fanatic at that time. While my course mates attended lectures armed with books, notes, tape recorders etc. and I’ll be armed with a different armour, a tennis racket, tennis balls and sports shoes. Before Perth, I was totally hopeless with cooking but I came back a new person, at least I can hold my fort, cooking a meal for six. I was very eager to start claiming my place in the society. I figured, life should be quite a breeze since I am now able to earn my living. Then reality bites. After so many years of working, I realised I am just a statistic.
I guessed that’s what life is all about. It’s a journey of struggles and challenges added with dashes of emotions, perspiration and more importantly, HOPE. I can’t find more truth in what Forrest Gump had said, 'Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get.' For all the whinings and grumblings I had made about life,
...............................I still love my box of chocolate.
No comments:
Post a Comment