Tuesday, February 07, 2006

It would be a sensitive entry so here goes:


My mum came back from work yesterday evening and she found a bag with two madarin orange hanging on my door handle.She asked both my brother and i if we knew who did the act. Then my brother said he saw an old lady walked past earlier.

Both my mum and i had a sudden realization who this old lady is. She is an old hunched back old lady who lives in my neighbourhood and we got to know her because she comes to us for used old newspaper to sell regularly. She always comes with a trolley and my mum would save our newspaper for us while i would help by loading the newspaper onto her trolley.

It must be her. It could not be anyone else. And the recurrent thought of the act just sent me a wave of feelings while i was eating my dinner and my eyes went wet liaoz. Am i crazy or wat? i doubt i am. I tell u how i felt at that time.

Do u realise most of us are just caught up with our material pursuits, like mugging like crazy for our quizzes or racking our brains on how to impress during presentations and forgot the little things in life? What my mum and i did was so insignficant to most people, just saving our newspapers and helping her out. I dun even think i would list the act as the most signficant thing done on a particular day. Yet the fact that this old lady went the distance of giving us madarin orange during New Year shows her little appreciation of my family.

It is not about the orange. It's about the act. What may seems insignficant to us may mean a whole lot to others. I am touched by this old lady's small token and it made me kinda emotional. It makes me very appreciative of the small things around me and made me slow down my pace to think about things beside school, money etc. I have been taught a lesson on life. Probably a lesson cannot be learnt in NTU.

In this new year forget how much hongbao money u have received or if u are going to win the 10 million dollars Toto. I am bestowed the most valuable new year gift. Hope all of you would be inspired by my this little story.