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Gaby Djohan |
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Jasper Chiu |
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Joyce Tang |
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Katherine Yung |
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Ryan Tang |
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The grass is greener on the other side
Gaby Djohan
In my mind, if I can summarize what I learnt from this Nepal service-learning trip into one
sentence, it would be “The grass is greener on the other side.” Often times, it’s easier for us
to focus on what we don’t have and forget all that what we have right in front of us. Often times,
we spend too much time looking what seems to be “up” and desperately wanting to be there,
but never truly understanding the full experience, and just looking at a fracture of the whole
image. Often times, we never truly realize the value of something or someone until it’s no
longer available to us.
An old realization I made over the course of this trip is that I really truly adore children. Despite
the obvious language barrier between us, it didn’t make our bond any weaker. The first class
I taught on the first day we came to the school really made an impression on me. I could still
remember some of the names of the kids in the class. Gina, Omaya, Archit, Sanggita, Diphti,
Monoch. It was a class of fourth to fifth graders and we were teaching them English. From my
experience with all the other classes I taught, this classroom was the most spacious and had
good natural lighting. I believe that it somehow affected the learning process. The kids in this
class were especially interactive and eager to learn. The 80 minutes we spent with them went
by so fast. I remember one girl named Gina who was especially bright. She could speak
English much more fluently than her peers and were constantly asking about my experience
so far in Nepal, such as “When did you arrive?”, “How long are you staying?”, “Have you been
to the rock garden?”. I think it really shows their fascination and curiosity towards the outside
world. My heart was so warm after this teaching session. It didn’t feel like we were the one
teaching them, but more like them teaching and reminding us the meaning of being young and
having fun.
Since I was in 7th grade I dreamt of becoming a teacher. I didn’t know much about the logistics
back then, but I just know that it’s something that I would do happily every day. When I was in
10th grade, I thought that being a teacher wouldn’t make much money and I don’t want to live
miserably, so I changed my dream job to be a businesswoman. I didn’t put much thought into
my old dream job anymore. I went abroad to study business in a pretty good school and I
thought that I have my life set basically. However, learning about finance, economics,
accounting, though interesting and intellectually challenging, never gave me the level of
satisfaction and emotional reward I felt when I teach kids, and I don’t think money would make
up for the gap either. I was really inspired by seeing how Pink left her old life behind and
basically started this new life of hers dedicated for the people in Nepal. It made me rethink the
definition of living miserably. Whether that is defined by the amount of material wealth I own
or by how full my heart is day by day. To clarify, the relationship of the two is not necessarily
exclusive, but sometimes, to some extent, to do more, I believe it is.
This 9-day trip has taught me a lot about being content with what I have and the true meaning
of happiness. We think to ourself that life is like a race that never stops. We need to keep
pushing ourselves to have better things, better achievements, better job, and so on. However,
this kind of mindset will never take us anywhere we actually want to be. It is engrained in our
minds due to the society that we live in that in order to be happy we must have A, B, C, but
there is actually no one-perfect formula to being happy, it is something that we all must find
ourselves, and material wealth will only take us so far. We first need to truly know our self, in
order to know what we need, not just what we want, which is easily shaped by culture and
norm. Life is basically a pursuit of happiness. We might feel temporary happiness by some
things, but in order to truly reach everlasting happiness, our heart and soul has to be
connected to it, since life is more than just physical pleasures. Lastly, I really believe simplicity
is eventually the key to everything. We are born to this world with nothing to our name and we
will leave everything behind when we leave this world. I think we should learn to listen to our
basic instincts more and just focus on what we truly need and not making life more complicated
than it already is. |
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