Today was my most sinful day as a teacher! Instead of being woken up by my “菊花台”ringtone alarm, I was woken up at 9 plus by my “大长今”ringtone, which I set for phone calls. (I place my handphone beside me on my bed to wake myself up. Usually, this method works better for me than alarm clocks because of the phone's vibration.)
That ringtone suddenly became a nightmare to me as I opened my eyes and recalled that today was a Monday, a SCHOOL DAY! All my drowsiness instantaneously disappeared and I quickly looked at the number of the incoming call. It was from General Office! Shit! I didn't bother to answer the call as I was panicky! At the same time, I received Sin Yi's sms, saying that she felt terribly uncomfortable in the canteen's toilet. Oh dear! I was not even physically in school YET! As I quickly washed up and got dressed, I was reproaching myself for being late, for being unable to attend to Sin Yi and at the same time, quite worried for her condition.
I was in time for my 3/5 lesson, which started at 10 o'clock. I had to conduct the lesson in a rather husky voice as I had not eaten or had barely drunk anything. (Of course, I deserved it!)Later, I found out that Sin Yi did not even request to go home and rest. She must have been feeling terribly sick the whole day...
The whole school seemed to know about it as the teachers and HODs were surprised to see me as they thought I was on mc or was away for a medical appointment, and they all enquired whether I was ok. I just vaguely replied, "Ya, ya, I'm ok." I urged them silently: I'm already remorseful. Please stop probing or showing "acts of concern" to save me from further embarrassment, ok?!
I guess this is one of the pains of growing up! My students often felt nothing when they overslept and did not come to school. At the most, I just call their parents up and they receive nagging from me and their parents. Things are so simple for them! How I envy you guys! But once you become an adult, such seemingly minor mistakes can become one of the worst sins as you are then loaded with
RESPONSIBILITIES and
GREAT EXPECTATIONS to fulfill, failing which, you will then need to experience a whole lot of negative implications and consequences. I'm not exaggerating, my dear students! This is
REAL in the working world! So while you are still young, correct all your mistakes and don't let them become your habits.
