Good morning Mr Tshering, Mr Pramod, Mr Pasang, Mdm
Budhawati, fellow teachers and students. I would like to thank Mr Tshering for
giving me this privilege and honor to share my thoughts. I hope it will be a meaningful sharing for
all of you today.
I have with me, 2 students : Chilmi and Tshering today and they are going to answer some of my question during the sharing.
Let me start my sharing by telling you a story. It is a
story about an old farmer and a old horse.
This old farmer is very poor, all he has is an old sick
horse which he used to help him in his field. One day, he felt sad for his
horse, so he decided to let his sick horse go into the wild, to live out the
rest of its life.
Question : So what do you
think the old farmer is going to use for his farm, since he let his horse
go? He has nothing to farm his land?
So all his villagers came and offered their sympathy and
said : “How unfortunate you are!! How are you going to work the land and prosper?”.
The old farmer replied : “Who knows? We shall see.”
2 days later, the old horse came back, rejuvenated after
meandering in the mountainsides while eating the wild grasses. It came back
with 12 new younger horses.
Word spread to the village of the old farmer’s good fortune
and people came to congratulate the farmer on his good fortune.
On the next morning, the farmer’s only son set off to train
the 12 new wild horses. He was thrown onto the ground and he broke his leg.
Question : If you are the
villagers or the farmer’s wife, how will you react towards this unfortunate
event?
Words spread and the villagers came : Oh, what a tragedy!
Your son won’t be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You’ll have to do
all the work by yourself.”
Calmly going about his usual business, the farmer answered,
“Who knows? We shall see.”
Several days later a war broke out. The Emperor’s men arrived
in the village demanding all the young men to be conscripted into the Emperor’s
army.
But the farmer’s son was deemed unfit because of his broken
leg.
As it turned out, all the young village boys died in the war
and the old farmer and his son were the only able bodied men capable of working
on the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and prosperous.
Question : How many of
you have heard this story before?
It is quite a well-known story that is encouraging to me.
This story taught me not to see things at its face value.
What do you mean by face value? It means things or situation
that appear to what it is.
At the first turn of the event, many people thought that it’s
stupid enough that the farmer will let the horse go without thinking about his
livelihood!! He made a bad choice.
But it turned out that the horse brought along 12 young
horses.
Just when the situation looked good to others, the farmer’s
son broke his leg because of training the 12 young horses. It became a tragedy
to many people’s eyes.
Who will ever expect this unfortunate event to enable the
son to be exempted from the army and save him from dying in the war.
The result of the story is quite unexpected, isn’t it?
And how is this story relate to the topic I am going to
share with you today?
I would like to share with you :
The Power of Choice.
We can look at things/ situations at many angles.
Some will say : In life, we have no choice.
Let me give you an example :
As a student : We have to make sure we study hard and do
well so that we can earn a lot of money in future
As an adult : We have to make sure we work hard so that we
can live a good life, provide for our family and earn the respect of others.
Question :
So Chilmi / Tshering : Do you think we have the choice to
decide what we want to do in life? Why and why not?
There are things we have to learn to embrace it.
I do not regret every single day I live and I set this to be my life principle that if I am going to die now, I will have no regrets.
I held this principle since the day 9 Sept 2001. Can anyone
of you tell me what so special about 9 Sept 2001?
It was the day where the Twin Tower in New York city was
attached by the 2 aircrafts hijacked by the terrorists. About 3000 Americans died within a single
day.
That was the year when the world was reeled with the problem
of terrorist attack and it still is.
The thing that really strike me was the news report of the
victims who called their loved ones and told them how much they love each
other, few seconds before they died.
It had a lot of impact on me because it dawned upon me, how often do I take the trouble and time to
tell my loved ones how much I love them, before it becomes too late?
Dec 2004 : The killer Tsunami and various disasters
followed.
These series of world events helped me to realize the
fragility of life and made me change my life course.
From then on, my principle of life is : Live everyday to the
fullest, with the guide of my Scouting Principles : Responsibility towards self,
others (friends, family and country) and God
I made a few important choices in my own life :
I made the usual choice of studying hard, go to university,
come out to the society to work. Everything runs very smoothly for me.
But I am not contented with my ordinary life because I
believe that we have the power of choice. So at the 3rd year of my
career, I asked my school principal to let me go on a 55 days ASEAN Youth
Exchange Programme. I asked and my leave was granted. I was on a full paid
leave, visited the 8 ASEAN countries and interacted with the youths and stayed
with them in the big ship. I made a choice
In 2006 : And that is at my 13th
year of my teaching career, I was given a choice to switch my academic teaching
to non-academic teaching. I was offered to go into outdoor education full time
without compromising my salary.
It is a difficult choice to some teachers because outdoor
education is a total new and unattempted option to many teachers. It may be
difficult for me to go back into teaching if I am to go to other school to
teach. I may have forgotten my content knowledge over the years and it’s
difficult for me to become a full fledged teacher again.
I did pretty well in my school and I opened new grounds for
my school. My school obtained the niche status of Outdoor Education in 2012. In
Singapore, every government school has the autonomy of deciding their own niche
programme and use the niche programme for the character development of the
students.
In 2007 : I became very
tired and drained due to the demand of outdoor camps and expedition during the
whole year. I made another important choice. I took 1 year unpaid leave to
study an outdoor course in New Zealand.
This is again another unpopular choice to many. I may have
lost out to my contemporary in the career advancement. I would have been a head
of department by now if I continue the path as an academic teacher.
But a choice is a choice right? I took this path.. And it
led me to another choice.
In 2009, I went back to
academic teaching and I was given a choice to do research in the Ministry of
Education. I went to school 3 days a week and MOE 2 days to do my research.
In 2010 – 2013 : Again, I went back to school to start new
programme on Environment Education and Value Education.
In Jan 2014 : I resigned
from my teaching career and now here I am, in Bhutan, enjoying the time with
the staff and students of RHSS.
It is an unnatural path to many. Many would want to find a
new job before resigning from the current ones. Some find that I am very stupid
because I throw away my own iron rice bowl.
But a choice is a choice. You should never see things at
it’s face value. By making this choice, other opportunities opened up to me and
that’s how life is all about.
That’s the power of choice.
Don’t mistaken me at this juncture :
I am not encouraging you to quit your studies now to pursue
what you want in life.
My next point is : The power of
choice must come with the responsibility towards yourself, others and God.
Whatever decision I made in my life : I do make sure that I
fulfilled my responsibility towards my family and God, and what I hope to
achieve at different point of my life.
You need to make sure you are wise enough to make the right
choice and not letting yourself or anyone down with the decision you made.
It is the attitude you hold
towards the choice.
How many of you have heard from your friends saying :
I have no choice !! The bus came late, that’s why I am late
for school!!
I have no choice !! My house is so noisy, I cannot study,
that’s why I did not do well!!
I have no choice, there’s so much to study. That’s why I
failed.
I have no choice. This year, the students are so naughty and
don’t study at home, that’s why the class performance is so poor.
It’s not that you have no choice, it is : you choose the
convenience of putting the blame on situation or others so that you can get
away from the consequences.
Whenever you say you have no
choice, you are depriving yourself an opportunity to overcome the problem and
make yourself a better and wiser person.
Do not let the “no choice” mentality shortchange what God
can do for you.
Always remember the power of choice. A choice to make a
difference in your own life and other people’s lives. When you exercise this
power of choice, you realize that new opportunity comes to you and you will
never live a day of life in vain.
For a start, let’s remember to embrace everyday with a positive attitude.
Never say die, never give up on any
difficulty you encounter. But say : Yes I can !!
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