This week, my elder boy took his first PSLE paper on Thursday. The term "high-stake" was used by him to describe the first most important examination of this twelve year old boy.
While I had been playing the role of tiger mother for the past few months, I have loosen my grip in the last two months leading up to the examination.
I remembered that I had attended a workshop by a retired teacher. She shared that in the grand scheme of things repeating a school year was a very negligible part of a person's lifespan. What was one year out of 80 years? The more important thing was to love and encourage the child.
Life journey is filled with challenges. There are many lessons to pick up along the way. I remember those from ostrich racing at Ellis Park. In their panic at the finish line, the ostriches shoot back in the opposite direction, toward the starting gates.
The ostriches remind us that life does not always move onward. Reverses are not that uncommon. At times, we are required by our own experiences to sometimes go in another direction altogether, perhaps even back to one of our many starting points.
Starting over is not a sign of weakness. It takes determination of an exceptional kind. Nowhere is one's character more magnificent than when you are back at a starting point, writing new goals for your life.
Like everything in the course of life, even your dreams can start over.
Like my boy, I am still learning to be a stronger and better person than what I was yesterday.
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