A Colourful Life

"At the end of our life our questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well?"

"Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are."

Yes, I'm moved by these quotes when I first read them. I'm sure we've all known these ideas for long but how many of us are willing to, or bother to squeeze some leisure time to achieve that?

Being lost in work and life in the first few years after graduation, I suddenly realised one day that my life couldn't go on like that forever. I reckoned I deserved better. I'm so lucky that I took the first move to find whatever interested me instead of baulking at the idea of doing something I'd never done before.

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"Volunteers are seldom paid; not because they are worthless, but because they are PRICELESS!"

My few voluntary work experiences are definitely wonderful because they've provided great opportunities for improving the quality of life, gaining exposure to different new ideas, meeting interesting people, networking and personal growth. People say that my career is a dull one but after all these years of experiences, I believe that it's not the job nature but the attitude that matters. And one of my many ways to make my life colourful and keep a positive attitude is to be involved in voluntary work. It makes life more fascinating because it's always full of surprises!

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."
-- Mark Twain

Come and join us!

An Incident for Thought

It's about the experience I had yesterday morning, at the minibus station on the way to work.

I heard a middle-aged couple quarrel vigorously at the station. Though I couldn't believe my eyes, I ignored them and got on the mini-bus. There was an innocent junior secondary girl weeping in the single back seat and then I suddenly realized the couple were her parents. We could all hear them quarrel because the mini-bus was still waiting for passengers in the early morning.

I didn't know why they did so in the public but I did feel sorry for the girl. She's just too young to bear all these alone on the mini-bus, the exposed shame of the family.

I moved to the back and gave her a pack of tissue paper and she took it without looking at me. And when the mini-bus left the station and she was finally away from her parents, I invited her to sit next to me. She was still crying. The poor girl was kind of frightened by my invitation but she still moved and sat next to me at the back.

I comforted her a little during the journey though I knew I couldn't help her much. I just said a few words from time to time because I gussed what she needed was just someone to be with her, to make her calm herself down before she started her day at school. A nice girl she was, she said thank you and gave me a few timid responses. She told me the quarrel started just because of her carelessness for losing a wallet. She admitted it was all about her.

But that was still too much for her. I could feel her sorrow. It must have been a terrible experience for her. She didn't deserve the pain, did she?

I guessed she did feel better at the end because she stopped sobbing finally. I said a few words of encouragement and left, hoping she was strong enough to bear all these in her young age.

This incident certainly gave us food for thought.