running with scissors

By the by, I want to write about my students and my current job. Ah, what is new? I don't have anything else to write on anyway. Well, it is now 10 weeks along in the semester and my 8th week knowing and teaching them. So far, things have been a bit of both; tough yet fulfilling. But my limbs and brain are stretched to the end that the instant they pull something "funny", it can ruin my mood for the whole day. Students can definitely break me or make me. Like what Liyana says, "students ni lah penawar, students ni juga lah yang menyakitkan hati, buat kita sedih." It is so true. When you enter a class, the display of faces you see will determine how you will feel that particular time. I have a 3-hour class every Friday at 3 until 6 p.m with my Agrotech students and my inner motherly self will make an appearance because they have their own nursery, you see and in the wee hours of every Friday morning, they have to wake up and tend to their plants. So when I see them all tired and sleepy, I try to make it as easy-going as possible and cut short to only 2 and a half hours. 

Most of my Applied Science students on the other hand, are like energizer bunnies. They are a happy-go-lucky, the-sun-is-shining kind of bunch which delights me. They make my days and weeks bearable and I'm ever so grateful. One of them just got an offer to pursue medicine in Egypt. You should have seen me yesterday, I was beaming like mad. She was happy as well but tears welled up and ran down her cheeks  when she told me because she would miss her classmates a lot. I said to her go, just go because deep inside me, I know that what she shares with her friends here will not be easily broken by distance. 

I also teach pre-diploma students. Judging from their level, you may think their proficiency in English isn't that good and yes, I have no arguments about that. Nevertheless, to be honest, if I don't continue teaching here next semester, they are the ones I probably miss the most...

If I don't continue teaching here....then what is next for me? That question occupies my mind all the time now. Next semester is to start mid-Nov and I will only have a few weeks off to think this through. Sometimes I feel this job is the best, is so much fun, noble and provides me the reason of life itself. To educate and to shape young adults to become better, so what more could I possibly do or want? But then, some days turn bad and I feel like transferring to something totally new so that I won't have to deal with kids who are just starting to develop their personalities, thinking and whatnot while dragging me with them to ride their emotional roller-coaster that I've ridden years before. Then again, can you tell me which job doesn't have an "off" day? Every single one has right?

I'll think about it some more..

p.s: As of 4 p.m just now, the numbers in my account have multiplied from a three-digit amount to a four! I just received my pay whoohoo! My first pay!