Learning to Live - Buddy Mentor Reflection

It is comforting to be reassured that academic intelligence once again does not have a concrete correlation to social aptness, that someone with a degree compared to someone with little more than a "O" level cert may be totally indistinguishable in a social environment.

Our buddies showed that ethics and manner was not an attribute of only the rich and powerful but exists in all levels of society. While it may seem like an obvious fact that the fore-mentioned is true, the contrary held beliefs are surprisingly not uncommon. It is just an interesting fact to take note of again and the ever-gentle reminder of reality checks on our preconceived ideas. Overall, this would just be a blanket take on today.

What I took away from today would be the maturity and the frailty of my buddy. I do not want to sound like a judge or make him feel judged but it would seem pretty selfish not to share what my buddy highlighted in his "current state/my dreams" project. He drew a picture of him telling himself he has to study for PSLE if not he will not make it to secondary school, which in the end, he did not and hence his current situation.

The level of his maturity at that point in time in primary school was way higher than mine at that time to say at least. But to know what must be done and not do it suggests a sort of weakness in the mind that requires constant guidance and prodding along. The sort of weakness that most of us suffer from, just in a different way. Which makes it quite a scary prospect that any one of us could have just as easily fallen through the cracks and disappeared into oblivion. How lucky/blessed we are to be in our situations, to be given the chance to pull these kids from the cracks and guide them along.

Besides that, I think that my buddy was quite enjoyable company, not the animal kind, but rather, fun.
I think as a whole, we did quite a commendable job with socialising with the buddies and making them feel at ease. How we came across to them is a different matter, to be viewed as an older brother/sister who can be relied on and trusted cannot be done in one meeting. It takes a great deal of commitment and time to build a proper relationship whereby the boundaries of secrecy are shattered and the openness is mutual.

I feel we are heading in the right direction for our buddy program and for the idea of F1 as well as Singapore having a sustained compassionate heart.