The one who shaped who I am today

The one who shaped who I am today

I went through many different phases in my life, from primary school to junior college, and the only one who never gave up on me was my mum. As cliché as it sounds, my mum was my motivation to study hard and become someone she would be proud of.

I still remember in primary school, while all my friends were stuffed with stacks of assessment books and had schedules filled with tuition classes, I was mentally and physically free. I was never forced into studying. I have never been punished or scolded for my poor grades. My mum gave me the freedom that many primary school students could not enjoy.

As I entered to secondary school, I abused the privilege that I had and the trust that my mum had in me. Just like other rebellious teens, I lived in my own world and I did things without thinking about the consequences. I skipped lessons, ran away from school, talked back to teachers and hung out with bad company. I quarreled with my mum almost every single day but she never gave up on me. I only stopped being rebellious when I saw my mum being laughed at in front of my relatives. My younger cousin laughed at my mum’s pronunciation of a supermarket name, Carefour. My mum did not have much education and she could only speak and understand Chinese. I was so angry because I felt that my cousin did not respect my mum so I told her off and cried afterwards (my loser moment and my mum laughed at me…).While I was telling her off, I was reminded how disrespectful I was towards my mum all this time. From that day onwards, I made a huge effort to maintain a healthy relationship with my mum and catch up on my studies.

When my O’ level results got released, they shocked my whole family. My mum did not expect me to enter a junior college. Before I went to collect my results, she told me “It doesn’t matter which school you go to, as long as you can get into one, I’m happy enough.” In fact, she expected me to go ITE. I remember during A’ levels period in JC crying in front of her because I felt that I was going to fail. She listened to me attentively and she cried too. She cried because she didn’t know how to help me academically and she felt useless. I cried even more. 

My mum guided me to the right track when I wandered off. She made me realize the importance of education. She motivated me to be an educated and independent person so that I can stand up for her and myself. Even though she could not help me with my homework, she taught me good values and morals that could not be learnt from textbooks. She taught me how to love and care for people when I had so much hate in me during my rebellious phase. Without her, I wouldn't be who I am today. 

[EDITED 11/9/2014 2.36PM]