Today my maid shared a story with me.
When she was back in Myanmar for a vacation, she saw this little boy- about 6 or 7 years old?- on the streets.
She heard another lady ask the little boy why he wasn't in school,
And he replied that he didn't have enough money to pay the school for some thing
(could be an outing, or textbooks, or classroom fees...)
So he wasn't able to go to class that day :(
And afterwards, my maid called him over and asked him how much he needed.
"200 Myanmar kyat," he said.
[Initially with  my IQ I thought that would be like $50]
Without hesitation my maid gave him 500 kyat:
200 for the school, with instructions to GO TO SCHOOL the next day.
300 for his mom to cook a good meal that night.
The little boy was so overjoyed and excited, y'know, he ran all the way back to his house!
(But not before asking my maid where she lived)
And I just got feel-good vibes from that act of kindness.

But on the other hand it makes me sad.
500 kyat is just... 50 cents in Singapore.
The boy couldn't afford 200 kyat for school.
And how privileged are we to be going off to Uni, $60k a year?
Yet we still throw away our opportunities to study and waste even more of our parent's money on frivolous stuff.
The little boy was so thrilled to go back to school. Why can't we be a little more like that?
I'm not saying that I (or generally anyone in my generation) loathe school but I feel like studying has become less of a priority than the social interactions we get in school.
Of course, I'm not saying we should be 'study hermits' (which is what my mom was ._.) and study study study without having fun,
But to just have a desire to LEARN and not be like "what am i doing here i wish i didn't need to study".
Show respect to profs and try not to sleep in class!
I will try my best to pay attention in classes this year. (muscle emoji)

On a side note, it feels good to be validated.
Like bringing joy to people's lives and being recognised and all that.
Mental NTS to watch out for the 'pride of life'!!

Am typing this out on a proper desktop instead of on my ipad and typing on physical buttons feels goood.
Maybe I should get the Blackberry Q10 that Jemma has been raving about!!