Happiness Journal 23/10/25

Today, the fifth graders sat for their final year exam. Although some of them have given me much grief this latter part of the year, I zoomed out and applied some empathy. How demoralizing it must be to be put through the grind and feel in your soul that you are just not as book-smart as your peers? Which explains why I went out to the nearby store to buy Yupi sweets for every one of them.

I subsequently went to their Maths lesson and put the candy unobtrusively on each of their desks. From their astonished looks, I could tell that my ‘intrusion’ was like a tiny ray of sunshine illuminating their dreary existence. I even earned a “I love you” - from a boy, no less.

It was nice shedding my usual gruff demeanour and sprinkling some kindness for once.