Today stood out from my quotidian life because I managed to tackle two salient things on my mind.

The first thing concerned my future. Some of you may remember that I went for an interview at the Ministry of Education Headquarters because I wanted to be transferred to an elementary school and enrol my son into the school I would be teaching at. Well, the Human Resources Department emailed me to ask me for my employment letters and pay slips shortly after the interview, so I assumed that things were progressing nicely. However, two months have passed since my fateful interview - and I have not received any official notification yet.

Normally, I would have refrained from approaching my principal, but because being in the same school as my son would simplify my life tremendously, I put on my big boy boots and ambushed my principal during assembly today. I explained my situation and sought her help to email the HR for an update.

I did it! One awkward conversation that I never backed down from!

And that’s not all. I also cleared a tedious chore. So, my school’s mid year exam featured a form filling section, in which students were expected to fill in their personal particulars. Now, this may sound ludicrous, but many youngsters don’t even remember their mobile numbers. I guess it’s not exactly their fault since we outsource memorisation to smart phones these days, but this doesn’t make my simple task any easier.

Since I didn’t focus on this during the mid year exam, my students performed disastrously because I didn’t give them enough time to internalise the details. Hence, the most effective way to make sure that they do better for their final year exam was to provide them with a personalised data sheet consisting of all necessary information. Something like this:

You can imagine what an incredibly boring and tedious task this was to repeat for 55 students. I often found a reason not to pursue this because there was always a more urgent task to fulfill, something more credible that would make me come across as legitimate. But today, I told myself that I couldn’t possibly postpone it any longer.

I set my mind to Hyperfocus mode and steeled myself to finish it once and for all. And I did! Now doing this may not constitute as visible work, but it filled my soul. I was doing right by my students - and darn it, now they really should go memorise their personal information.

It isn’t every day that I emerge from work with my heart lighter. Gonna cherish days like this to the max.