The weekends have been about feasting with my ex boys. First group was on Saturday evening at Suntec City Mall. These are going to graduate or has already graduated. I was with Yifong, Shaun and Joshua. Melvin had prior arrangement and couldn't join us. Yifong actually wondered if we could do the Christmas dinner but it was too short a notice for me so I decided to KIV till he returns from the Philippines. He will be going to do community work with Felicia Chin. Aha...yup, he will probably take a lot of pictures to show off to us about his good fortune. Dinner was heavy and I paid for dinner. Shaun told me that they are worth the investment because later I would be fed better. I shall not pray for that. These ex students are very close to me and we can go on and on the night if not because two of them had to run the marathon the next day.
Tonight was different. I finally get to meet my CMPS team members after their A levels. They looked so happy and fresh.
Originally I was thinking of not going because I was unwell. With too much of merry making, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with a severe sore throat and a slight fever. I was not very smart when I popped a deadly knock out pill that would send me to bed for like six hours and still continued to make me feel tired. But I did. I slept until 9am and then slept some more after sending my dad to church.
But I woke up on time to reach there fifteen minutes late. The boys were already settled nicely into the restaurant. And we chatted the night away. They bought me dinner. The treat they wanted to give me since we last met at the finals for the competition. Don as usual was very humourous. Shennan was tired. He ran 42km and got up at 5am to do so. He finished about 5 hours later! Goodness. Aaron is still the respected head of the gang. Zhiyi is concerned about what to do for his university. Chen Xing was thinking about reading psychology and I wondered if I changed his mind. Then there is Desmond who is always so placid but nice. They laughed about the high school days and I listened to how each has grown stronger.
When Aaron and I walked to the train station for the circle line, he told me how he lived the past 6 months. Our conversation will continue when he returns from an interview with Oxford.
This is a very special group of boys. They came together because they wanted to win the project. They did. But they won not just because of the project. They are winners because they worked hard at pulling each other through the storms. I will pray that they will remain close to the ground and be level headed. Yes, they will fly high. These are no ordinary boys I worked with. They are good at what they do. I will pray their hearts will remain close to the poor. Because it is the poor that started the project.
As you busy yourself with the shopping. Don't forget to also catch up with long lost friends and family. Take some time to take stock of your life.
My Christmas presents have already come in small packages. I unpack one by one and am grateful there are packages for me to unpack.
Have a great week.
