Farewell from your teacher

Eu Jin,

I had written this some time ago, but didn’t put it up till now. I attended the wedding of your classmates, Wan Dong and Grace, yesterday, and met a number of you from S7a whom I taught, and am reminded that the class is now one short of 24.

It’s not easy for a teacher to say farewell to an ex-student in this way. We’re used to sending our students off to a promising future, the kind that awaits with exciting challenges ahead, a not-so-distant future where ex-students return and tell of all their traverses in the world outside of school. We are not used to the possibility of not ever being able to see any of our students ever again.

You wrote me an email last year, saying that you googled my name and found my address, after bumping into Mr Bernard Lee. You said that working made you feel like coming back to school again, so you were reminded of images of your GP teacher. In April last year, I also asked you to get the S7A guys and girls together for NY’s 30th anniversary and you said you were very honoured to be given this task, though you were going to be away for work in the US at that time.

Eu Jin, you are the type of student of whom every teacher would say at one time or other, sigh… if only every one of our students we teach is like him… They say that education is more than inculcating knowledge. For you, knowledge was the only thing that we needed to provide. Even that, I’m sure you could have learnt it all on your own. You did not need to be taught how to be humble in times of greatness, how to be resilient in times of pressure and how to look out for others when you sense that they are in difficulty. You had it all within you. You had that rare unassuming air about you, and yet a determination to excel in everything you faced. You never let your circumstances overwhelm you, nor let success go to that level-headed mind of yours. You had more than enough motivation within yourself to achieve whatever you set your mind to. You had that look in your eyes that assured any teacher that this guy would turn out to be a fine young gentleman.

As we can all see so clearly from this blog, you have been an inspiration to all who have crossed your path, and your story will continue to move and spur us on to think beyond ourselves, and ponder what our life here on earth is all about. Time very often heals, but the questions we seek to answer will drive us to seek the things that truly matter. Eu Jin, if there’s one thing many of us have learnt, though in an awfully painful way, it’s that the only things that truly matter in this world, that really touch our heart permanently, are the relationships we invest in those around us. And you have shown us that so well, by being a model student, a leader who led by example, a colleague who was great fun to hang around with, a warm and caring brother , a responsible son any parent would be proud to call his own and most of all a loving husband. Not many I know have come close to achieving so much in so short a time.

I may not know you as well as some of your friends and loved ones who wrote in this blog, but I know you better now, sadly after you have passed on. For all who loved this man, may you find hope and love in the memories of him who continues to live on in your hearts, and may you also find strength and inspiration in God who loved us first.

Avril Tay