So my last attempt to blog a whole series of posts based on The Purpose Driven Life failed. Majorly. But really, was anyone even surprised? I’ve never been able to keep up with my own blog. Sometimes, I think it’s a lot bigger than I make it out to be. Alas, here I am again, in all my humbling glory, blogging. I’ll just blog once a week, I tell myself. Yeeaaah. We’ll see about that.

Let’s see, what has happened since June? Oh, not too much. I’m still taking Spanish classes (my first test is next week! Madre mia!), I went to the Da Vinci exhibition at the Science Centre, I got myself hooked onto Postcrossing, I had a massively awesome time wailing to Rock tunes at a slightly dodgy karaoke lounge (but they had an amazing catalogue of English songs), I went to see Liverpool FC play when they came down to Singy (yay!),  and I’ve started to finalise my December plans to London & Paris (woo!). AND all this time, I’ve managed to survive (albeit barely) the demands of work. Anyone wanna pat my back?

Now we’re on the last day of July, and I can’t help wondering if I’ve done anything impactful over the last 7 months. More specifically, will I look back at this year thinking, have I done anything for anyone? It’s one thing to lead an eventful life. I’ve attended 3 concerts, gone to a big (by my standards) sporting game, picked up a new language… but what about helping someone out? Getting someone out of a bad habit? Leading them to learn more about God? I don’t know if I have the fruits to show for that.

I’m probably feeling all this because it’s my last year with my form class and I have no idea what’s going to happen to them after they’ve graduated. Just two days ago, while standing at the back of the classroom and singing the National Anthem with the kids, I couldn’t help feeling a wave of emotions overcoming me. I wanted to treasure the moment so badly because I knew that some of these kids are not going to come back next year. You see, as much as I would like to have all of them stay one more year to take their O levels, I also know that that isn’t the route for some of them. As a teacher, the one thing I care most about is making sure I’ve impacted a life enough for a student to have enough confidence in his/her abilities so that he/she can fulfil his/her full potential. And I really don’t know if I’ve prepared my kids enough for life after Secondary School. I wonder if there is anything I could’ve done better over these past 2 years.

That said, I’m glad to see evidence that my class has grown. Many have become serious about learning and are focused on doing well. They’ve formed study groups. They’re asking more questions. They’ve even put in more effort into subjects that they don’t love. It has been a long and arduous process, but I’m happy to see that change has come. I just hope I’ve done enough.