Boy to man

I was out the most of yesterday with an ex-student. This young chap in his mid-20s went around with me non-complaining for seven hours, shopping, eating, then more shopping until my old pair of legs almost boycotted me. I was the one who kept complaining throughout about feeling tired and he kept teasing me about my lack of stamina. When I finally had to surrender to my feet, we went on a second round of eating at a Japanese restaurant before we parted ways.

As we’ve not been in contact with each other for almost a year, he had a lot of updating to do. He talked to me about his work, his family, his love life. He currently works in a sports shop and he shared with me his attitude towards this job as well as his plans in this new-found career. He also mentioned a little about what’s been happening at home, his mum, his dad and his brothers. This boy never had a good relationship with his dad but he is now able to tolerate his dad’s attitude towards him and even makes an effort to communicate with him. When it came to his love life. I was rather surprised that he has not been seeing anyone for quite a while. He broke up with his last girlfriend because he could not spend time with her nor give her the attention she wanted - he was working in a pub then. Now, he works long hours at the sports shop. He has been the shop’s top sales person since he joined them. When he is not working, he prefers to just stay at home. He said he is enjoying the freedom of being single.

12 years ago, I taught a boy who could hardly read and could not even differentiate ‘who, what, when, where, why’. The boy managed to pass his PSLE that year and went on to study four years in a secondary school and two years in a technical institute. Today, this young man is able to converse with me entirely in English. I was the one who kept switching to Chinese during our conversation. Oh yes, the young man bought me dinner last night and paid for it with his own credit card.

^___^

ps: If you need to get sports shoes and apparels, do go to the sports shop located at White Sands in Pasir Ris and ask for Jonathan.