Tuesday, December 04, 2007 @8:38 PM
ok. i finally found time to update. there's good news and very saddening news. i'll start with the sad one.
my pe teacher, mr stephen loh, passed away recently. i heard of the news of the five dragon boaters missing from my fellow vietnam trip mates on the first day when i arrived at vietnam and all the further news on subsequent days as well. when i first got the news, i was still holding on, not believing what i heard and hoping that they would be found surviving but on the next day in vietnam, i heard that the five of them left us. bingxin and i were on the scaffolding white washing the walls and we started talking about mr loh and all that he had done, even though he's only our pe teacher and we only see him for such a short period of time every week. we were rather emo. bx was the pe rep during school term.
the wake was on thursday and i was still in vietnam. i felt lost as i've known the news yet i couldnt do anything about the situation. the group of us observed a minutes of silence but still, i had the strong yearn of returning to singapore. this is my first time when someone so close left me. but something to be thankful is that mr loh passed away doing something of his passion and what he loves.
returning home from vietnam, i read all the news articles on the tragedy and i cried. i saw my school's website and read the tributes. it really pains me that he's gone.
dearest mr loh,
thank you so much for being our pe teacher. you're really one special teacher who makes the effort to remember our names even though you do not need to since we dont see you so often. although i only see you twice a week for two sessions of pe lesson of 50min each, you are always there showing us concern, asking how's our day and sharing your experience with us when we complain about heavy school work load. really appreciate your words of kindness. also, you never lose your cool whenever we dont listen to you or tried to create problems when we dont participate actively during pe lessons. not only that, from time to time we complain about pe lesson, about how we're not playing games and you painstakingly explain to us why you want us to do gym. i will never forget your words of "i want to share with all of you my passion of working out to keep a fit body." i know i took it for granted because i dont like working out but now, you've really made me learn another lesson, the really hard way. i wont mind having you nag at us doing our one RM but now, it's too late. it's an important lesson learnt to cherish someone when they are right there in front of you. you're a gift to all of us being our pe teacher and i guess we havent really cherish you enough and you're gone. mr loh, you'll be greatly missed by all of us and you'll be remembered, for the passion you've shown for dragon boating and sharing with us the beauty of keeping fit. we will never forget the teacher who's so well built and taught us pe lesson, showing us those basketball skills and all. thank you so much for everything, for being such a wonderful teacher.
still havent really recover from the sadness after typing the above so i guess i'll have another entry on the vietnam trip. really sorry.