A great teacher...

In Form 4, I had an Additional Mathematics teacher, remembered fondly as Miss Ho. She was a small chili padi, (a type of chilli, small in size but super spicy) small but nice and powerful. I was in 5 Science 1, which was coincidentally the smartest class in school (i dont even know how i got there!)

There were 45 students in the class and i would be the No.43 - well given all the nerds and brains being in that class, i obviously didnt do well in Add Maths - far behind the smart girls.
I didnt really care much about the classes, copied my homework. She knew all this and tried to talk to me but i told her that there is no point as i wont use Add maths in my life after this. why try?

I failed throughout form 4, one day i went up to her to ask her to do my forecast as i wanted to apply for a scholarship. I begged her to give me a good result as i promised to work hard. All she said was, "No, Maureen. You dont deserve even a good forecast because you never tried."

With that, she gave me a C5 as a forecast. That was good considering I failed throughout. But something else she said that made me change the way I looked at Add Maths..."And Maureen, what's the point of me giving you an A, you will never achieve that in the real exam (SPM)"
From that day, I worked my arse off for Add Maths. Everyday when i came back from home, I would spend 3 hours practising my Add Maths. What i didnt know, i asked my smart classmates. I refused to ask Miss Ho. I had too much pride. Slowly, my grades improved and for SPM, i got an A2.
When I came back to school to collect my SPM results, I went up to Miss Ho to thank her for all she has done for me. Importantly, she taught me my first lesson in life. You're not a failure unless you try. And if you dont try, you're the failure.
Hence, i live by a motto "The greatest achievement in life is to rise up from failure"
This motto has never failed me since.
Miss Ho is what i call a good teacher. She taught me more than Add Maths but how to take on life!