The lessons of disappointment, learned, at a, very, young age, too difficult for a child to manage, and yet, we’d still, all, grown up because of these, broken promises that our adult counterparts failed to, keep…translated…
It was 1971, back when the pencil sharpeners were, an extravagance to the families, we’d normally used the small blades to keep our pencils sharpened enough, and, the better from that was that tiny rectangular box with the shaving blades installed, we’d stuffed our pencils into the hole, then turn the pencils to sharpen them. In my sixth grade year, our instructor brought a large pencil sharpeners the color of the bluest lake I’d ever seen to class, claimed that she was going to sharpen everybody’s pencils during break, all of us became too excited, and, for that period of class, we’d stayed, especially quiet and focused on what she was teaching us.

what the students, used…photo from online
It was break time, I watched my pencil box, with all the pencils already, sharpened to pointy, thought, why would I want to stand in line, I’d much rather quietly, read the “Chinese Children Daily” on the newspaper racks on the back of class, but, a classmate who’d used the large pencil sharpener waved a box full of perfectly sharpened pencils to show me, then, the words on the newspapers, started, going all over the places, and I couldn’t read the contents anymore.
I’d thought, fine, broken my pencil down, lined up, and waited to get baptized by the sharpening of pencils. And yet, the bell rang, the teacher announced, “I shall sharpen your pencils another time”.
For the entire class period that followed, I’d felt regrettable, and slowly, used the small knife pencil sharpener, to make the perfect curve on my pencils, until the end of our elementary school years, our instructor never remembered his promise to the class, and with time, everybody forgot about it too. And yet, I’d gained the understanding since, what’s not mine, no matter how beautiful, how wonderful, it’s nothing but mirages, what’s in our hands, no matter how ordinary, how plain, that’s, what’s, real.
And so, this is how it’d felt, getting let down at a very young age, and, the writer learned, to NEVER hold any expectation of anyone else again, and that’s, such a difficult lesson for children to learn, and yet, the writer had, grown up, matured, through this experience of the teacher’s not fulfilling her/his promises to the class.
here’s what the instructor brought to show the class! Photo from online

You must be logged in to post a comment.