An emperor and a seed
An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."
The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here after one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!"
One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.
Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plant but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, still nothing in
Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kids laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "What great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"
When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold you new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?
Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"
THE MORAL OF THE STORY: In everything that we do, do it with honesty and we will be blessed!!
Mummy's home!!!
Mummy's flight arrived at Kuching International Airport yesterday evening at 4.35pm. Finally she's home after staying in Canada for exactly 4 months. Missed her so much!! My whole family went to fetch her at the airport. We arrived earlier so we went 'window shopping' at the shops on the 3rd floor. Most of the shops have already opened for business. Lots of nice things to see there but the prices are also 'very nice'.
When mummy arrived, it took her about 15 mins to collect her luggage and box and she nearly knock down the glass door...haha! Maybe her things are too heavy for her. We managed to squeeze all her things into the car which wasn't easy cause all her luggage and box are so big. In the car, on the way home, my brother started opening the hand-carried bags already, looking for whatever things that my mum brought back. Poor him...got scolded by my mum for being so impatient...haha!
Upon reaching home, we unpacked the box and luggage to get out all the chocolates for fear that it might melt in there. We didn't expect to have so many things in the luggage and box because it covered nearly 3/4 of our sitting room after we unpacked everything. Each of us got a few new pairs of clothes. Both my sisters, each received a digital camera of their own, a barbie doll from My Scene, etc. I received a pair of earings, 2 necklaces, cosmetics, crystal decor, 2 thumb-drives, what else....haiz..can't remember...haha! Too many to remember. What did Adrian get? A stack of origami papers, etc. Can't remember also.
The rest are presents for my cousins. Then we went out for dinner. Planned to eat at our usual seafood centre but it was closed when we reached there. Its also raining heavily so we didn't plan to go far since it was getting late so we went to the nearest coffeeshop to have dinner.
Back to school!!
Today is the first day of a new semester. Yesterday and the day before yesterday was 'Registration Day' so I registered yesterday. Since its a long semester I registered 5 subjects which are Pedagogy in Education, Sociology in Education, Management & Leadership in Education, Curriculum Development and Counseling in Education.
I attended pedagogy class today which started at 8am. The lecturer briefed us on the course assessment and what to be expected throughout the whole course. I expected to finish class earlier today but it turned out the other way round. Well...its the 'trend' of the university to finish class way earlier than the stated period of time for every first lesson of every subject. I was 10 mins late for class today cause I only ate my breakfast 15 mins before class. That stupid cook...don't know what happened to her...cooked my food so slow. Imagine I went to the coffeeshop at 7am but only got my food at 7.45am. I nearly left the place without eating to attend class. When I was about to leave, she came with the food so just sit down and eat lar. By the time I walked into the class its already 8.10am.
I was quite surprised when I walked into the class. I didn't expect to see so many students in the class cause from what I know, there'll be only 13 of us studying pedagogy. But didn't bother much about it. After the lecturer briefed us on the subject, he asked 'What do you understand about pedagogy?' Everyone looked at him blankly. Only a few answered his question. The rest kept quiet. Then one of the students asked 'What class is this?' The lecturer was actually quite surprised by that question. He then said 'Don't you know what class you're attending?' The student said that she's supposed to attend Management & Leadership in Education class but the lecturer is talking about pedagogy instead of management and leadership. Then everyone started laughing. She attended the wrong class and so was the rest of the students. There was a change in the timetable but they were not aware of it. So the lecturer let them leave the classroom since its not their class. I didn't expect so many of them to leave the room. After everyone left, there were only the 4 of us including the lecturer. The rest of the class did not turn up cause they got the wrong timetable too. So he lectured the 3 of us for 1 1/2 hour explaining...actually summarizing the whole subject. Pedagogy is actually quite interesting if you really get to know it.
I plan to drop Counseling in Education and save it for some other semester cause I heard that its quite tough considering I'm taking 5 subjects this semester. So I'll take Innovation, Creativity and Talent instead. Will have to see the officer in-charge tomorrow about it. I think thats all for now. Will update again soon. Tata!
