It is easy.
Easy to fall into the trap of thinking I’m superior. Superior because I have a fancy degree from a fancy place. Because on my cert there’s a couple of foreign names and Latin words. Because I wasn’t forced into this. Because I chose to do this.
It is easy to step into schools thinking I’m a better teacher than the ones around me, simply because I care. It is easy to think that they don’t care. It is easy to think that I’m trying to change the world, and they’re just here to collect a pay check.
It is easy.
But life is never that easy. It’s different, really - What we perceive reality to be, and what reality actually is.
Every now and then, we’d like to think we’re the king of a chessboard; the most valuable piece, the one that people should sacrifice for, because we have done our share of “life-sacrificing”. Or maybe we’re the queen; we own the right to do whatever we want, the superior being.
But the truth is this: we are but a pawn. A mere pawn, with little ability and comparatively insignificant. We are not entitled to anything, but are required to work for everything. We are not superior in anything, but merely there to play our role in the universe. And this is nothing to be discouraged about. Everyone starts off small, but as long as we are serious about our craft, and work hard at achieving our vision, we can achieve greater things. Like the pawn, step by step it crawls, but when it reaches the end of the board, it can be anything it desires to be.
There’s an Iban saying that goes ngerayap baka tekura, bejelengkit baka kera, lama lama sampai meh nuan ba temuda which loosely translates as “crawl like a tortoise, swing like an ape, but eventually you’ll reach your destination.
So we persevere. We slowly march on. We crawl. We struggle. But we will overcome.
