Swordie Bloggie

A few years ago, I watched this movie called Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief at a local cinema, so Percy Jackson is not really a smart kid, when one of his teacher asked him about something, he couldn’t answer him, not because he didn’t know the answer, but during that time, when he was reading the question, he actually couldn’t read.  But then there’s this scene where he was at a museum, one of his teacher asked him what was the name of the statue, of course he didn’t know, but then he looked at the letters, and the letters were not English, but when he looked at it, it changed into English, and he told his teacher the answer and he was right.

Then there were a couple of action scene where he freaked out, then one of his best friend started to explain why all of this things are happening, and one thing that was explained was why he couldn’t read normal English, it was because he was dyslexic, and that’s where it hit me, there are actually people who have dyslexia, and they face the challenge of not being able to read, one of them that I know of is called Daniel Powter, you might know him from the song Bad Day, yeah, I started to realize that dyslexic is a problem for a lot of people, it kinda stops them from showing their true potential which is hard. And maybe there are people out there who is affected, but let’s not lose hope, there’s actually a schools for learning disabilities which specialize in these types of situation where they show people who were successful in overcoming dyslexia.

So how does one with dyslexia try to get better? There’s this thing called the orton gillingham method which consist of visual, auditory and kinesthetic to help people with dyslexia. The method was conceived by Dr. Samuel Orton and Dr. Anna Gillingham, thus the name Orton Gillingham Method.

Knowing the method is not enough as it is, as they say practice makes perfect, that’s why there’s orton gillingham training, the purpose of training is to consistently build up and be better than before and slowly achieving something that’s worth fighting for. Just because you failed once doesn’t mean you’ll fail forever, just gotta keep trying, like Thomas Edison, he failed 10,000 times before he successfully invented the light bulb, but he said, he didn’t failed 10,000 times, he just found 10,000 steps into building the light bulb.

After so many years leaving school… last was form five at St. Michael Secondary School, Penampang, I’ve lost in touch with some of my schoolmate… classmate. There are 21 of us in the Form 5 Science class, 13 girls and 8 boys… I hope I got this correct, almost forgot how many of us in the class, and need to recall very hard their names too… LOL.

L-R: Jenny, Avril, me, Roland, Charlie, Lake, Jocelyn and Carolyn

I did meet some of them occasionally and some from time to time… but most, almost never since our last day at St. Michael School. Everyone went on with their own life… direction… after St. Michael…

Some went to further their studies locally or abroad. Some went into working life. Some started a family. And one, probably become a millionaire!

But last year (sound so long although last year is not even a week past), Christmas 2008, is extra special. I met 7 of them, four girls and three boys!

It went like this, although it was public holiday, Monday, 29 December 2008, I have to go to office to finish urgent work. After lunch, on my way to office, I received two calls from Charlie, one missed call. Charlie is one of the ‘never met’ although we did talk on the phone recently. He was asking me to attend a Christmas lunch at Carolyn’s house. I met Carolyn a few times since she is working with government like me.

Since we (me and another staff) just reach office, I said I can’t make it… after ‘talk talk’, Charlie said ok lah… About half hour later, Bonnyventure (hah… dono how to spell his name already… just call him Lake lah), called me. I met Lake occasionally. He and Charlie are at Carolyn’s house… including a few others. Since it sounds exciting, I said I will come but for a while only since I’m working today… I told my friend that I will leave him behind for a while. So off me to Carolyn’s house… arrive there in about 10 minutes, with great navigation through the phone by Lake.

There, I met the classmates.. Carolyn, Jocelyn (very long time no meet), Avril (very long time no meet), Jenny (very long time no meet), Charlie, Bonnie and Roland (occasionally meet).

I greet and shake hand with everyone… no hugging with the girls… their husband are around LOL. I greet them with ‘wah agazo kono’ aka ‘wah basar sudah ko’ aka ‘wah u so big already’.

But in return, when Jocelyn said we have not met for 20 years… WHAT 20 YEARS?… holy cow… I felt so old now like cow… Anyway, it was great meeting them again, although not all of them but it still makes the ‘reunion’ great… glad that I come.

The only ‘bad’ part is the liquor… yalah… I don’t drink like u all lah bah… I told you all I can take one can only ok… end up consuming almost two cans, some wine and some spirit called Jack & Daniel… shoot man, those stuff burned my throat and lungs… and I was walking and driving like a crab after that. Luckily I manage to reach office and get a half done nap while doing my work.

OK lah guys, hope to meet you all again…