Friday, January 21, 2005
11:05 PM

A Stranger...

On bus 700A on the way home, this guy got on the bus den kept looking at me b4 sitting down beside me. After he sat down le still kept looking at me. I thot that he prob found me familiar or wad.. at first i thot i was supposed to noe him oso. Felt a bit uncomfortabl so i juz looked out of the window.... den suddenly he spoke in mandarin to me la... he said "hi miss", held his hand out and said "i'm alvin". He said he's 21 n from NTU studying Acc. Den he asked me where i was from & asked whether i'm afraid. I said no... & told him working now, waiting to go uni.

He asked wad method did I use to study, and den he said he's a bit autistic n he wants to overcome it. Then he asked me whether i can teach him how to "zuo ren". At first I was a bit shocked... den i calmly asked him "wad do u mean". Den he told me his prob lo.. den he had been whiling his time in school n did not make the most of his life and that he had no life basically. He said that other pple were humorous and smart and streetwise and that he wanted to be like the others... to be sharp n accepted in pple's social circle...

And den he kept on talking n talking...

Basicallly tink he wanted me to help guide him how to be accepted socially lo...

He kept emphasising that he's like a kid... he doesn't like to use his brains too much n take things superficially. In other words he not streetwise and tootsy and sheltered... Like no life... only mug n mug... memorise things when he dun even understand the stuff in the books and notes. Anyway he used to be from Chinese High and NJ...

Told him to relax.. dun keep suspecting that pple feel that he's lousy n blah blah... He asked me how to be a bad guy. Said I'll not encourage anyone to learn to be bad cuz there'r more nice than bad pple ard in the world. Besides being nice to a bad guy may make the person feel bad and treat him better... Told him that I felt that wad we studied in sch dun seem to be able to apply in the future, but we have to do well for the future. It's a step we have to take even if we dun like it. Told him to be more willing to take up challenges so he'll eventually find something that he likes and will den find life is meaningful. Advised him not to be afraid of failure, for it's when one fails that one learns most...

In conclusion... he confided in me cuz I'm a total stranger and that he'll not see me an hour after that. He was desperate to change his life and he din want to be the childish guy that he used to be. He wanted to be useful, capable, popular, fun, and basically normal. He wanted to be successful in the future, no longer the tootsy like he used to be...

Well... I wish him all the best...