A year and seven months ago, in the winter of November 24, 2011, a 21 year old man arrived at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. When the plane was about to have its landing, he was kind of surprised on what he saw.

It was a place opposite to what he thought it was. From atop he was looking elsewhere and found nothing but lakes and big ponds. A woman of her 30’s fetched him at the airport and introduced herself as “Sunshine”. The same woman brought him to his main destination, to a school named Hyledar International Kindegarten, Nanhu Branch.

That person is no other than but me. 

With all honesty, at first, things never worked the way I imagined. My first few months were the most difficult times I could ever have in a milieu like this. I came here knowing not even a single Chinese word or a part of its culture. They might call it bravery but I have realized that I was like going to war with no guns at all, and if that was really a war, then I could have died that easily. 

My first day at school offered me both worst and best experience. I was asked to teach right away. I was blank then. I was trying to smile the moment I entered to my K1C class, the kids who had just woken up from an afternoon nap were all staring at me as if I had done something wrong to them, a few seconds after some had started to smile back, some chose to ignore and some were trying to ask me to play with them. I was even trying to ask their names in English but none of them replied. They were speaking to me in Chinese but not a single word I understood. When I started my first class, only a few of them were listening. Most of the kids were talking to each other or were roaming around the classroom and I did not know how to get their attention. That very moment I felt my first ever STRESS in Wuhan, China. I didn’t know what to do and I was just sitting in a corner holding back my tears because of irritation. My irritation was about to burst when I felt like small hands were playing at my back. To my surprise those little palms were trying to give me a massage. Just a smile from that boy and my anger was eased, thus, one of the best experience I had. 

For my entire stay of this kindergarten I could not deny that despite of the problems I have encountered in the past, may it be from the Administration, from my colleagues, from the parents and the children, this institution has become my comfort zone. Loving this school is loving your job and your students naturally without asking any big thing in return. 

And the best thing it can offer you as a teacher is that you have been loving those kids because of no other reason aside from the fact that you have simply loved them. And it is also a fulfillment that they love you as well unconditionally. 

If not for Hyledar I would never have the chance to meet those wonderful people who have become a part of my success as a teacher. They are my Filipino and Chinese co-teachers and friends, my principal, my team leaders, the parents and most specially the children. That I would forever be grateful for accepting me here for who and what I am.

In life, we always encounter different kinds of problems and it’s up to us how we cope up from those problems. We meet people coming from the other side of the world. People whom we perceive as really different from who and what we are specially in terms of race and culture. But the real word here is ACCEPTANCE. We have to accept others for them to accept us in return and we have to accept that things really happen may it be bad or good for us to LEARN OUR OWN LIFE’S LESSONS. Thank you and good day!.

- Teacher JUDD –