11days with U Wynn Naing (Hledan)

Saya U Wynn Naing (Hledan) visited his pupils in Singapore. We all are very happy to see him in the pink of health. Upon reflection, I find the good things about a closely-knitted community. We take UWN’s pupils as our friends whether we met each other while attending the tuition or not. We all join in for sharing the precious time with him as much as our schedules allow. The bonding as UWN’s pupils is very strong.

When he had serious medical problems last year, we hold the breath and prayed hard for him. I think I am praying hard for him as I understand his contributions to the community. I remember my words to him at his critical minutes. We are able to stand tall in a foreign land partly because of the trainings that we had at his tuition. He guided us to be able to speak fluently through his lectures. More importantly, he mentored us to be independent and to be responsible through the Symposium. I told him that the longer he lived, the more students would benefit from his training. I pleaded him to be strong-willed for the benefit of current and future students.

I must also admit that I pray hard for his health as I did not want to loose one of my emotional anchors. Living abroad, we don’t have much emotional grips to hold on to. We are in the battle field day in day out. At every single moment at work, we need to be careful not to mess up the tasks given, and after work we don’t really have ways to ease out the stress. Phone calls and online chats do not replace the warm and understanding conversations with family and close friends. Since present days could not emotionally satisfy, I think I visit the past quite often by thinking the love of the family and friends, the satisfactions that I had back home. The golden days at UWN’s tuitions are a big portion of such “visits to the past”.

During UWN’s visit to Singapore, all his pupils made their effort for financial and time contributions. We tried to see him and spend time with him. The senior and junior students meet while spending time with Saya. Some even made overseas calls to their friends so that they can talk to Saya. We talk about the happy moments that we shared at the tuition, we catch up with each other’s work and family status, we vent out our stress and emotions. The long lost links have been found and the network of UWN’s pupils has been widened.

The scene that students making their best effort to share their time and life experiences with Saya is a very lively interaction between the people of the same background, people of the similar interests. I also see it as a two-way communications in which the students paying back to Saya for his gratitude while trying ourselves to hold onto the emotional anchor. Just like the batteries need to be re-charged, we do need such pleasant moments with our loved ones to revitalize ourselves. Those are the moments that energize us to move forward in the battle field.

I hope Saya understands that he is still making significant emotional contributions to our lives. Don’t say thanks Saya, you deserve it.

Long Live Women, Long Live Women, ...

I happened to listen to a radio interview on "The Living Room" of News Radio 938 for two reasons. First, one of the interviewees was my ex-classmate from MPA course. Second, it was about a financial education program designed to encourage women aged between 40 to 55 to save, plan and grow their financial support. My friend is with Tsao Foundation which focuses on the aged.

She said the women need to be financially independent. If a woman does not intend to get married, she needs to plan for her retirement; it is nothing new to me. If a woman even gets married, she still need to plan because a women has a high chance to outlive her husband as the life expectancy of a woman is longer than that of a man. She gave some demographic data to support the argument. Woh... I never thought about that before. I did hear about "preparing for the rainy days" such as "what if my husband could not support the family for any possible reasons". But long life expectancy of a woman never crossed my mind.

I mingle with many people who are of my parents' generation. Many of them are senior citizens and many others approaching to retirement. I really admire the way some of them lead their lives. A friend of mine said that she has a long to-do list when she retires and she is excited about that. I want to grow older, wiser and happier. It means I have to start thinking about preparation for financial Independence.

"How early should a woman starts to plan for her retirement?" asked the interviewer. My friend quickly did some calculation starting with "if a 40-yr old woman expect to live till 90, she still has 50 years to live.... Her calculation went on and on.

Gosh, I never gave a thought about living till 90. This interview made me checked through the medical reports of the previous two years. All examinable health conditions are in good shape. Possibility of getting heart failure is near zero. Does it mean that I am going to live long? So, just not to pressure myself so much, say I am going to live till 80 if there is no unfortunate changes happens. I don't think I am able to hold a full-time stressful job after 60. So, my preparation should target, at least, for the 20 years that I am going to live with minimal income. I felt being waken up by this thought. At the same time, a question pops up. Will living longer leverage the quality of life?

Long Live Women...

Ideal Vs Reality

There are many ideal laws in science. For example,

Ideal Chain Law: L=nl
Ideally, if you know the number of molecules, and the length of a monomer, you should be able to calculate the chain length of a polymer.

In reality, although you know the number of monomers and the length of a monomer, you can't get the chain length so easily. Mainly because the monomers behave differently. They might link to each other in the ways you never expected.

All the scientists know that "ideal" situation is near impossible. However, ideal equations are needed to start understanding a situation or solving a problem. In my opinion, the scientist learn from the ideal situation and apply the knowledge in the real situations. Usually, scientists add variables (probably one at a time) and derive equations to solve complex problems.

I am seeing my voluntary work at speech craft program as an ideal situation. We, volunteers are at our best state of emotion. We left the career-related problems at our work places, we dropped our family problems at home. We are there for a purpose - to contribute to the society. Likewise, our speech crafters choose to be there. They came with open hearts to learn tips for better communication. We all learn together. All we get there is sincere sharing, best appreciation and constructive recommendation for improvement; no prejudice, no criticism, no discrimination.

Once we step out of the classroom, I could not guaranty if my pure state of mind will still be maintained. Like it or not, life is far from ideal.

Tomorrow is the day that we are going to depart after 8 Saturdays at the ideal learning center. We are going to be back to the real life of complicated communication. I wish for all our speech crafters to bring the learning into application in stead of longing for the ideal moments. I hope our speech crafters can take the ideal situation as the foundation. Take all the learning to their heart and adjust their way of communication to suit any situation.

All the best, guys.