JJ Loves Books

Elsewhere in this blog, I've mentioned that I'm not particularly concerned about wanting my JJ to be the best student in her school; not even in her class. I'm not saying that I won't be pleased—of course I would! Being the top student in school does not guarantee success in life. I will admit, however, that it does help to open more doors.

In Malaysia, Chinese kids have to do much more than just doing well in school to be successful in life. The doors I speak of don't open so easily for the non-bumiputeras. So we usually have to construct our own doors. As long as JJ tries her best in her studies, I can accept whatever's the outcome. After all, we are not all geniuses. So I will try my best to construct the doors for my JJ.

Mia is perhaps—how shall I say this—obsessed with JJ's performance in school. Each time there's an exam coming up, Mia would go to the extent of taking leave from work for a few days to revise together with JJ. In fact, I dare say if it's allowed by the school, Mia would be sitting in the class together with JJ during the exam too!

As you can probably guess, I have never been very much involved in JJ's school affairs. Mia does almost everything as far as that is concerned. That has been the case since JJ started going to school a couple of years ago. Each time after JJ's exams, Mia would be eagerly waiting for the results. And whenever JJ got a poor result, Mia would suffer something akin to a bullet wound!

It is quite normal that the schools these days would require the parents or guardians to come personally to collect the report cards. Supposedly, the teachers would then have the opportunity to discuss strengths and weaknesses, and possible means of improving the kids.

In the past, Mia would be among the first few parents getting in line at the school to collect JJ's report card. But last Saturday, she had to work and was therefore unable to make the window of between 7:30am and 10:00am at the school. So in the end daddy had to appear as the replacement together with JJ.

I had been having late nights throughout the week, so I woke up at almost 8:00am that morning. And by the time JJ was ready, it was fast approaching 8:30am. We then drove out to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. There, I decided to update Mia on the progress that morning. As expected, Mia was surprised that we weren't already at the school queuing up for the report card.

It was a little past 9:00am by the time I reached JJ's school. JJ led me up the stairs to her classroom where her teacher was busy discussing with a couple who came to collect their kid's report card. There were also a few other couples waiting for their turns. We got into the queue, and I suddenly had memories of my schooling days—the time when the most important things in life were memorising the periodic tables; and things like F = ma.

Anyway, while we were waiting for our turn, JJ started to discuss with daddy. She said mom made a promise to her. I said is that so? Dad's not aware of this promise, but I guess JJ's gonna tell dad anyway, right?

Well, what's the promise all about then? According to JJ, mom said if JJ can achieve top 5 in class, mom would buy her a computer! Maybe it was just my imagination, but I fancy that my ears were beginning to blow steam. This kind of promises, if ever they materialise in the end, would be where I come in for my part. Of course I'm not in the business of printing money; and I most certainly don't have so much cash to throw away like playing Monopoly.

I turned to JJ and quite calmly asked her why on earth would she need a computer for? And I almost fainted when she said so that she can have her own Facebook. Facebook? The kid is not even 9 years old yet, and she's talking about Face-freakin'-book!

Unfortunately, JJ did keep her end of the bargain. So now mommy—or rather, daddy—is stuck with having to keep our end of the bargain. Well, OK, I guess I can invest in a desktop for JJ, but she must be out of her mind if she thinks I'm gonna allow the Facebook nonsense!