My Place – Inspire by ordinary people

You have to pay the price. You will find that everything in life exacts a price, and you will have to decide whether the price is worth the prize.- Sam Nunn

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Ask anyone from my home town mostly those grew up in the 70s the famous household names like Soh Chin Aun, Lee Yee, Sudirman and Punch Gunalan, how these celebrities stirred up heat in the football field, Pop music, and Thomas cup.

Nobody can resist the celebrity’s enigmatic, charming appearance which in some ways stimulate enormous interest in the young bloods and persuade them to his fabulous world.

During the football seasons, even before the games started to play in the national stadium, the heat of the games already been felt in the whole nation. The football affection overwhelming small and large fields in my hometown despite the lingering raining days while grounds are still damping with stained water.

In the evening, bangs of young, passionate football fans put their feet on the field and tried their best kick. Amongst them, some were children from poor families, and chaps from the Lee family.

Never before were these youngsters so eager to work themselves out under a scorching sun, seldom had they placed so much emphasis on own enrichment like this one. After sweated blood for years, on the field in hopes to score a streak of good luck, is the effort worth it? How many, in fact, made it to the end?

Like other kids, not knowing why people were so drawn to the games, and not an enthusiastic football fan, yet I could easily spot those faces from local media. They were, however, not the one who inspired me to excellence in adolescent.

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About this time each year, kids from my hometown, who did well in their school yearly examination, will be praise and congratulate, not only by their parents. The joys of success and excellence will reach their town’s genealogy or lineage organizations. The members of clan association will organize a moderate tea party to reward the children in a simple ceremony.

Lee Clan Association Taiping is a lineage organization which my father and his pals, who bear the same surname, formed, from loose affiliations in a humble beginning to a solid Chinese organization today.

Among the kids, who turned out at the ceremony, were my siblings. Kids from my family swept many awards each year, and that make my father a proud parent in the eyes of his friends.

Sitting in the party, looking at the table full of sweeties and drinks, and listening to the elders’ motivating speeches, what played in the mind of 10 years old was…. In my own way, I will accomplish the same kind of thing when I grew up.

I enjoyed every prize-giving session, and deeply touched by how these elders contributing to the community and how they motivating the young generation to excel in the academic. It is a direct causation effect which the outcomes constantly emerge in the constructive and concrete expression.

No spotlights or flash bulbs, no rhetoric speech and no headlines made. A simple occasion, weighty words and round of applause enough to produce immeasurable causes; all come from ordinary people of this small town.

I am not sure how many of these kids later made it to the national top position or became an influential person in the society. But kids, from my family nurtured under this caring and compassion environment, are all grown up. We are now playing a dominant role in own field rather than in the football field.

Here is the harsh truth. While people were so drawn to the big names, should they start questioning, besides the passion and instant gratification these celebs create, what else the positive reception particularly enrichment in the form of economic during the resources scarcity times the famous names give in. The economy growth is more important than Hall of fame; there are stuffs we can never see eye to eye on.

The tragedy of life is not that man loses, but that he almost wins.- Heywood Broun

Wai Ping Lee/ Dec 2010