A story

Once upon a time there was this little boy, quiet, unassuming and lacking in self confidence. He never get along with the friends around him. There was no body that he can trust and nobody he could talk to. She had an uncle who was very concerned about her. Everytime he would spend time talking to her and would try to counsel him whenever he was down and frustrated. But he always feel that there are something he cannot tell his uncle.

However one day, he came back very happy, he told his uncle that he was going to perform in a play. It was not an important role but he was glad to be part of it. His uncle was proud of him and he told him to do his best. However as the day for the performance approaches, his uncle realize that he was not his usual self. As always his uncle ask him what went wrong and he stayed silent. His uncle, was getting tired of asking him the same question over and over again without getting a reply and thus decided to let the issue pass. “What can I do?” the uncle thought, when I can't even get him to open up to me. As the performance date got closer, the boy got more and more withdrawn. The uncle attended the performance and it was a wonderful show. The boy gave a sedated performance but the rest of the performers more than make up the show. When he congratulated the boy, the boy shed a tear. Dismissing it as a tear of joy and pent up frustration and pressure built up, the uncle gave the boy a hug and sad to him, “there you are, you have proven it,.you can do it” The boy looks away. “You don't know”

One year later, the boy took his PSLE exam, unlike all his classmates who managed to move on to the express stream, he was the only one who failed to do so. His uncle was angry with him for not doing well in his studies. He was a bright boy, he was not lazy. And these result was unexpected. “What happen?” he asked the boy. “I don't understand how you can get these results!?” The boy looked at him, eyes welling up, “You don't understand, you stop understanding and you never will” He walked away, holding the crumpled result slip in his hand.

His uncle never saw the boy again...

The last time the uncle heard about the boy, he was in another school, another environment; he seems different, he was outspoken, he was happy. The uncle was happy for him but he sometimes ask himself that could he help or is this an eventual path that must happen…