One of the people I’ve been following on Dayre is Jingthepianist. She’s a musician that’s studying music in Ireland. From her Dayre I’ve learned a few things about her.
– Her parents are no longer together.
-Her Dad is a car salesman and her mom a housewife
– In spite of the financial limitations, she chose to study music in Ireland because she found that private college fees in Malaysia were very much similar to those in Ireland.
– To help pay for her college fees and to support her mom she works two jobs. One as a music teacher in a music school and another as a waitress.
This is how she felt when she had to pay school fees.
And there were two occurrences that her bank account went into the negative.
THEN ONE DAY….
She received an email from one of her Dayre followers who had read all her stories of her struggles as a student studying overseas. Here’s an excerpt of that e-mail.
That reader shared how she too was once a struggling student and was often helped by good Samaritans.
In return, he/she (although from here on I’ll assume it’s a she to simplify things) wanted to pay it forward and help Jing out. After some e-mail exchanges the anonymous reader learned that Jing didn’t have a piano at home and she was still saving up for one.
She immediately offered to buy Jing a brand new acoustic piano that would cost RM10,000 or more.
Jing decided that would be too extravagant so she went instead for a second hand digital piano that would cost only a fraction of that price.
After all that, the anonymous reader sent her this e-mail.
Jing was eternally grateful.
This story made me recall the struggles many students like Jing have. Whether they’re studying locally or abroad, I’ve seen how many struggle to balance their bank accounts by working many part-time jobs in between lectures.
To those of you out there, don’t give up… you’ll get where you need to be eventually and if you’re lucky, a good Samaritan might come by and give you a little hand.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space