i learned a lesson while visiting a school where i saw a hall bulletin board that was covered from floor to ceiling with student-made paper hearts. The caption over them read, "Changing the World One Heart at a Time. " The hearts were lovely, but how the board came about was what made it so moving.   

The Principal told me the board had been empty until Ryan, a fourth grader, passed it on his way home one day. Ryan rarely spoke and unbeknownst to anyone , his home was in turmoil. 

Hi father was an alcoholic who frequently beat up Ryan's mom while the fourth grader hid in his closet. Fearing his dad would severely injure his mom if he told anyone, he played safe by distancing himself emotionally from his teachers and his classmates and remaining quiet 

His unstable mother wasn't able to do his laundry, so Ryan wore the same unkempt shirt and pants everyday. It wasn't hard for kids to pick up this child's vulnerabilities , so he was often excluded by peers and tormented by two school bullies. 

"Nice shirt, Ryan, " they'd taunt 

"Can't your parents buy you something else to wear? No wonder you're always by yourself , " 

That afternoon, though, another classmate saw Ryan eating by himself and recognized something everyone else had missed : Ryan looked lonely. 

So Danny, ignoring his friends' admonishments, asked Ryan if he could sit with him. Ryan later told the Principal that he was so amazed that somebody wanted to eat with him, he couldn't stop thinking about it the rest of the day. He wanted to find a way to thank Danny for his kindness . It was still on his mind as he passed a bulletin board in the hall. 

He picked a paper off the floor, quickly tore it into a heart shape, and then jotted a note - 

"Danny, thanks for having lunch with me today. It made me happy. Ryan " - and pinned it to the board. 

The next day, another student read the note and, copying Ryan's gesture . tore a paper heart and wrote a note of appreciation to another classmate . The another student repeated the gesture , and another , and by the time i got to school, over four hundred student-made hearts filled the board and the hall as well. 

And it was all started by one child's empathy. 

I stood there, soaking up these children's gestures of kindness and then looked back at the heading, 

 " Changing the World One Heart at a Time." It was the perfect caption to described what had happened: this kindness momentum spiraled , other kids' hearts opened as well, and they started sticking up for their pal Ryan. 

The bullying stopped, and Ryan found friends and became a happier and changed child. 

taken from book "Unselfie Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World" 

Basically, blog ini bukan tentang Cairo. Tapi nak jugak letak nama Cairo kt sini untuk mengabadikannya dalam ingatan dan hati sanubari. Kalau boleh tak nak dah kembali ke sana, walaupun diakui Cairo banyak mengajarkan diri tentang hidup. Hidup susah. walaupun tak lah sesusah mana. 

Hai, 
Assalamualaikum. 
Saya KMY. Nama sebenar tiada kaitan pun dengan KMY ini. 

Dahulu saya sangat gemar menulis blog. Tapi berehat, berhibernasi buat beberapa tahun lamanya atas sebab ingin menumpukan perhatian yang lebih kepada kehidupan yang sebenar, walaupun ianya hanya sementara. 

Fasih berbahasa Melayu dan boleh berbahasa Inggeris dengan baik. Tetapi lebih gemar menulis dalam bahasa Melayu. Demi memartabatkan kembali bahasa kita . 

Saya suka menulis blog, berbanding di laman sosial media yang lebih terbuka. 


Harapan moga perkongsian yang bakal ditulis ini akan memberi manfaat buat sesiapa jua yang membacanya.