I'm No Artificial

Pampered kid, that is.

Because everyone who knows me know how pampered I am due to my upbringing, and some of my friends have even resorted to calling me "princess".

Now, someone please tell me, since when did "princess" have to be at someone's beck and call to pick up shreds of rubbish from the ground?

Which was exactly what I was ordered to do today.

Well, in my long (and sad) existence on earth thus far, I have earned the dubious honour of having to deal with all sorts of bullies: ah-lians, china women, classmates.

But, I've always had a problem dealing with a certain bully.

Teachers!

Supposedly an authoritarian figure and the one expected to be freed from any bias, they are far from that. And, when they decide to abuse their power, I am at a loss as to how to best deal with them without risking an 'F' grade.

So, when my teacher ordered me to be manual labour: moving tables and chairs; and picking up rubbish left behind by my very considerate classmates, I had to obediently do so.

Which brought back very unhappy memories.

When my teacher asked me to sweep the floor in Primary 6.

Fine, by me.

The only problem was that I didn't know how to sweep the floor. As my palms began to sweat, my firm grip on the broomstick remained as I frantically stole a few glances at my other classmate's "sweeping techniques".

Unfortunately, my clumsy and stiff hand movements never escaped the trained eyes of my teacher, who said,

"Aiyoh! You know how to sweep floor one anot!"

My butter fingers (literally) hopelessly clutched onto the wooden stick, as my hands gesticulated in a series of awkward movements that cannot even be constituted as "sweeping".

After a series of chiding from my teacher, during which my palms started sweating and "embarassment" was scribbled all over my face, my teacher snatched the broom from my hands and said,

"You floor also don't know how to sweep ah! Let me teach you!"

And so, the above scenario played like an endless DV tape recorder in my mind, while I picked up shreds of tissue paper from the floor.