昔日文章

" I want to help but then I cannot be with my friends, and I will miss out on basketball practice too... should I or should I not ? "  The National Day is just a few days away, but no one has been working on the school bulletin board. The board is still displaying（陳列） moon cakes and a bright round moon. The class teacher asked Cyrus and a few others from other forms to have it done during lunch time for a day or two（一兩日）, giving a hand to the Art teacher, Mr. Mok, who is also Cyrus’ favourite teacher, as he has a keen interest （濃厚興趣）in Art. Mr. Mok has already designed the concept（概念）, all the students need to help will be cutting cardboards（硬紙板）, foam boards（發泡膠）and have them glued up（用膠水粘）, not a heavy task at all. This will sure be a great chance t o learn something from the Art teacher.  There is a big dilemma（兩難） for Cyrus though. If he stays to help, he cannot go out with his friends for lunch. He just reached the grade that he is allowed to have lunch outside school. This is a honeypot（極有吸引力的事） to him. Even if he is willing to sacrifice his favourite moment, his friends do not agree with him and may laugh a t him. Moreover, there is basketball practice on alternate days（隔日）. If the task cannot be completed within one day, then he will have to miss out on the practice which is definitely not his wish.  What would you do if you were Cyrus?  Though I wish to help and learn something, with all the risks and sacrifice calculated（計算）, I would say no to the class teacher.  If my friends would laugh at me for not having lunch with them for a day or two, it would be their problem and I would seek others to be friends with. Likewise （同樣地）, if they would laugh at me for helping a teacher out, they would not be the people I should hang around with. If I could only help out for one day and had to go for basketball practice, I would just state（說明）my availability. It would be a “yes” to my teacher’s invitation. 

“If I ask her to have lunch with me, will I get boycotted（杯葛）or isolated（孤立）? Is this really a good move（一步棋）? Will she tag along（跟著） me afterwards? ”Martha was thinking to herself whole morning.  Since school resumed（復課）after the long summer vacation there is this new girl named Shehara in Martha's class. She speaks very broken（不流利） Chinese which gives classmates the idea（令同學認為）that she has not been in Hong Kong for long. She speaks fluent English though. Her skin is dark with big bright shiny eyes, projecting（透露）a very pleasant personality. The teacher did not make much introduction of this new transferred student（插班生）and no one cares to ask due to the language barrier（障礙）. Yet, Shehara's background has been bruited about（傳言散布）in many versions（說法）.  Martha has been observing Shehara for weeks. She is all by herself making no friends. As a Catholic, Martha thinks it is a good act to make friends with this lonely classmate, risky though.  What would you do if you were Martha?  I would invite Shehara to lunch with me but specify it is only for a particular day in a week, making it a regular weekly date（約會）with her and see how it would go. This would give me the final say to spend more time with her or not in future.  I would ask my friends to join me to invite Shehara to lunch together so we could get to understand her better. I would honestly tell them my intention of being a companion（朋友）to someone lonely. 

Adelaide, Lynn and Darius have never been close friends at school. They happened to be in the same group of the Debating Team, and during the preparation for an interschool competition, they had a long chat for days. They found one another like-minded（志同道合）in many ways. They felt so, especially when they came across the topic of non-supportive parents.  The summer vacation is not far away. While preparing for exams, everyone is thinking of the long holiday as well. Adelaide wants to seriously have herself trained in Thai boxing（泰拳）. Lynn wants to pick up street dancing and be able to compete. Darius is desperate for some eSports（電子競技）training. All the three activities seem not to be ideal for a vacation in parents’ eyes, and should not be touched. Their parents are only willing to pay for tutorial or expensive overseas exchange programs. They only want their children to invest their time in something they think fit, without considering the kids’ deep yearning （渴望）. The best way to say no is to place an economic blockade（經濟封鎖）. Of course, there are numerous ways to earn money by the kids, be it a part time job at any fast food chains, or be a tutor（補習老師）⋯   Yet with the money earned and spent on learning something parents disapprove （反對）, that may bring in disputes （爭拗）and tension（張力）. The gender（性別）issue is also an old-fashioned thinking. Darius being a male, it is fine for him to take boxing or street dancing classes. But he is much more interested in eSports, which is not even a sport to many.  What would you do if you were Adelaide, Lynn or Darius?  I’d show some of the most successful cases in the realm（領域）of my interest and the money they make, as well as their success stories so as to convince my parents that every trade has its master （行行出狀元）. I’d ignore the opposition voice（反對聲音）and practise on my own as a die-hard（堅定不移）until I could prove my success to the world.  Instead of fighting this war alone, I’d invite my teachers to talk to my parents for they must have observed my talents in some way. If no one supported me, I might reconsider if I had stepped on a blind spot. Anyway, it is way too far to be talking about a career, I was just about to take some summer lessons to test my own talent and interest so as to know myself better. I’d make that very clear to my parents to keep them from over worrying. 

The 24th World Scout Jamboree 2019（世界童軍大露營）w i l l be taking place in the United States this July. Marco wanted so much to go for the audition（面試）two years ago but his parents have forbidden. This is a huge international camp for scouts between the age of fourteen and eighteen from all over the world. Looking at it from an arithmetic angle（算術角度）, one can only attend this Jamboree camp once in a life time. Marco’s parents did not want to commit anything two years ahead, so they talked Marco out of the idea and suggested that he could go take a good look of the camp on his own if time allows（時間容許）. Back then, they were afraid that spending two weeks overseas might affect their son’s tutorial sessions. Now the event is approaching, Marco has some great ideas that he has planned for months.  Marco has arranged some online courses for summer so he can be very mobile（在不同地方）without missing a lesson. He is getting ready for a trip to Jamboree in the States （美國簡寫）.To make his trip more fulfilling, he also contacted a couple of his friends who are now studying in the US to meet him up first, then the three of them will fly to West Virginia （ 西維吉尼亞州） to visit the campsite that will host thirty thousand or even more. He even worked out （計算）the budget.  To his surprise, Marco got a red light from his parents. The only reason is that he is too young in their minds. They will get very worried and they have no relatives in America for them to call upon in case of accidents. Marco is most upset now.   What would you do if you were Marco?  If my parents were so very concerned about my studies, that could well be a bargaining chip（交換籌碼）and I could not make a concession（讓步）at all. They stopped me once for no concrete reasons（具體原因）and they could not stop me again.  I would placate（安撫）them. Then I’d invite them to list out problem by problem rationally （理性地）instead of going just by their emotion, so I would have a chance to give a solution to each. I’d react most calmly to show my maturity （成熟）.