It was December, and the school semester was nearly over. As before, the school handed out a letter to every student in demand of the tuition fee for the next semester. The semester fee was six dollars, a reasonable fee; but it still had exceeded what my poor family could afford at that time. Fortunately, at the same time, the school had also introduced a financial aid scheme for financially strained families.
In class, my teacher carefully explained the criteria details to apply for the new financial aid scheme, and our family fitted in every requirement. As needed, I paid extra attention listening attentively to all details of the application, especially on the section of supporting documents. Afterward, I happily went home to bring the good news to my grandmother.
As grandma was illiterate, I had to read out the application form slowly word by word. Grandma listened intently and asked me to reread certain passages that were unclear. Upon finishing reading the application, grandma had her hands on her forehead, apparently in deep thoughts.
"Grandma,” I said softly, “there is nothing to be worried about; I can fill in all the blanks. All you need to do is to sign the papers. I can get the supporting documents from…”
Abruptly I was stopped by my grandmother as she held out her hand for the application form. I promptly handed them over. Realizing that Grandma did not have a pen to sign the form with, I started searching for one in the next room.
Suddenly, I heard the sounds of paper ripping behind my back. Evidently, my grandmother had ripped the application form into many pieces! In horror, I looked at my grandmother in disbelief; as my grandmother calmly explained to me in a conversation that I had never forgotten.
“Ten Ping,” my grandmother said calmly but determinedly, “We might be poor, and I understand that I might not have given you what a normal child deserves. But our family believes in a philosophy, a principle really, that while we lived, we have the responsibility to be self-sufficient and to be self-reliant. The gesture from the school is very kind, but it will be wrong if we have to accept other people’s money when our hands are still capable to earn our own keeps. Let other people who are really in need get this money for the school. We shall find our way to earn the tuition somehow.”
The impact of this conversation was huge in my later life; but the more immediate pressing problem, at that particular time was that I still needed to get enough money to pay for the coming tuition; which our family did not have!
The next day out, I spotted a small scarf factory near my home looking for outside workers to sew some tassels onto some scarves. As I already knew how to make my own shoes and do some simple knitting, I realized that it was an opportunity for me to earn some money.
After a small test in a quick interview, which involved a kind lady and her astonishment at what I could sew at my little age, I was given some tassels and a bag of scarves to take home to finish. I happily took the bag home.
Once home, I started to work immediately. Carefully I wrapped some old scraps of cloth around a brick and placed it on top of the scarf as a weight holder. Then I slowly and carefully sewed the many tassels onto the scarfs.
It took me two weeks to finish the whole bag of scarves. With five cents apiece, I finally earned enough money for my tuition. There was a genuine sense of pleasure when I received my six dollars wages from the factory later.
In our previous conversation, I realized that my grandmother had left out a vital point. Being self-reliant was not only a responsibility, but it could also give a person an immense sense of accomplishment. And that feeling, I later realized, was unexplainably invaluable.
