The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXIII

KHON DALIS
PHALLA OL, TEACHER
The Cambridge School, Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia
I was a student who was very weak in my studies. My family finances are not
very large, so we don’t have enough money to spend on breakfast daily. I
always tell myself to have the courage to study with goodwill and to make good
plans or goals. Even though my family doesn’t have a lot of money, after
school, I always have the courage to help my mom do the chores to relieve her
from that work.
There is a pagoda a little far from my home. It’s called the Tol Tol pagoda.
The head monk there helps teach English for free in classes after school.
Because my family is poor, we can’t afford to buy a bike, so I must walk to
school and to my lessons at the pagoda, about six miles every day. I also
wanted to help my mom to save more to support the family needs instead of
buying a bike, so I committed myself to set a goal of walking to study English
at that pagoda after school and chores.
“COURAGE HAS
TRANSFORMED ME
INTO TRUSTING MY
OWN SELF. NO MATTER
HOW BIG OR SMALL
MY PROBLEMS ARE, I
CAN DO ANYTHING.”
It has been almost a month that I’ve been learning like this, because I trusted
myself, and I have the courage to be very patient to walk to the pagoda every
day after I finish my classes at school. It’s late, so it’s usually dark when I walk,
without even a flashlight. I am always very thirsty because of the long, hot
road. But it doesn’t matter; that’s okay for me, because I beat my fear of
walking in the dark. That is my courageous energy. This made me brave
enough to reach my goal of taking classes in the pagoda. Courage has
transformed me into trusting my own self. No matter how big or small my
problems are, I can do anything. But I should do it in a good and positive way
only. Good deeds are righteous ones. That courage will bring me to success
one day in the future.
THE COURAGE OF CHILDREN: BOSTON AND BEYOND
VOLUME XXXIII
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