2 March 2020
Little Gymnast and Big Boy were working on their synthesis and transformation skills.
They are both 10 years old.
Little Gymnast was in a lilac t-shirt and cobalt blue shorts. Long haired and light-footed, she resembled a garden imp.
“Fat people are not funny!” Big Boy blurted out in a huff. He was looking at a sentence about keeping healthy through regular exercise.
Little Gymnast looked up from her work and said gently but firmly, “You are putting yourself too much into the story. The sentence is not talking about you.”
Big Boy was slightly taken aback by the certainty of his diminutive tuition buddy.
“It’s your imagination. You have to stop imaginating everything is making fun of you,” Little Gymnast added.
“Do you mean ‘imagining’?” Big Boy clarified, looking genuinely puzzled. His misguided feelings of offence earlier on seemed to have completely vapourised after hearing this strange word from Little Gymnast, whose vocabulary range wasn’t as varied as his.
“Yes! That’s what I mean. Your imagination is messing with you!” Little Gymnast held onto her belief. She was not in the least embarrassed to realise that her word form, “imaginating,” did not exist.
“Now, can I borrow your correction tape, please?” She asked sweetly.
Big Boy happily obliged by sliding the piece of stationery across the table to Little Gymnast.
And that was how a young girl helped a young boy let go of his wrong perceptions, and in return he lent her the tool to correct mistakes in her own assignment.
Lisa Ong 