My hairdresser drives away the blues

Of late I was having the blues,partly due to the virus/bacteria which my son caught from Tekong and partly due to 2 counselling cases which kind of made me feel helpless.

Sometimes, however, hope and encouragement seem to slip in when you least expected it. I went to this Jean Yip saloon to treat and color my hair. I just wanted to relax and was not particularly excited about this girl apprentice who tried to strike a conversation. She commented I looked really tired and asked whether I had a hard day in the office. I told her I was not working and just wished that would shut her up. She however kept on enquiring about what I did in my "spare' time etc etc. I gave up. Anyhow she kept on and on until she found out I volunteered as a counsellor in a neighbourhood school.

That was when she poured out her whole life story about how she was also counselled but took no heed. We then engaged in a most interesting conversation when I actually asked about her feelings and thoughts etc when she was in school(She is in her early twenties now). We discussed in general why students lack motivation and I got very honest feedback from her that at that age the teenagers have really no inkling what they want to be and feel no urgency at all to plan. She said she drifted into ITE doing some mechanical course which she had no interest. Then suddenly she matured and she told herself she better start to plan what she really wanted to be. (Haha it is quite engaging talking to these people, they are so frank and forthcoming, so unguarded.) She then kept on encouraging me not to be disheartened, said "teenagers are like that" and "they like to have someone to talk to" and kept on commenting about my volunteering services "hao" "zhen de hen hao" (good job) blah, blah, blah. Maybe she is exercising a lot of EQ towards her client but she did brighten up my day.