Different Yet The Same

         I can't help looking at this new student of mine. She's a sweet petite freshman girl. Whenever my eyes fall on her, memories flash back of my previous student last year for she is also a sweet petite freshman girl then. However, this new student of mine is a bit short in stature than that of my former student. This new student seems to be diligent in her studies, responsible and quite smart. Unlike my former student whose everyday existence in my class proved to be a nuisance. She is a sweet girl and that's all she could offer me and my subject. But I really cannot help comparing their sweetness towards people. No comparison needed. It's just the same. In order to fight the grueling gaze of my eyes over this new student simultaneously teaching a class of forty, I finally had the courage to ask her of any relation to my former student. With her sweet gentle voice, she uttered that she was indeed her elder sister. So, that's why!

           After barely a month of teaching on my sophomore year, I came to discover that more and more of my new students are actually siblings of my former third year students. Maybe, that's why, I can't help myself looking at them. Maybe, that's why, I can't help myself but remember my former students through looking at them. It maybe superficial and physical. But my students now remind me of my start as a teacher. Funny as it may seem, but my students now reminded me of my flaws as a teacher, of my mishaps, of my shortcomings. They reminded me of my frustrations, and my disappointments. They remind me of my regrets of the days which will never be turned back. Mistakes undone. Learnings unlearned. Time wasted. Wherein now could result to a multiplicity of flaws, of mishaps, of shortcomings, of frustrations, and of disappointments. It could result to another cycle of mistakes undone, learnings unlearned, and a life wasted if I would not change my ways. And so it is said that once is enough for a wise man. I am now given another shot to change the lives of these little ones. I may see in them their elder siblings with sameness in physical attributes but I think I should be contented in thinking that still they are unique in their own way. That I may have failed to bring out the best of their elders, but I'd like to believe that I'm still not late to change the course of their destinies laid out into my hands. That they may belong to the same brood but still they are different. And I am different now. I should.