My Commitment Towards Excellence

I noticed he was staring into the blank page of his exercise book.
Me : Why are you staring at your book? Homework apa ni?
He : Karangan - tajuk bagai aur dengan tebing. Tak tahu nak tulis macam mana.
Me : Alah, cerita je pasal hidup berjiran. Sama-sama tolong.
He : (silent)
Me : You better start writing. I will come back in 20 minutes to check what you have written.

After 30 minutes or so later I came back to check on him.
Me : So have you finished the karangan?
He : Tengah buat ni.
Me : Boleh mama baca?
He let me have his book and I read.
Me : Mana adik dapat cerita ni? (He wrote about these two kampongs that fight each other but later was attacked by a third)
He : Eirfan pikir la.
Me : Adik ambik cerita Merong Mahawangsa ye?
He : Tak de lah.

Anyway, I thought the cerita is long and winding; not getting fast enough to the aur & tebing part. But I wondered if I should squelch his enthusiasm for the writing. Or tell him to just get to the point of the karangan quickly. And then his abang came in.
Me : Abang, cuba baca karangan adik and see what you think.
His abang read and laughed.
Abang : Ini cerita Merong Mahawangsa eh?
I laughed (because that was exactly what I thought too; deny it as he will.)
He : Mana ade! (He was adamant, but his abang and me laughed again)
Me : So what do you think?
Abang : Meleret-leret (well, he is never as nice as his mum)
Me : Why don’t mama koyak je page ni? Sebab dari sini yang meleret tu. Page yang sebelum ni ok je. Adik sambung terus je dengan conclusion kat sini.
He : Tak mau la. Dah letih dah tulis semua tu.
Me : Takpe, kalau koyak lagi senang nak habiskan karangan tu. Lagi cepat siap.
He : (buat muka tak suka)

I paused for a minute thinking what I should do. Then made up my mind and tore the page.
Me : Kita buat kerja mesti yang bagus. Kalau mama dengan abang rasa karangan ni boleh jadi lagi bagus kalau yang ni tak ade, might as well kita buang je. Adik terus je tulis pengajaran kat sini.

I wont tell you what his reaction was. But I can tell you that he was beyond upset. The next morning I checked his book and turned out he hadn’t continued the karangan then.

The moral of the story is, committing to excellence is never an easy task (no matter how trivia the example given is). You can make an enemy even of your own..

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