Saturday 29 December 2007

Calling on Miss Yeap

(L-R) Ms Yeap, Joanna, Ms Li, Tomasina, Pn Che Bah, Lock Yee

Like many BBGSians, I have a high regard for Miss Yeap Gaik Khoon who was the Principal during the 1980's.

Miss Yeap helped me reach many major decisions: ranging from choice of subjects & extra-curriculur activities to university & scholarships. She sat down and cried with me when I received disappointing SPM results. She celebrated with me when I emerged as top STPM student. She has followed my career throughout the years.

And so I was really excited to pick up the phone and speak to her last Christmas. She sounded just the same: warm, caring and genuinely happy to hear from an old girl.

Always the dedicated teacher, Miss Yeap is still teaching English to unemployed graduates to help improve their chances of getting a job. We talked about how fortunate BBGSians were to have gained such a strong command of the language. It has helped us gain a foothold in the job market and develop our careers internationally.

We also talked about old girls, what everyone is up to, and she told me how delighted she is to bump into BBGS girls who remember her fondly. We laughed about how some girls had told her that they were more afraid of being sent to see Joanna Yeoh than Miss Yeap! (O dear...was I really that scary?)

Of course, we ended talking about the school grounds. Miss Yeap was almost apologetic when she mentioned how naive everyone was in assuming that BBGS would be safe because the land had been gazetted for educational purposes. That means we never had any claim to the land (in terms of ownership or lease). So once a business tycoon with deep-enough pockets could make an offer, the land was re-gazetted as commercial land, and the school was moved.

But building or no building, we'd like you to know how grateful we are for all the years that you spent teaching us, both school lessons and life lessons.

May God bless you richly, Miss Yeap.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree. Known her few years ago for just a short period of time but she just simply wonderful. Caring, supportive and kind to anyone regardless your races or religions. God bless her.