Ms JESSICA ABISHEGANATHAN A/P JEEVARATNAM

From SMK PASIR PUTIH, PASIR GUDANG, JOHOR

Nominated by NUR AISYA QAYYIMAH BINTI YAHYA

The teacher that inspired me to be a better person is Miss Jessica. Her full name is Jessica Abisheganathan a/p Jeevaratnam. She is 31 years old and she teaches English. Her academic qualifications are quite impressive. She successfully excelled in UPSR, PMR and SPM with flying colours. Her CGPA for Degree and Masters is 3.90 respectively. She is currently doing her PhD in TESL (part time). Besides her academic success, Miss Jessica is also a wonderful person. She is adorable, very optimistic on things, a friendly person, and everyone just enjoy their time with her. She likes to crack jokes during her lessons. She cares about others around her like how she was worried about my mental health at school. Miss Jessica is a wonderful person once you get to know her. Now, how did this wonder of a teacher inspired me to be a better person? Let's find out. Firstly, she inspired me through her optimism towards me. When it comes to most teachers in my school, I was known for my pessimistic behaviour. From that, almost every teacher (especially female teachers) would assume that I was nothing but trouble. That is kind of ironic to me, since I would spend most of my time at school, reading books in the library. This kind of treatment has kept on going since primary school. However, when I was in Form 3, Miss Jessica changed everything. She did something that not many teachers do. One day, she read through my essay carefully and actually noticed how depressing my life was. How did I know about this? When I returned home and checked my phone, I received a notification from Miss Jessica. She asked if I was feeling alright. That little question stirred up another question in my head. I replied by asking her if I did something wrong. She continued asking about my condition. With that, my heart warmed and I smiled. Not many people would even care about me and sometimes they would assume that I am doing this for attention. However, Miss Jessica showed me that there are people who care. That is why I was inspired by her. Maybe one day, I might do the same for others as well. In other words, Miss Jessica inspired me to have genuine care for others around me. Next, she inspired me to believe in myself. I tend to have low self-esteem whenever I wanted to join competitions that were held in school. I know that I have no chance of winning a single competition if Dhiya, the school's best student takes part. I would either back out instantly or just ignore the competition completely. I didn't even bother trying it out. Dhiya is the best at everything, popular and everyone likes her. As for me? That is just something similar to a daydream. Once again, Miss Jessica came in the picture. She kept on encouraging me to participate in the competition. Even when I said no, she was still determined to get me to participate in that competition. Finally, I gave in and participated in it. The competition was an impromptu speech competition. When I arrived at the location where it was being held, I immediately spotted the golden student that would throw out my chance of winning out the window. But I realized that I was doing this for Miss Jessica. She believed in me and so will I. Once the competition started, I did my best and delivered my speech proudly to the judges. A few days later, the winners of the impromptu speech competition was announced. It turns out that I won first place and Dhiya was the first runner-up. My mind was blown away. I was happy but none of this would have happened without Miss Jessica. She believed that I can do it. She did not lose hope in me. With that, she inspired me to believe in others. Perhaps, when I believe in the potential of someone, they can achieve greater things in life. Last but not least, Miss Jessica inspired me to be no one but my own self. Throughout my entire life, I only do what people told me to do and behave the way they wanted me to be. Basically, I lived my entire life as nothing but a living puppet. Deep down, I wanted to be free from these chain-like expectations, placed by everyone. But, I know for a fact that no one is going to accept me as a person if I revealed my true personality. With that toxic thought lodged into my own head, I kept the real me locked away. This routine or would I call it torture kept going on and on, all the way until I reached secondary school. Somehow, Miss Jessica had unexpectedly managed to break some of the chains that held me down. This occurred when she assigned our class to write a short story with a certain theme. Normally, I would accept the task and write a regular story. But for some unknown reason, my hands had other plans. I accidentally wrote a detailed short story. A regular person would have looked at it and called it a trashed effort. Despite it, I still sent the essay to Miss Jessica. After a few days, she returned everyone's work back to them except mine. When I approached her to ask about my work, she asked me to meet her during recess. During recess, she complimented that my essay was extraordinary. Is this for real? My style of writing was accepted with open arms? I felt like I was on a cloud nine. She told me to be true to myself. To write what I want to write. She truly inspired me. She loved the essay that I wrote without being told on how to write it. I want to do the same for those who are suffering the same thing that I was which is self-hatred and unable to do things on their own will. I want them to love themselves and be able to do things that they love without anyone pulling the strings. In conclusion, Miss Jessica is a wonderful person I have ever met. She is fun to be around with and very open minded with the things that I do. Her parents would have been so proud of her on how she saved a student's life from going downhill. Not only that, she was truly born with a heart of gold. She cared about me because she saw how much I was suffering through. She knows that I needed help and she gave it. It may not seem much, but to me it was super effective. Not many teachers would bother to get me the help that I needed or even cared about me because I am not popular nor worthy of their help. But Miss Jessica did not think about any of those stuff whenever she was supporting me. In my opinion, Miss Jessica rescued me from my depressing life. I would not have been able to accept myself as a person if it was not for her. Miss Jessica truly inspired me to be a better person to others and myself. I wish that I could do the same for others and they will be able to spread Miss Jessica's golden kindness towards others as well. Words cannot describe my gratitude towards her. Thank you for everything, Miss Jessica.