In Malaysia, the start of the new school year starts in March, in contrast to the usual January start. It has been like this since Covid and has yet to be changed back to how it was before. Therefore, end-of-year graduation ceremonies and concerts are organized around this month of the year – February. My daughter had hers a fortnight ago and my son, just last weekend.
I asked my daughter if she felt nervous performing in front of the crowd. I used words like scared and shy instead of nervous cause I don’t think she is able to understand that yet. She said she wasn’t. In fact, she was excited to perform on stage and show us (our little family) her dances, singing and hadith recitation. I find it interesting how they do not recognize the need to feel anxious about it at this age.
Come to think of it, the teachers have prepared her for this at least 2 to 3 months earlier. They did daily practice perfecting small steps. In a way, the kids would be more confident and make fewer mistakes in their performance. The teachers would constantly tell them that even if they messed up, they gave their best in their acts.
I suppose this is something I could remind myself to do as well. Practice makes perfect. It is easy to be overwhelmed with new tasks or they could be a usual, routine task but resides out of my comfort zone. An example of this would be to give public talks. Ironically, despite my not loving the task, I am in charge of a health portfolio that requires me to give mass patient education on a regular basis. Diabetes, hypertension and asthma are my bread and butter. At the moment, I am revising my portfolio programmes to include the team and other supporting services. It seems that I’d have to slow down on my psychology studies to give way to these exciting activities.
Minci Moss 