i spent my saturday adjudicating the debate section at the Malaysian regional round of the World  Scholar’s Cup at the Australian International School, with this being my second year helping out, and i had the pleasure of meeting some very wonderful (and smart) teenagers from all these different countries.

and something happened to me, for the very first time…..

it was a round right before the lunch break, and the teams had finished their speeches, and were waiting for me to announce the results. i did what i had to do, and heartbreakingly had to declare a winner and a loser to these sweet kids with eager smiles and hope on their faces. i’m pretty good at being encouraging, so even the team that lost seemed pretty motivated to rock their next round. 

the girls from this losing team seemed a little bummed at first, but they were so professional, approaching me to shake my hand and to thank me for the quick advice (when the winning team didn’t even do so)

one by one, they came up to me, and to be quite honest, i was starving and was thinking about what lunch was going to be. then again, i’m always thinking about food, so that’s normal. i have to be honest, i just went through the formalities of continuing with my mini motivational pep-talk, but was silently hoping to get to the cafeteria as fast as i could. remember: hungry adjudicators are grumpy adjudicators

and as the last girl approached me (while i was still thinking about food), something inside me told me to stop and really pay attention to her, because she just seemed so shy. probably not more than 16, she was adorable, with a demeanour so pleasant, she genuinely seemed to love my constructive feedback…but i could tell that she lacked confidence, she was always looking at the ground and fidgeting with her hands

i reached out, shook her hand and looked her straight in the eye and said “don’t give up, you have so much potential and i have so much faith in you that you will do well. you have no reason to be nervous”

at this point, she was still looking down at her feet, when she whipped her head up, looked at me and said “thank you, and.. umm.. i wanted to say that you’re really beautiful”

i was silenced. i had no words to say, even a thank you couldn’t  be processed by my brain to be verbalised.. because that was the first time anyone has ever said that to me.

for 20 years, it never mattered, and it wasn’t something i ever thought about. but in that moment, hearing it, it changed everything. because a 16 year old stranger who i had just met for 30 minutes told me something so sweet, when she didn’t have to. she obviously wasn’t trying to get into my pants, and had no ulterior motives either. it was innocent, and she probably has no idea how much her compliment has affected me. 

of course, i’m not going to run around with an expanded ego after today, but it made me realised how the little things you say can also brighten someone’s day, or in this case, ‘beautifully’ change something in a girl’s life after 2 decades.

i’ve got a bucket list that includes skydiving and cuddling a panda bear, but after having felt like i did, thanks to this girl, i’m adding to my list: “honestly compliment as many people as you can, you might just change something in their life”