“Thanks to a Good Role Model, I Am Who I Am Today”– Inspiration of a Chula Student, A Child Grateful for His Mother, 2020

When life is not a bed of roses, there are two paths to choose from — fight on until you see the light at the end of the tunnel, or bow your head and silently accept your fate.  If one young man had chosen the latter, Chula would not have had the pride of having an amazing student named Narongchai Saeng–akanee today.

Narongchai (nicknamed Big), a second-year Education student, majoring in Thai Language for Secondary Education, is a recipient of many prestigious awards, such as the Royal award “Grateful Children for their mothers 2020”, and the National Outstanding Youth Award 2019.  He is also well-versed in Thai language and has received many prizes, namely the National Outstanding Book Award; Seven Book Awards, Poetry category; and most recently, an international-caliber Young Thai Artist Award, Grand Prize for Literature (Poetry) for his collection of poems entitled “In a Small World”.  But before the glory he enjoys at present, he has faced countless challenges, but persevered to where he is now with his mother as a role model.

Big opened up to us about his early life that he is originally from Nakhon Si Thammarat province.  His family didn’t have much money and his mother was the breadwinner of the family working very hard to put food on the table. Later, she fell ill, and Big started to take care of her from the age of eight.  His life was full of hardship, but a small beacon of light that shined some hope for him began to take place at school.

“In those days, I always had to bring containers to school to bring back food to my mother and then go back to school again.  Once, I had to knock on my friend’s door in a slum area to ask for money so that I could go to school.  At every stage of my life, as I grew up, I met good teachers who helped me to continue my studies at the secondary level. The teachers taught me in every facet of my life and lifted me from an aimless childhood and made me into a person with a definite goal of building a beautiful future.” 

Big is proud of being able to show his gratitude to his mother, to take care of the person who gave birth to him, and to feel the mutual love they have for one another while she is still alive.  Big learned how to live his life through his mother. “Mom would encourage me to keep thinking positively. During our bleak and difficult days, she would always remind me that there are people who are worse off than us.  All she could give me was a healthy body with the ability to read and write, but I need to hold on and pursue my own dreams and gain an education.”

What helped him through the dark times was the realization of his precious “self-worth”. All the hardship is a reminder that we should never let anyone underestimate us. We have to always do the right thing and never stop uplifting ourselves.

“I used to give up so easily. I cried over anything and everything.  My mom was the person who made me persevere and strive for success. Today, I still do my duty and take care of my mother as always.  And because it is to the credit of his teachers who played an important role in his life, Big’s goal for his education at Chula’s Faculty of Education is to be a teacher like his own teachers who taught him throughout his secondary school years.

“I used to be poor and delinquent. My teachers helped discipline me, draw out my full potential, and made me realize my self-worth, so I could thrive and wouldn’t become a burden for society.  I want to be like my teachers and teach students who might be in the same circumstances as me, so they can have the opportunities that I have been given.”
Lastly, Big would like to share with everyone who is faced with a difficult situation that “many of us view a problem like a big balloon that obscures the tiny happiness hidden behind.  Just move your feet and change the angle of view of the problem facing you.  You will see things from a broader perspective and perceive the happiness that lies ahead. If we understand ourselves, no matter how tough the problem is, we can always tell ourselves that we can get through it.”

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