괜찮아, 괜찮아

One day, I was standing in a train while two schoolgirls, who are friends, sat in front me. One schoolgirl was holding an expensive smartphone and playing with it. Out of the blue, her friend accidentally knocked her, causing her to lose grip of her handphone. Her handphone landed on the floor about a metre away after making a few hard bounces. Her immediate response was not picking up her handphone. Instead, she looked to her friend and kept telling her, "괜찮아, 괜찮아". She only picked it up after assuring her friend that she is not going to blame her. With her handphone back, she continued to comfort her friend, "괜찮아, 괜찮아", without even checking her handphone for damages.

The little schoolgirl reminded me of a story about Confucius. Confucius went home one day to find his stables on fire. His first response was to ask, "Was anyone hurt?" and not "Was any horse hurt?" The moral of the story is always to put people first before our property.

Despite her young age, the schoolgirl acted like one great teacher. Her "괜찮아, 괜찮아" kept ringing in my ears even after I got off the train. Her words were very comforting indeed because I saw that she genuinely put her friend before her handphone.