From Barry

Title: The doctors of life

"Hi Mr Chen, I here to tell you that the tumour had been removed and your cancer is now in remission". His eyes glimmered, and a smile started to emerge from the corner of his mouth. As tears of joy welled up in his eyes, he thanked me profusely. This was a man who had lost hope in himself a few years ago. All it took, was a spark of hope given to him, and it ignited the flame of courage to live on and to remain optimistic. The same spark of hope, nourished and nursed him back to health. I was the doctor of his life.

District officers, fellow toastmasters and friends. Before Thomas Edison discovered the tungsten filament, before Walt Disney became famous for his mickey mouse comics, before Terry Fox embarked on the run of his life, all 3 of them experienced numerous setbacks previously. Yet, the same 3 people had something in common. They had someone who believed in them, who gave them the strength to keep going, who in time became the doctors in their lives. How many of you have plunged into darkness and thought that you would never see the light again? How many of you experienced hopelessness when faced with a difficult problem? How many of you had someone in your life, who pulled you out of the darkness, who gave you a ray of light, who became the doctor of your life?

Back in 1999, there was a boy who fell out with a friend in class. This friend went on to speak ill about him to the rest of his classmates. As a result, his classmates believed the rumours and shunned away from him. As a result, this boy became quiet. He could not hold his head high and look up whenever he was in school. It affected his self-esteem badly, so bad that he developed a pessimistic view in life. To further compound the problem, the relationship between his parents were on the rocks. Everyday, he would go back to a house which would be filled with quarrels in the evening. He felt helpless. He had no friends in school, nor a functional family to turn to at home. Where could he go, if he dreaded to go to school in the morning, yet at the same time, fearful of going home? He wondered why he continued to breathe, why he woke up every morning, why no one came to take him away and ease the pain.

Things got slightly better the following year, when he switched class after the streaming examinations. However, the hurt that was inflicted on him remained and became a scar in his mind, reminding him about the unhappy past. The scar gave him the fear of making new friends and placing his trust in them. The scar made him fearful of expressing himself in front of others, let alone speak in front of an audience. Fellow toastmasters and friends, if you hadn't guessed by now who this boy is, he is none other than yours truly.

Over the years, many people attempted to remove the scar in my heart. However, the fear still lingered, till I met a group of people from an expedition trip which I took part in last December. From that moment, this group of 4 friends became an important part of my life. There was a night when the 5 of us decided to spend the entire night at pasir ris park, to pitch a tent and to chat about anything under the sun. And I brought up my unhappy past. They told me, that all those unhappy incidents that happened in the past had happened and there was no way to reverse them. But what I could do, was to let go of my past, and to move on in life, optimistically. Just a simple night, just a simple chat, but the impact that the simple night left on my mind was sufficient to remove that scar which once casted fear on my life. Helen Keller: The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard but must be felt with the heart. These group of friends taught me to move on, they helped to heal the past wounds, they became the doctors of my life.

Jim Rohn: To every thing there is a season, and to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. Fellow toastmasters and friends, there is a time for everything. You'll never know, how a simple gesture of care and concern can leave a deep mark in a person's life. No man is an island, each of us need a group of people to unlock the potential in us, to give us the fuel to keep the fire going, to become the doctors of our lives and to nurse us back to health when we get hurt.

George Washington Carver: No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it. Make an impact in someone's life today. A few words of encouragement, a gesture of concern, a pat on the back, and these are just what it require to be one of the doctors of life.