Former Garbage Child Worker Becomes Scholarship Recipient To University of Melbourne

Does your family background determine your future? There are some who seems to think so.

True, if your parents are rich, you probably stand a higher chance of succeeding. Like this dude here who dropped out from polytechnic and became a doctor.

But as my handsome colleague eloquently put it:

So in the end money prevails? Kinda, but not really. All money did was just gave him a lot more chances, but the one who still has to actually put in the effort to make it into the school, and then in work, is Ian himself.

Now, if you’re not convinced, I don’t blame you. After all, Ian (bachelor and doctor) doesn’t paint a believable story about hard work (despite him working for it).

Here’s one that’ll make you gasp and bow down like BuffLord95 did when we bought spanking pink dumbbells into the office.

Meet Sophy Ron

This beautiful young lady is the valedictorian of her graduating batch at Trinity College.

For those (like me) who don’t know this word, it means she’s the top of her class. What more, she managed to score herself a full scholarship to the University of Melbourne.

And trust me.

It Wasn’t Always Like This

This is Sophy Ron too. Or, should I say, past-Sophy Ron.

She is the girl who worked seven days at the garbage dump at Phnom Penh, breathing in noxious fumes to help feed the family.

Her meals consisted of discarded food she managed to salvage from the filth.

And before she turned 11, she did not attend a single day of school.

And Now?

She gave her graduation speech in fluent English in front of a crowd of students. Confidently and happily.

Sophy is a beneficiary of the Cambodian Children Fund which helps to deliver education, family support and community development programs to Cambodia’s most impoverished communities.

But at the end of the day?

If she can do it, so can you.

I mean, there’s no more excuse now, right? Money, connections, these are things that are good to have, yes, but not necessarily required for success.

So, to share my colleague’s wise words once again:

If pi sai are like opportunities, you may be given a lot of pi sai to dig, but the one who has the fingers to actually dig out the pi sai is yourself.