The Giant Clam and My First Pizza

My childhood was troublesome. Starting in elementary school, when I was six years old. Every day, I must have been penalized by teachers for lack of focus, disrupting classes, and playing with friends. The student uniform, with white shirts, always ends up dirty by the end of the day; none of the detergent brands were able to whiten my uniform.

One day, my mom told me about a dangerous giant clam with strong valves that lock the legs or arms of anyone who accidentally gets too close. I can’t remember how I came to know about the taxidermied giant clam that had been stuffed and placed somewhere in Assumption College Thonburi school. I treated it as a treasure and set out with a few of my crew to find it. I ran around the school, searching from building to building. The school is a big and mysterious place to the eye of a six-year-old boy. Until I accidentally entered a library. There, I met a librarian who gave me a book to read. When I returned it, she gave me a collectible stamp that if I collected a certain number of stamps, I would get a free pizza. And I did. It was my first time eating pizza that my mom found hard to afford. I clearly remember it was a weekend when I sat at the Pizza Company with my mom, sharing a small-sized seafood pizza. I was very happy. While I kept repeating this process, I found myself gradually falling in love with reading.

Even after I was transferred to another school a year later, I continued this habit of reading, even though the school I transferred to lacked resources, and I had to walk 1 km every day after classes ended to an SE-ED bookstore in the Lotus, a department store near my new school. Thanks to the bookstore sales for not kicking me out so that boy can realize how large and amazing this world is. Of course, my favorite shelf is the science shelf.

Looking back, if I hadn’t been running around the school chasing the giant clam from my mom’s story, and met with the librarian in 2003, maybe I wouldn’t be here writing this post, sharing my stories, trying to give back, and have tasted a life that is worth living.

Can’t thank you enough.