Returning to Relationships, Returning to Ourselves

Setting off at 4 a.m. and travelling from Southern Malaysia, the students and teachers embarked on a life education journey that involved nearly eight hours of travel in a single day.

Yet for the participants from Foon Yew High School Johor Bahru, this was far more than a trip. It was an opportunity to rediscover and re-understand life itself.

This time, they stepped into cemeteries and funeral spaces — places that many young people rarely have the opportunity to visit. Through these experiences, they were encouraged to view life from a different perspective and reconnect with its meaning from the heart.

For young people, the idea of “cherishing relationships” may sometimes feel distant and abstract. Therefore, learning to return to oneself, to see oneself, and to value oneself becomes one of the most direct and meaningful lessons that life education offers to adolescents.

Throughout the learning journey, many students shared their reflections:

“ I thought life education would be heavy and depressing, but it turned out to be so warm.”
“ Cherishing relationships is not something that is easy to understand.”
“ But through learning about living with death in mind, I have started to seriously think about what relationships mean.”
“ The impact and reflections can be long-lasting.”
“ Letting go does not mean forgetting; it means carrying the memory and continuing to live well.”
“ A farewell does not always have to be ‘goodbye.’ It can also be ‘I will always remember you.’”
“ One sentence from the Crematory Operator deeply moved me: Don’t wait until something is lost before you learn to cherish it.”
“ I witnessed how the end of life can be treated with such sincerity and respect.”
“ Yet feelings of loss are often impossible to express in words.”
“ Grief is complex and comes in many forms. We need to allow it to exist.”
“ After facing death directly, I no longer feel that failure is the same as not succeeding.”
“ I hope to slowly learn to face life with greater ease and composure.”
“ The spirit of the Silent Mentors is truly remarkable.”

Ultimately, life education is never really about death itself.

What it truly seeks to explore is how, once we understand that life is finite, we can cherish our relationships more deeply, treat ourselves with greater kindness, and live each day with greater intention.

For the goal of life education is not to teach us how to face death, but to teach us how to live.