My name is Sean Sey. I have 4 siblings including me, and I am the only one of my siblings who has graduated grade 12. However, I was once a school dropout before graduating.
When I was young, my parents divorced, and I had to live with my grandparents, which made me feel like an orphan. During that time, I followed my grandparents to another province, living far from my mother. I was 8 or 9 years old and in grade 1, so I had to restart from grade 1 until grade 4. However, I had to stop studying again because my grandparents could no longer support me, so I started working to earn money.
In 2014, my grandmother who lived with my mother passed away. My mother then called me to attend the funeral ceremony, where she allowed me to become a monk to honor my grandmother. Living with my mother during this time was a great experience, as I felt a sense of warmth and peace. However, after the funeral ceremony, I remained distant from my mother, as I lived at the pagoda and later moved to study at SvayRomeat Pagoda, north of the airport.
Previously, I was an intern at the NGO REACH Siem Reap through JWOC. Now, I am a staff member at REACH, and I am very happy to be part of this organization. During my 6-month internship, I learned to improve my communication skills, work better in a team, and gain skills in bicycle and mountain bike repair, which I use to support the students in the REACH Repair Shop program.
In the future, I want to be an English teacher, as it is my dream, and I will never give up on it. I am a person who likes to share knowledge with others, and I hope that the knowledge I have will inspire those in my community, especially children who have dropped out of school, to never give up on their dreams and to work also want to be the person who encourages those who have dropped out of school to continue their studies, even if they face many challenges. No matter the obstacles I have faced in my life, I have never given up on my journey. I always fall, but I always encourage myself to study. If I have the opportunity to study at university in the future, I will do my best to succeed in my dream, and I will share what I have learned with my community to help them understand the value of education.
