Dream is currently a senior in High School (Mathayom 6) at Suksasongkrotawatburi School, in Roi Et, Thailand.
Dream was born in the subdistrict of Non Chai Si, Phon Thong District in Roi Et province.
She has one older sister and one younger brother. She is studying and living at Suksasongkrotawatburi School since the age of 9 as does her younger brother. Her older sister has been fostered by her aunt since she was young, and therefore attends another school.
Her parents were divorced around the time Dream was in preschool. Her mother married again to a man who turned out to be verbally and physically abusive. The abuse was mainly due to his drug usage and jealousy. Sometimes her mother was beaten so badly that she couldn’t go to work. During this terrible time, her brother and Dream would beg for food and provisions and collect recyclable waste to sell so they had money to buy rice and other food.
During that period, they would often flee the home with their mom for their safety and secretly stay for a time in the home of friends, so the stepdad wouldn’t know where to find them and they would be safe for a while.
Despite the attempts to keep everyone safe, her mother was admitted several times to the hospital due to the severe abuse she incurred from the stepfather.
Finally, a social worker from the Family and Child Welfare Department in Roi Et was notified of this situation and they ascertained that staying at their home was not a safe place for growing up. They sent both children to live and study at Suksasongkrotawatburi School in Roi Et, a government-run welfare boarding school, where the majority of the students live on campus throughout the school year. Dream and her brother are grateful they can live, eat, and study at the school, which is their new home and without having to pay for the services.
When Dream finished Mathayom 3, which is equivalent to 9th grade, she received a scholarship through the Tak Aviation Company to study aviation management. Along with her fellow scholarship recipients, she studied during their first semester. Near the end of the internship, the world was struck by the Covid Pandemic, which especially caused havoc in all aviation businesses. Sadly, the Tak Aviation Company was not able to retain any of the students after their internship, and so Dream’s aviation study career was cut short. During the term break she was able to get a part time job as a waitress in a restaurant in Pattaya.
Dream was allowed to return to study again in Roi Et at Suksasongkrotawaburi School in Mathayom 4 or 10th grade.
In the earlier years of living at Suksasongkrotawatburi School, Dream and her brother would spend the term breaks with their mother in Pattaya, but as the years progressed so did the problems when the children stayed with her. Their mother left the violent and gambling addicted stepfather and remarried again and is living now with the new stepfather’s family. However, the years of abuse had a very negative impact on their mother’s state of mind and now she is addicted to drugs.
The closest family the siblings still have regular contact with is their grandmother who is living in Roi Et, and with whom they stayed during the term breaks in the earlier years, after their mother’s second divorce. Nowadays Dream doesn’t stay with her grandmother often anymore, as she is working part time, close to the school’s campus, during semester breaks. As the harsh reality requires her to work so she is able to save some money to help her brother at the beginning of each school term.
When both siblings started at Suksasongkrotawatburi School, their mother told them that this would be only for one year and she would come to get them back home. They kept hoping and dreaming that the family, mother, father, and siblings, would live together in “their” home, but now they have given up any expectation that this will ever happen. Moreover, her mother doesn’t contact her very often. In fact, it might be 3 months since she last heard from her. And her father, has entered the Buddhist monkshood, to find a way to escape the worries of this world. Sadly, since the divorce, he has not even visited them once, but they have talked on the phone occasionally. Even though Dream cannot accept the things that happened before and the fact that her parents have not been there for her and her siblings, she still loves her parents a lot.
Dream’s biggest dream in life is to become an English teacher. In her younger years, Dream loved studying the Thai language the most, but in her 9th grade year (Mathayom 3) many things changed! She had the opportunity to go to an AFS camp, received the scholarship to study aviation, and she got a job serving food in a restaurant. These were all incredible life-changing experiences for her. It changed her attitude towards studying English, and she really enjoyed the many opportunities she experienced as a translator between Thai and English speakers. That was the trigger for her to be willing to become more proficient in English. At the same time, Dream discovered that the more we share together, the more we can learn! She enjoyed sharing her experiences with others and realized that in the future she wanted to bring positive change in her community. She is willing to help those that are frustrated and unable to see a path forward, just like she had enjoyed being helped by so many throughout her life. Especially the teachers and staff at Suksasongkrotawatburi School, who have taken care of her like family all these years.
Dream decided to join the We Can Club at her school, to improve her conversational English and become more confident to speak out in English in front of others. And genuinely at the same time she wants to have a part in helping other students at her school to improve speaking and \understanding English better. In that way she wants to contribute in building a healthier culture on campus, and help bless the lives of her fellow students in their future endeavors as well!
Now, Dream has been accepted as a student by the Faculty of Education at Roi-Et University to start the English Teaching Program. She is deeply grateful and excited to be able to make her dream, of becoming an English teacher, come true. However, at this moment in time Dream is still worried whether she will have enough scholarship funds to make it really happen. Dream is not deterred and is fully committed to do everything she can to reach her goals and by doing so, help others reach their goals as well.
Thank you so much for your support.
