Young Adulthood
In spite of her early and persistent difficult experiences with school, 
Pat struggled to continue with her studies- often at the insistence of her mother. Finally, in 1956, Pat could no longer continue and dropped out of high school. She stayed at her parent’s home for a year before eventually finding an office job with the Malaysian government as a punch-card operator. This was a job she quickly became bored with and began to look for work that was more challenging.
To her surprise, she was offered a temporary position as an untrained teacher at a local rural school. Pat accepted the offer and, to her delight, found she enjoyed teaching. Pat decided later to enroll in teacher’s college and formalize her education which she then completed in 1965.
After graduating from teacher’s school, Pat was offered and accepted a position as a primary teacher at St. Luke’s- a mission school. Pat taught young students in rustic outdoor classrooms filled with up to 50 grade one students- boys and girls from different ethnic and religious backgrounds including Muslim, Chinese, Christian, Iban, Bidayu. Pat continued teaching for 5 years, but her time as a teacher would soon come to an end. Pat was now nearly 29 years old and unmarried. She wanted to see the world and go abroad in search of a different future. Canada was soon to be on her horizon.
