Editor’s Note: I first came across the mighty Takalah Tan after coming across a viral tweet by a Singaporean. Turns out, Tan has a story that is so inspirational that I wrote about it on Mashable Southeast Asia. Long story short, Tan started out as a healthy, successful and handsome young man who had a bright future ahead of him. He was a top student, an award winning athlete and life was going great for him. But tragedy struck leading him to suffer from a severe brain injury. The amazing part about it, he bounced back. Here’s Takalah’s story. 

We decided to get in touch with the man and he was more than happy to share with us many poems. We decided to go with this one because Malaysians need to know about this amazing Singaporean. Here’s Takalah Tan.

Though born frail with asthma when young,

became fit via vigour and hunger inherent,

came in 36th in ABC 100km-Triathlon 1991,

and was a Top-5% Cadet Officer at OCS

Was awarded President Scout Award by then P. Wee Kim Wee,

studied hard in NJC and NUS,

tested air-ventilation at bomb-shelter,

greatly improved strength-testing of concrete-columns.

As a near-death TBI survivor featured in True-Courage documentary to inspire many,

was President of Brain Injury Society for 8yrs, organized for it campfire and more,

completed Post-Grad-Dip on Acquired-Brain-Injury at La Trobe Uni,

was featured in Victoria-Australia Brain-injury Awareness-Week publicity.

***Header image courtesy of Takalah Tan.

Enjoyed this poem? Here’s more. 

POETRY | You Bake Me Crazy by Jane Ng

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