As shared by Daybet, Former Beyond Youth
Twenty years had passed since Daybet last walked through the doors of Beyond’s office.
The space felt smaller than he remembered, but not unfamiliar. Before he could fully take it in, he saw a face that pulled him straight back into memory.
“Uncle George!”
George paused. It took a second. Then recognition landed – fittingly, on the very day he marked 23 years of working at Beyond. What followed was the easy rhythm of reunion: updates exchanged, laughter over half-forgotten details, stories filling in the years that had slipped by.
“You remember Daybet?” George asked the staff around him – the ones who have been here long enough.
They did.
Many people had passed through Beyond’s doors over the years, but Daybet was remembered. Quiet, observant, always present.
“What brings you here?” someone asked, eventually.
Daybet shared that he had been walking through Bukit Ho Swee, the neighbourhood where much of his childhood had unfolded. He remembered that Beyond was still here, and on impulse, decided to step in.
He had first come to Beyond when he was six. His father was bedridden. His mother, a foreigner, was his primary caregiver. With citizenship issues complicating his school placement, Daybet was referred to Beyond’s full-day programme at the time. It became a place where he received academic support, but just as importantly, where someone looked out for his well-being.
Beyond remained a constant until he moved to Ang Mo Kio at fifteen.
As he walked around the office, his eyes lingered on old posters and photographs lining the walls. He smiled at the sight of a poster from one of Beyond’s past runs, remembering the 5km routes and the shortcuts they were always trying to find.
Then another memory surfaced. An accident. A badly injured foot. A long night at the hospital. A staff member who stayed until his family arrived.
It was never just the programmes.
Standing there, Daybet realised how many former youths were still connected to the people who had once walked alongside them. Beyond, he said, had been part of how he – and some of his peers – found their footing as they grew older. That day, he decided it was time to give back.
“The help my family received made a difference,” he reflected. “I hope the help I give now can help someone the way it helped me. Like a cycle.”
Former youths returning is not unusual. But it never feels ordinary.
These visits remind us how lives continue to unfold beyond programmes, beyond neighbourhoods, beyond the years. What stays are the connections – the people who walked alongside them, and the moments that shaped how they learned to move forward.
And every so often, someone walks back through a familiar door. Not just to remember, but to begin again.