Time flies fast. It's now September 2. In more or less two weeks of time, I will start my first full time job of my life. This summer has been great, I have travelled to a lot of places, seen a lot of stuff, done a lot of things, drink a lot of coke and the list goes on and on.
But what I want to write you all today is about the things I learned in my five months of vacation. You may find gems in this post or after five minute of read, you will find you just read a bunch of crap. For now, I can't decide that for you since I am still writing.
So, here we go. The first thing I learned this summer is that biases are formed in a very dangerous way. Let me tell you why. Before I went to China, I told all my friends that it is a place of danger. Yes! Danger, because you can get tricked by the local, get poisned by drinking their beer, get mugged on the street, get shot by their police, the list goes on and on. So you can imagine the surprise I had when I arrived Shanghai. That place is MODERN. The buildings are well built, the services are not so bad and most part of the city I saw was cleaner than I had expected.
Yes, I know it's not the complete image of Shanghai I am seeing because I was staying at places that the locals (most of them) could never afford. However, it was, for me (a Chinese), a cultural shock! That place is actually live-able! You might laugh at my stupidity in this remark but I seriously wasn't thinking China as a place that one can actually live in! How stupid was I when I told my friend not to work there because they have man-eating species occupying the land (not the exact word but you get the idea).
So the first lesson I learned this summer is that always check your biases before making your judgement.
The second thing I learned this summer is that I am really a lucky person to be born into the family I am in. When I went traveling, I saw a lot of people who don't have the necessity to make a good living or lead a good life. Here I was, traveling to countries and flying to places, still complaining the hell out of me how long each flight is. I should be more thankful to what I have and what I possess. A point in case is when I was buying a book at the Cheng Pin book store in Taiwan. It is the largest chain book store there. So here I was shopping for books.
I love reading. It makes me think about things I don't usually think about. But that is not the point of the story. At the cashier, I was ready to pay for my books. It rang up as $3,000 (TWD) so approximately $100 (CDN). Somehow the cashier looked quite envious of me. So I asked her (I still wonder how good I was at reading people's faces ha ha ha), is it a lot of money I am paying? Then she said yes - She said she makes about $3 (CDN) an hour. She will never be able to actually spend that much on books, even with employee discounts, in a flash of eyes.
I see beggers on the streets. But sometime I get blinded, or I cheat myself into thinking they are just some other beggers who will take the money to buy more drinks. But when I was standing at the bookshop in Taipei, I realize how lucky I was to be able to buy most of the things I want. I never realize buying books can be luxurious to someone else too.
I realize throught the trip that I am ignorant of most of the things that are happening around me. When I graduated University, my parents offerred to pay for my car. My cousin's friend graduated from University, their family asked him to ride two hour bus to work everyday since they can't afford a motorcycle. I complain about the rather humid summer I had in Vancouver, but the people in Taiwan, Shanghai, and even Orlando is living days of 33 degree high. You know, I am really really a lucky guy!
So yeah, those are the two big lessons I leared.
Hope I didn't waste those five minutes of yours. If not, read the post again. You can always learn something - perhaps a lesson on grammar?
潑墨
