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发表于 2007-9-12 16:42:58
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An episode of me: undergraduate years
When asked, “where did you spend the best time of your youth”, most people would agree that it was on campus. College days always remind us of lovely ponds, straight evergreens, quiet reading rooms, devoted pals and perhaps sweet love.
My Alma mater is a normal university—cradle for would-be teachers. As with other normal universities elsewhere in China, the number of female students is quite out of proportion with that of males, esp. in schools or departments of Liberal Arts, like History, Chinese Language, and Foreign Languages and Cultures. I’m an English major. In our class, there were 6 boys but 28 girls. A joke floating around in our department was that even the most ordinary male students would certainly outshine extraordinary females for they were “national treasure” in the department.
I would never buy such a treasure vs. trash story for gender is biologically determined while success should be gained through hard work and continuous effort. During my college years, I spent most of the time attending courses and lectures and studying on my own. Interestingly, I was labeled as model student by some of my classmates who could not understand why I hadn’t felt bored with such a routine life, dorm-canteen-classroom/ library. In fact, I was not the one abided by curriculum. Pouring just 30% of energy into school work, i.e. textbooks, exams, things like that, I pursued what seemed to me more important things. More often than not I read extensively with the hope to explore the unknown and realize who I am. And I found reading and contemplation brought me inner peace and pure joy. Now from a retrospective view, I believe all was worth doing.
Basically, I belong to the type of shy, self-conscious person; nevertheless, I did make some intimate friends during the four college years. Xiaoling, Jiajia, Yanzi were the new friends I made at university. At first, it was the similar background and dialect that grouped and glued us in the big new pond. As time went by, we developed a strong relationship. Xiaoling is our eldest caring sister. Jiajia is easygoing and Yanzi outgoing. Though with different personalities, we could always found the common ground. We were willing to see strength and weakness in one another and ready to share laughter and tears together. The four of us hang around so often that we were given the nickname “the gang of four”. Quarrels, however, did happen sometimes with complaints and anger and refusal to speak to the other followed, but the “cold war” never lasted three days because a mutual friend would expectantly served as a mediator encouraging make-up. Still remember? We were “gang” members.
Some author said memory was more powerful than life; psychologists said people tended to retain good memories while discard bad ones. I believed to some extent memory is part of us. What can’t be erased is a former me that is maintaining and nourishing the existing me.
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