When I was told by Alex that I had been name checked by Pat’s blog, it was a sunny day. I was reading Pat’s blog on my phone and standing at the middle of the street. The weather was warm, dust was rolling, people were passing by, loud and noisy. Headphone was playing Salut d’Amour, Op.12 by Cellist Yo-yo Ma. Smooth and gentle, just like what Pat wrote about what was her dream when she was in school. But could feel a slight sadness at the corner, hiding. “Yea, Pat. Where is my sparkles goes?” I ask myself. We all had dream, or dreams before. But it seems we also had lost our dream in the social reality wave. Life just goes on, until someone asked.
When I was in secondary school, I liked doodle very much. If my text book is still here, you might see the portrait of Chinese poet from thousand years ago was riding a motorcycle, or the guy who discover gravity was playing rhythmic gymnastics ribbons under the apple tree. Even the most serious teacher couldn’t stop my passion, the passion of drawing when they were teaching.
Have you experienced some timing in life before? You know, some timing which things just happened and it never come to what you want. For example, I like art, but my grade never been great, including my favourite subject Visual Art. I watched others achieve good grades, maybe I was the one who couldn’t fit into the educational system. A for Asian is not for me, I told myself. “If you can’t beat them, join them.” So I started to seek joy, started to draw how was I doing in this educational system, my school life comic, and share with my friends. I start to noticed what was happening around me, because every moment in life could have been my next comic idea.
Beside, as you can see, I like to make people laugh, what I draw is funny comic. I can slightly remember it was in a life education class. The teacher asked, what is the most important life value to you, and why? I wrote down Joy on my post-it memo immediately, without thinking, like I usually do. Joy is my passion and value of life, bar none. I even wrote I want to be a clown to make people happy when I was little in some years, it’s like I am born to be happy, born to be make people happy. I really enjoy people smile and laugh around me. Unfortunately, my teacher told me there was a more important thing than to be happy. I guess maybe pay attention in class is what he wanted me to do.
“Maybe growing up means to just feel joy less and less.” I wasn’t able to found my joy in these years. I stopped draw my comic even I don’t know since when. Life must go on, luckily a seed is still there.
At the other year, the other day, the other moment, somebody from somewhere just randomly ask you “Do you remember what was your dream when you were little?” You start to remember something, the memory from the memory dump. In fact I was starting to focus on what’s happening around me, like a preparation to draw my comic again. Pat, you are writing too. Moreover, your words even motivated me to write.
Maybe we are not that far away from the path we have had before.
This comic strip is telling a story about two sleepy idiot uni students who needed to discuss their project at 9.30 o’clock at night but they were already in their department at 7.30. They were too sleepy to hold their mind to wait for the others at 8.30. So one of them suggested going to the internet cafe to write their case record or play games, and the other one (which is me) was really excited. Because she has been living in the human world for 20 years and has never been to an internet cafe before. They both already awoke when riding to the cafe, one was excited to bring his classmate to a whole new world and one was excited to see a whole new world. At the internet cafe, the equipment was actually more high class then she thought, and the price was so good too. She even heard the comfy couch was saying “sit me” and the big computer screen was saying “hit me” to her. [in Cantonese, play video game is written as 打hit 機game]. So at the end when he asked her “Do you wanna write the case record here?” She said, ” Of course not, you’re crazy.” -The End-. (Maybe you will ask about how the project and the other group mates go. I can honestly tell you that at the end four of them were all sat at the internet cafe and were playing the shooter game together, as a practice of group dynamics.)
