Written by Yu Degang
Translated by Guan Suixin
A temporary setback is not the same as a lifelong setback, but perhaps this setback will influence a person throughout his life. The influence may be a good one or may be a bad one. Of course this is dialectical, something bad may come from something good, or vice versa, reversing back and forth. My story is connected to my elder sister because of education.
In 1975, it was time for me to enroll in elementary school, but my hometown Peng Shan (Located in Sichuan Province) was poor, my family so much worse that they could not afford to send me to school. My parents had to take care of my grandmother as well as support four growing children. It is not difficult to imagine the hardship. Clothes were always hand-me-downs and I was the youngest child. By the time it was my turn, the clothes were already full of patches. However, to this day I never care about what I wear, because at that time people everywhere wore clothes with patches. Going into the city or to the market, you could see patched clothes everywhere. For me, not getting an education did not bother me, I had no idea the importance of education, my parents were anxious though. At this time my 16-year-old sister, who was already in high school, and who was an excellent student and also very sensible, came forward and said, “Mother, let little brother go to school. He has not even attended kindergarten (at that time only children in the city could go to kindergarten). Tomorrow I will return to the teacher the books assigned to me. I won’t go to school any more and I will come back to go to work with you.” Under the economic pressure at that time, my parents made a decision which they have regretted ever since, that was to let my sister come home to earn a monthly wage of eight dollars so that I could go to school. My sister thus rashly changed her fate. If she had continued to study, she would have been just in time for the college entrance examination to resume, and would not need to worry about the fate of not getting the recommendation to enter university. Now when I think of my sister who is suffering from all sorts of ailments, both my mother and I would shed tears of sadness.
That was how I started school, graduating in 1986 from high school to successfully cross the difficult path to university. I still remember my sister leaving after visiting me at the school. Seeing that I was skin and bones, she put aside the money for her return trip and stuffed all the money she had on her into my pocket……
I was a people’s policeman for a few years after my graduation, and I have now become an honorable university teacher. Finally there is no need to worry about livelihood, and there is no need to wear patched clothes. Nowadays even though one sees young people wearing patched clothes on the streets, that is actually a kind of respectable fashion.
Perhaps to you I did not have any setbacks, but my sister’s fate is my setback. I will have to live with this mental setback forever. My sister quit school because I had to go to school, and the difference between having an education or not at that time means the difference of fate now. My sister traded her misfortune for my fortune.
I cannot change my sister’s fate, I can only be good to her for the rest of my life.
Translated by Guan Suixin
A temporary setback is not the same as a lifelong setback, but perhaps this setback will influence a person throughout his life. The influence may be a good one or may be a bad one. Of course this is dialectical, something bad may come from something good, or vice versa, reversing back and forth. My story is connected to my elder sister because of education.
In 1975, it was time for me to enroll in elementary school, but my hometown Peng Shan (Located in Sichuan Province) was poor, my family so much worse that they could not afford to send me to school. My parents had to take care of my grandmother as well as support four growing children. It is not difficult to imagine the hardship. Clothes were always hand-me-downs and I was the youngest child. By the time it was my turn, the clothes were already full of patches. However, to this day I never care about what I wear, because at that time people everywhere wore clothes with patches. Going into the city or to the market, you could see patched clothes everywhere. For me, not getting an education did not bother me, I had no idea the importance of education, my parents were anxious though. At this time my 16-year-old sister, who was already in high school, and who was an excellent student and also very sensible, came forward and said, “Mother, let little brother go to school. He has not even attended kindergarten (at that time only children in the city could go to kindergarten). Tomorrow I will return to the teacher the books assigned to me. I won’t go to school any more and I will come back to go to work with you.” Under the economic pressure at that time, my parents made a decision which they have regretted ever since, that was to let my sister come home to earn a monthly wage of eight dollars so that I could go to school. My sister thus rashly changed her fate. If she had continued to study, she would have been just in time for the college entrance examination to resume, and would not need to worry about the fate of not getting the recommendation to enter university. Now when I think of my sister who is suffering from all sorts of ailments, both my mother and I would shed tears of sadness.
That was how I started school, graduating in 1986 from high school to successfully cross the difficult path to university. I still remember my sister leaving after visiting me at the school. Seeing that I was skin and bones, she put aside the money for her return trip and stuffed all the money she had on her into my pocket……
I was a people’s policeman for a few years after my graduation, and I have now become an honorable university teacher. Finally there is no need to worry about livelihood, and there is no need to wear patched clothes. Nowadays even though one sees young people wearing patched clothes on the streets, that is actually a kind of respectable fashion.
Perhaps to you I did not have any setbacks, but my sister’s fate is my setback. I will have to live with this mental setback forever. My sister quit school because I had to go to school, and the difference between having an education or not at that time means the difference of fate now. My sister traded her misfortune for my fortune.
I cannot change my sister’s fate, I can only be good to her for the rest of my life.
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