15 Reasons to live

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11KCXCIzqnZf36gU_n_NjVUzgGsizfhNybmKyiFrGY2M/edit?usp=sharing

American Sniper

     After reading through the play "A Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo", I expected to see inhuman behaviour that will be performed by American soldiers. But of course, that did not happen as it is a American movie LOL.

     Across the whole movie, the timeline keeps coming across. From war zone, to hometown, back and forth... Our main character Chris Kyle was a cowboy from a Texas, but his girlfriend cheated on him, so he and his brother decided to join the Marine. Quickly, he fell in love with Taya and had their first baby while he was in Iraq. 

     Chris as an excellent sniper, he often encounters the situation when women/children come into his range. Every time he prays that they do not carry a gun or a bomb. But sometimes to save soldiers' life, he has to do it. He is extreme calm, confident, and determined as he said to his son. Sometimes he even leads the ground unit to clear up establishments. He is respected and careful enough to save his folks from being killed. And finally managed to kill the other sniper even when they were being surrounded by enemies and storms.

     After several tours in Iraq, when Kyle came back home, he seemed to have some mental issue, or maybe temperament issue. He cant stop himself from going back to Iraq. But finally he received proper treatment and came back home and having a great time with his families.

     To be a human means to love and protect one's country.

     Without getting cheated on, Chris will not go join army and meet his beautiful wife Taya, and he will not be that respected as a great sniper. And every time when Taya tried to convince him to stay, he always says "I have to protect the country". He is a true patriot. Just try to imagine if you were Chris, will you left you family and newly born kids and choose to risk your life? Maybe many people would say yes, but if we are actually under that circumstances, I believe not too many would say so. If I was not mistaken, it was the 911 that inspired Chris to join the army. The training was tough, and he as well as any other soldiers managed to finish the whole training.

     To be a human means to be loyal.

     You need to be loyal to your partner(Chris got cheated on), as well as you country, just like Chris. Also when Chris is away in Iraq, it is actually very tough for Taya to raise 2 boys as well as taking care of the whole families.

     To be a human means to get used to different environment.

     When Chris came back from war, he seemed to have some issue. It is understandable that after seeing all these killing and death, you will feel weird and have bad dreams. He did not care about the family that much and could not focus. But luckily Taya did not give up on him and Chris managed to keep up and get used to normal life. All the retired soldiers who had injures and stayed in the hospital, they are happy. 


     Comparing with the play, the biggest similarity is "killing makes human loses humanity". In the play, Kevin and almost all other soldiers gone crazy, some committed suicide, some just died...They were not able to separate between the normal life and the war. In American Sniper, there is no suicide caused by killing, but all the soldiers do have super high pressure. What touched me was in the end, when Chris having fun with his family and helping other veterans, he got shot by a veteran he was going to help. I think not too many people noticed that, his brother actually was not happy with going to the war. I suspect it was the brother who killed him? I do not know the reason why the veteran killed him? Jealousy? Maybe, but it is one of the result of killing makes human loses humanity. After seeing and killing all these people, they have been benumbed. Maybe to that guy killing Chris is just like killing any other people...

     Is war really necessary? Will it actually kill our humanity? Maybe it is our own choice.

Social media - GOOD OR BAD?

     We all have to admit that the social medias really make our life much more easier. We can see each others' faces even though we are in different parts of the world. We can see what your friends' up to. And we are able to chat with our friends basically anytime anywhere, etc...

     Besides the positive impact social media brings to us, it also brings a lot of negative impacts. For example, people chose to suicide because of the pressure social media brought them, and false news/messages were spread and misled the public, and lastly, less and less face to face communication due to the use of social media etc.

     But overall, I have to say to me personally, the pro is larger than the con. Let us use INS as an example. Yes, there will be inappropriate content on it, and people might feel pressurized by some of them, but comparing with the convenience it brings us like: we as individuals could "feel closer" to our friend by checking out their posts, businesses or school clubs are able to use social media like INS to help promo the product, or certain events...

     Everything that exist in this world have double impact, so does social media. What is important is how we see it, and how we use it. Bad people will continue do bad things, but we as the growing generation, should try our best to prove that millennials are great, and it should be from the social media. 

To a grade 9 me

Hi me,

         I am writing from the future. Now I am in Toronto Canada. I can imagine you would be surprised because of the hate for English since elementary school. But I am delighted that you were able to pick up your interest for English in Gr. 8 and did a pretty decent job. 

         I know you do not like school, nobody does, (maybe few do). But school is more than a place to learn knowledge, it is also a place for friends and train your abilities, which you did great. The only thing is you could spend just a little bit more time to study, and you can get better marks LOL.

         Schools in China are always stressful, it is okay to get frustrated or have mental breakdown from time to time. It is good. You will not have any of those when you are at my age, you can handle all kinds of stress freely. You can sit back and relax while everybody having a mental breakdown at least once a week. Remember that, all the efforts that you made will always get back to you.

         It is good that you dated girls even that against teachers and parents' will. They will not care about that if you are successful in the future. I confessed to my parents and they think it is good. So do not worry about that. Keep doing that. Just be more responsible towards every decision you made about your relationship, it is NOT GOOD to break girls' hearts. BE MORE CAUTIOUS.

         You are doing a pretty good job dealing with your relationship with parents. Maybe spend more time with them whenever you could, and surprise them from time to time. Because now you can only see them like 3 times a year, and that will become less and less frequent. When you see them now, you will find that they are really getting old. What makes me frustrated is you could not be around them when they need you, I am really upset about that. They are the ones who love you the most in this whole world.

         Also try to spend as much time as possible with your friends in China. The special class mode in China produces a special bond between you and your classmates, which can NEVER be found in other places. However, as you study abroad, those friends of yours went into chinese high school, and they have new friends which have the bond between each other, you will be forgotten eventually, or you bond will disappear. So value your friends, and just keep in touch with each other whenever possible. YOU WONT BE REGRET ABOUT THAT.

        And finally, I want to thank you. You changed from a kid who hated school and english, to a passion young man LOL. All the hard work that you did make my(your) life much more easier. Keep up your good work! Be adventurous, travel more. 

Pic - Human - Life

2017.03 NYC

    

     This picture was taken by me during this March Break in Manhattan. It was near the end of a regular workday, people were rushing home after a highly stressful workday. It happened to be the first day after a big snowstorm.

     People were on the phone, there were not much interaction within people, it was a mess. But it was something real. After a long day of working, everybody got exhausted and just did not feel like smiling etc. And the time that it takes to go to work & go home becomes a personal private time. We use that to think about today, think about other personal stuff that happens in life. Yes it is boring and does not seem to be nice, so does life.(sometimes)

     To be human means to get used to routine and trying to have fun from that. As most of us will get a routine job and do it for the rest of our life, it will not be that exciting after 1, 10, or even 20 years. But the majority of us still keep on working. Meanwhile, we try to find things to make the routine more interesting, like vacation, great food, great date etc. After all those, we return to work, and then break, work, break... As human we find ways to balance between all the fun stuffs and boring stuffs, we go through bad days, as well as good ones.

What about a time when you should have but didnt

     Recently, I tend not to regret any decisions that I have or going to make. So I think a lot before actually making the decision.

     The most recently thing that I should have but I didnt was about one of my girlfriends.

     Fast forward back to 2015 summer, the summer that I came to a new country. I had been with that girl for 3 years and we were like the best couples in our school, teachers even decided not to destroy our relationship.

     When I made the decision to came to Canada, I did take her into consideration. But after a thorough analysis, I still decided to go. I had been thinking how I should pass the message to her, and finally I decided to tell her over phone. I realized afterwards i should have tell her in person but i didn't

     I still remember it was a lunch break between my Saturaday classes. As soon as i told her that i was leaving in a few months, she started crying. I do not panic too often, but as soon as a girl starts crying, i panic and do not know what to do at all. She threw a bunch of questions to me after calmed down a bit, but I did not know how to answer, or maybe because i did not have an answer that would make sense to her. She was heart broken for awhile afterwards. It was a tough way to tell someone you love and who loves you that you are leaving. If i chose to tell in person, maybe things could get better, the accepting process could be smoother

     Luckily, she was understanding enough to support my choice afterwards. After I came to Canada, because of time difference and distance, we both decided to be in open relationship. I am so lucky that i think till now, both of us have not find a better partner:)

WHAT IS HOLDING ME BACK???

     We usually do things under surroundings' pressure, and a lot of things such as time, money, location are limiting us from doing the things that we wanted to do.

     To me at this time, the citizenship is holding me back.

     I am not saying that Chinese citizenship is not good, it's just cause where I am. As a foreigner in Canada, we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy the great environment and a lot of other benefits here. Meanwhile, we have a lot of restriction in terms of some official affairs.

     As I travelled a lot, with the Chinese passport added more work prior each departure. We had to prepare the material, apply for the visa, and wait in long line for immigration inspection etc. With the money and time for waiting, I could utilise those fund and time towards another small trip. In rare case, I would be hold back and not able to visit the place I wanted to be.

     In terms of more recent scenario, we are not allow to do part time job as we are international students. Even though I do have contract with a German media production company as a translator, I still want to do some basic part time job, just to enrich my experience and build myself up to a more rounded person. Because of this, I am quite envy with my friends in Australia.  

     One of the biggest problems that I am facing pretty soon are University admission. Besides double or triple tuition for international students, a lot of programs do not admit candidates without Canadian citizenship or permanent residency. As many Canadian airlines do not accept any pilots without Canadian citizenship, it is very possible that I have to cut some choices of my workplace in the future.

     So far, not much that I could work on to change this situation. Although citizenship is holding me back in some cases, I can still enjoy the fresh air, the great education and live by myself, there is really nothing much to complain about. I really appreciate what I have now.