A Beginning - Road to *

Decisions' Decision

         The result from JUPAS has landed on me and you, and City University has offered me a place in the Science and Engineering Department.
         I turned it down.
         I was lucky enough to be selected out of all people.
         I would turn down any offer.
        For some of you, I might be nothing but a sad, mad lunatic, and immature, or even, stupid.
         I thought about not going to the University and working as a office guy with a suit as early as Form Four. I don't like it - period
         Maybe three years of McDonald's have provoked my subconscious.
         Maybe reading books have slipped me the idea of being a writer.
         I don't know the exact reason.

***

         I was born in a small village named AoTou near the Special Economic Zone ShanTou where people speak Teochew in the Mainland China.
         During that time, I received three years kindergarten education starting the age of 3, which is later than everybody else. And followed by a year of Pre-Primary School class which is ridiculous, and four years of Primary School. Not until Primary Three did I learned about the basic of English. Yes, A to Z. Grammar? Not even close.

***

         Here I was, in Hong Kong. Arrived in summer of 2005, I was at a loss. Nothing much known to me, though I've mastered the language of Cantonese through watching Hong Kong's TV show when I was still little. People say that children have the vast capacity to learn new things, I guess that's true enough.
         I later enrolled into Primary Five at CSSHK. I've made some new friends and participated in many different sports. Academically, I was performing rather well after the first year with the exception of English subject. I still remember how humiliated I was to get 5 of 100 in the first ever English dictation, I swear I could felt my face peeling off from me that day. My family though, showed support at all time, that why I studied more like everyone should, and I got back to the average.

***

         Finishing Primary School, I was lucky enough to be selected by the system into the slot of St. Louis School.
         The first three year was a mess. My English subject was the worst of all, getting fail at all time without problem. Teachers tried to help me without success. I reckoned it was my Grammar. Not knowing when and how to deploy Grammar into the field was quite a bummer, making me nervous about the possibility of being promoted to the Senior Form constantly. Pure luck that not once in that three year had I got an offer to repeat.
         When I went up to Senior Form, it was all out war to English. Grammar and Proofreading and other stuff from Junior Form were over, it's time to bring out the big guns. Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. I felt like these were much easier, though not everyone shared the same joy as I did.

***

         And I've one or two ideas of how I have gotten this far.
         Watching TV and movies. That's it. Watch tons of it like it's food to eat, water to drink. Thanks to all the video online and TVB Pearl, I've probably spent more time on watching episodes of TV shows and movies than going to school.
         First I was watching them with subtitles, because not being able to understand the dialogues was meaningless and painful. Having years of experiences and improvement in English, I am now bold enough to watch without them, and I felt like I enjoyed and immersed even more without the distraction.
         Books, too, are important. Before I went to the public library and got hold of the book had I read an English book chosen by myself. It was 'The Last Goodbye' by Reed Arvin, that was a good read for I have little books to refer to, enjoyable and I didn't even have to consult a dictionary in order to burn it through. Stephen King's 'Hearts in Atlantis' was the next book I picked. I loved it. Especially the part where he wrote about some jocks beating up on two defenseless little boy and girl with a baseball bat. I will never forget that because at the moment of reading I felt both furious and confused, wanting to vent out the anger to those guys but realizing it's just in the writing. It was all fictional.
         I've read more books in English since then. 'The Time Traveler's Wife' was fantastic, 'The Millennium Trilogy' were absolutely thrilling, 'The Notebook' was a lovely read...

***

         Ever since I've a PC, I was diggin'  it hard. I knew so much about computers and network and stuff through out the years of experiencing and reading articles online. I was having the dream of being a developer or system administrator or the like someday. It was all but a dream, not after I realized that getting into the field of computer technology require a clear and logical mind, did I started losing faith in myself. I was merely good in Mathematics, close to average mark was all I've got every single time, never understand the concept to apply it into an advanced level. I would only follow the simple trick and calculate the answer, asking me anything more and I would fail to solve the question with the best attempt.
         So late and little did I know. I was performing steadily in ICT since I am familiar with the basic because I've spent so many time with a computer. That didn't count.
         I decided to take class in HarvardX's CS50x to learn computer science online provided by Harvard from the online education platform edX. I was lost, I couldn't even solve the simple pre-programming stuff. I knew I was not going to be good at this field, or it would take me forever to grasp it. And slowly, I turned to writing.

***

         My English writing wasn't that good to be excellent but decent enough to be able to express myself in a way you understand.
         In the year to come, I will study on online courses and books about writing. And I aim at writing daily, of idea with no less than 500 words or an hour or two per day for now, I would slowly increase the words I wrote to find the balance.
         I will participate in the 'National Novel Writing Month' starting November 1, spilling every writing magic I have into the a novel in a month. I am also thinking about publishing my writings and stories on the Amazon Kindle platform if I ever could but that's too much for me for now.

***

         At least I have made the first move toward something.