In the blink of an eye, this is already the sixth time I’m spending the Mid-Autumn Festival alone away from home.
Since my first year of high school, all my Mid-Autumn Festivals have been spent at school.
If I were to try to recall how these Mid-Autumn Festivals passed, I really don’t have much of a concept anymore.
In my first year of high school, the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2003 fell on September 11th, which I remember quite clearly.
It was the second anniversary of 9/11. Having just entered high school from middle school, I knew nothing. Since the school only gave us a day off and my home was quite far away, I didn’t go back.
All I remember about that Mid-Autumn Festival is that, at the time, I could still vaguely see the words “Disinfected” and “United to Fight SARS” under the mooncake advertisements on the buses, which made me feel particularly uncomfortable.
Of course, I also remember using an IC card to make phone calls every day during my first year of high school. In middle school and before, I bought IC cards and 200 cards at home—there were also 201 cards back then—and they were sold at face value. A 30-yuan card cost 30 yuan.
In my first year of high school, I heard on the street that a 53-yuan phone card could usually be bargained down to 28-30 yuan. The seller eventually gave me a price of 20 yuan. Without thinking much, I bought five cards, only to find out later that they could only be used until March 2004. So, I had no choice but to make as many calls as possible, or else I wouldn’t be able to use them all. In the end, I didn’t finish them and had to sell them at a low price at the last moment…
In my second year of high school, I had just chosen to study liberal arts, which was quite depressing and came with a lot of pressure because no one in my family agreed with my decision, and even my teachers and classmates were surprised by my choice.
To be honest, it’s impossible for me to say now that I don’t regret it at all. At the time, I didn’t have a good reason for choosing liberal arts; I was just very rebellious. Whatever others said, I would do the opposite, without much consideration of the consequences.
Saying I had no reason isn’t entirely accurate. I was young at the time, and everything seemed very simple. So, with the attitude of wanting to continue with my so-called first girlfriend, I followed her lead. The result, of course, was particularly frustrating. She wasn’t even in the same class as me, which wasn’t a big deal, but in the end, we didn’t even follow the same academic path. She went on to study art, while I, being colorblind…
So, life is just full of drama.
In my third year of high school, I remember the Mid-Autumn Festival being quite solemn because it coincided with September 18th, and 2005 was also the 60th anniversary of the victory over fascism in World War II. I remember the history of the Japanese invasion of China in 1931 very clearly.
Speaking of the Japanese invaders, what left the deepest impression on me was the book “The Spring and Autumn of the Young Marshal” about General Zhang Xueliang and an article called “The Wooden Flute” (because these two things popped into my head first). “The Spring and Autumn of the Young Marshal” can be said to fully restore the historical facts of the September 18th Incident and provide a relatively factual record of General Zhang Xueliang’s life (a personal conclusion I reached after comparing it with other books about General Zhang). “The Wooden Flute” tells the story of a wooden flute player who refused to play “Ode to Joy” at an international performance competition in Nanjing on the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre. Because the festive atmosphere was tied to the solemn national humiliation, I felt inexplicably lost, so I have almost no memory of that Mid-Autumn Festival.
In my fourth year of high school, 2006 was a particularly frustrating year for me, mainly because I failed the college entrance exam. I missed the second-tier undergraduate cutoff by a few points. I kept cursing myself in my heart, thinking that if I had been a little more careful during the exam, if I had been a little more attentive in class, my life might have been very different.
Although repeating a year wasn’t particularly shameful—after all, many students who got into Tsinghua University had repeated a year—I still felt a bit of regret in my heart!
On the first day of school, I was robbed. My tuition, living expenses, ID card, and other things were all stolen. At that moment, I really thought about just going out to work. But after much deliberation, I decided I couldn’t give up on my path because of this financial setback, so I borrowed money from everywhere and managed to get through the crisis temporarily. As for that year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, I have no impression of it at all. It must have been spent at school, as it was during the National Day holiday, but for us repeaters, the National Day holiday was only two days, and the Mid-Autumn Festival was just one day, so going home was out of the question.
In my first year of university, the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2007—to be honest, I have no memory of it at all. I estimate that I probably spent the day in the library, but I have no idea how I spent the evening. It’s strange! The closer it is, the less I remember.
Now, in my second year of university, how will I spend this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival? ???