Jason | Letter from 30 years ago
Two nights ago, I sorted out another box of my things, which contained photos, letters, and other items from decades ago. I picked them out and put them in a smaller storage box. I found some firewood in the yard and started a storage stove. I threw things that were not worth keeping into the stove.
Near the end, I read a letter, written almost 30 years ago, from S. I still remember that she asked her father, an engineer in our factory, to bring it to me. I was a little surprised when I received it, because I had no expectations.
S came to our factory for internship during the winter vacation of 1995. The letter was written not long after she left after the internship, after the Chinese New Year. She was studying Japanese at Shanghai International Studies University and would graduate in a few months. I was working in a Sino-Japanese joint venture, which matched her major. Because of her father's relationship, I got the opportunity to intern. We didn't have much interaction. I was a cashier in the finance department and she helped in the office of the Japanese general manager. Maybe we chatted a few times during lunch in the cafeteria, but I don't remember the details.
It was my first year of work, and I applied for this Sino-Japanese joint venture. Before that, I resigned from a village-run factory introduced by a relative. It was difficult for a person with a technical secondary school degree and no real skills to find a good job. Fortunately, I had studied English hard on my own, so I got this job. I had just come out of the confusion and hopelessness of that age and reality, and I was very happy to have such a decent job.
After reading this letter, I was shocked. I was still happy about finding a job with a monthly salary of 800 yuan, but this girl who was almost the same age as me was thinking about things that I had never thought of. There was a special person in her life that I had never met. It seemed like we were living in two different worlds.
Later, she wrote another letter. According to the content, we met again in the factory during the summer vacation, and she noticed some changes in me. It was probably not long after I started working there that I found a book about English Excel 4.0 that came with the computer software I bought, but no one noticed its value at the time, after all, the first Chinese version of Windows had only been released for less than a year. Compared with the abacus (yes, most companies' finance departments still used the abacus at that time and in the next few years), the power of Excel at that time was equivalent to guns and swords. I think I had studied hard for a while and gained confidence.
Now I reread these two letters and was surprised to find that my later explorations were almost the same as what S thought about in the letter at that time, about how a person should work, think, live and create. I believe that I was still ignorant at that time and probably didn't understand much. And she wrote such a long letter at that time, I guess she was in the stage of hard thinking and exploration, and had a strong desire to share.
Near the early hours of the morning, I once again searched for her information online, and finally found her on the website of a law firm. From the "graduated from Shanghai International Studies University in 1996" on her resume, I could basically confirm that it was her and not just someone with the same name. From the resume, I could also see that S later went to East China University of Political Science and Law and the University of Pennsylvania to study law. I say once again because ten years ago, I had looked for S and sent her an email, but I didn't receive a reply. I guessed that she had left the law firm, and the work email I found was no longer valid.
The next morning, I called the law firm and left my phone number at the front desk. After a while, S called me. She was a little confused as to why someone she had known for nearly 30 years would find her in this way. When I took a photo of the letter and sent it to her, she didn't remember much.
"I read it in its entirety last night, and was surprised that some of your thoughts at the time are still valid today."
"The words I wrote when I was young still look very immature and immature now, and some parts are a bit arbitrary, but I am still a little surprised that I had so many ideas when I was young. Compared with my youth, I seem a little boring now [embarrassed] Thank you for keeping my manuscripts for so many years [snickering] Now that I suddenly see them, I feel like I am meeting my past, with mixed feelings"
"Yes, every time I read the letter, I travel back to the past. At that time, when you were thinking, you didn't have much practice, little experience, and limited perspectives, so it was inevitable that you would be a little arbitrary. Immaturity is also a characteristic of that age, and it is very contagious. It is very vivid and vivid. It would be strange if it was watertight and stable when discussing the future.
At that age, I was still thinking about how to find a good job, but what you wrote to me was about how a person should spend his life, and the value and meaning of life. It was the first time that someone in my life was looking for these things, and it opened up another world for me, which was really shocking. So no matter how I explore in the future, you are definitely my enlightenment teacher.
Moreover, at my age now, after so much experience, I still agree with most of the views you mentioned in your letter, or the most fundamental parts."
"I am very encouraged that my letter was helpful to you. Thank you for keeping my letter for so many years and for trying to contact me. I am very touched."
"Yes, because I also read some other letters from the same period, most of which were filled with teenage emotions and were unreadable. I would think of your letters every once in a while, and this was probably a very strange and important part of my time. Because you were also here for a short internship at that time, you felt more like a person sent by God.
Because I didn’t receive much higher education, I didn’t meet any teachers or classmates who could inspire me in this area (even if I went to college, I might not have met such people)."
"Thank you for always remembering me. It's a rare memory that reminds me of my youth. I miss it so much."
Of course, this is normal. When I read the articles I wrote at a certain time, it feels like reading someone else's. If I don't write down some ideas, I will completely forget them. If someone mentions that I once inspired them, I will forget them.
Almost thirty years have passed. We were all in our early twenties back then. Only now can we understand some of the words and appreciate their value.
If I were to talk about the relationship between S's letter and my current life, probably some of the guidance came from this.
Near the end, I read a letter, written almost 30 years ago, from S. I still remember that she asked her father, an engineer in our factory, to bring it to me. I was a little surprised when I received it, because I had no expectations.
S came to our factory for internship during the winter vacation of 1995. The letter was written not long after she left after the internship, after the Chinese New Year. She was studying Japanese at Shanghai International Studies University and would graduate in a few months. I was working in a Sino-Japanese joint venture, which matched her major. Because of her father's relationship, I got the opportunity to intern. We didn't have much interaction. I was a cashier in the finance department and she helped in the office of the Japanese general manager. Maybe we chatted a few times during lunch in the cafeteria, but I don't remember the details.
It was my first year of work, and I applied for this Sino-Japanese joint venture. Before that, I resigned from a village-run factory introduced by a relative. It was difficult for a person with a technical secondary school degree and no real skills to find a good job. Fortunately, I had studied English hard on my own, so I got this job. I had just come out of the confusion and hopelessness of that age and reality, and I was very happy to have such a decent job.
After reading this letter, I was shocked. I was still happy about finding a job with a monthly salary of 800 yuan, but this girl who was almost the same age as me was thinking about things that I had never thought of. There was a special person in her life that I had never met. It seemed like we were living in two different worlds.
Later, she wrote another letter. According to the content, we met again in the factory during the summer vacation, and she noticed some changes in me. It was probably not long after I started working there that I found a book about English Excel 4.0 that came with the computer software I bought, but no one noticed its value at the time, after all, the first Chinese version of Windows had only been released for less than a year. Compared with the abacus (yes, most companies' finance departments still used the abacus at that time and in the next few years), the power of Excel at that time was equivalent to guns and swords. I think I had studied hard for a while and gained confidence.
Now I reread these two letters and was surprised to find that my later explorations were almost the same as what S thought about in the letter at that time, about how a person should work, think, live and create. I believe that I was still ignorant at that time and probably didn't understand much. And she wrote such a long letter at that time, I guess she was in the stage of hard thinking and exploration, and had a strong desire to share.
Near the early hours of the morning, I once again searched for her information online, and finally found her on the website of a law firm. From the "graduated from Shanghai International Studies University in 1996" on her resume, I could basically confirm that it was her and not just someone with the same name. From the resume, I could also see that S later went to East China University of Political Science and Law and the University of Pennsylvania to study law. I say once again because ten years ago, I had looked for S and sent her an email, but I didn't receive a reply. I guessed that she had left the law firm, and the work email I found was no longer valid.
The next morning, I called the law firm and left my phone number at the front desk. After a while, S called me. She was a little confused as to why someone she had known for nearly 30 years would find her in this way. When I took a photo of the letter and sent it to her, she didn't remember much.
"I read it in its entirety last night, and was surprised that some of your thoughts at the time are still valid today."
"The words I wrote when I was young still look very immature and immature now, and some parts are a bit arbitrary, but I am still a little surprised that I had so many ideas when I was young. Compared with my youth, I seem a little boring now [embarrassed] Thank you for keeping my manuscripts for so many years [snickering] Now that I suddenly see them, I feel like I am meeting my past, with mixed feelings"
"Yes, every time I read the letter, I travel back to the past. At that time, when you were thinking, you didn't have much practice, little experience, and limited perspectives, so it was inevitable that you would be a little arbitrary. Immaturity is also a characteristic of that age, and it is very contagious. It is very vivid and vivid. It would be strange if it was watertight and stable when discussing the future.
At that age, I was still thinking about how to find a good job, but what you wrote to me was about how a person should spend his life, and the value and meaning of life. It was the first time that someone in my life was looking for these things, and it opened up another world for me, which was really shocking. So no matter how I explore in the future, you are definitely my enlightenment teacher.
Moreover, at my age now, after so much experience, I still agree with most of the views you mentioned in your letter, or the most fundamental parts."
"I am very encouraged that my letter was helpful to you. Thank you for keeping my letter for so many years and for trying to contact me. I am very touched."
"Yes, because I also read some other letters from the same period, most of which were filled with teenage emotions and were unreadable. I would think of your letters every once in a while, and this was probably a very strange and important part of my time. Because you were also here for a short internship at that time, you felt more like a person sent by God.
Because I didn’t receive much higher education, I didn’t meet any teachers or classmates who could inspire me in this area (even if I went to college, I might not have met such people)."
"Thank you for always remembering me. It's a rare memory that reminds me of my youth. I miss it so much."
Of course, this is normal. When I read the articles I wrote at a certain time, it feels like reading someone else's. If I don't write down some ideas, I will completely forget them. If someone mentions that I once inspired them, I will forget them.
Almost thirty years have passed. We were all in our early twenties back then. Only now can we understand some of the words and appreciate their value.
If I were to talk about the relationship between S's letter and my current life, probably some of the guidance came from this.
