My Precious Graduation Gift: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
To all book lovers in the world,
When I look at my graduation gift which was given by my beloved librarian teacher Miss Ng Kit Ling since primary six again, I get motivated after suffering from depression and anxiety for a few years since Umbrella Movement. Yes, I am not only pessimistic about political conflicts, but also my own future. Indeed, I miss her a lot when I encounter difficulties in my daily lives every time. She’s the most caring teacher who I’ve met during my school days in Hong Kong. Under her kindness and generosity, I started writing children’s story and entered the unique competition related to children’s story in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, I lost in the competition when I was in primary six. After that, as I promised Miss Ng that I would win the championship because of her gentle encouragement. I spent almost seven years to think about how to write my first children’s story well. Finally, I won the championship when I was in Form Six. At that time, I created a conflict with my teachers in secondary school because I was not allowed to do what I love and was forced to concentrate on preparation on the public examination.
So, I rethink it again. As I was a librarian team leader, she knew that I loved detective stories. Moreover, I am quiet like Sherlock when I was reading since childhood. Why did she write me a Chinese sentence of wishing words as “善讀書者自當化腐朽為一己所用。” (Sense-for-sense translation: A good reader can create his own miracle for sure.) on my graduation gift, an English version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which she gave me just after my graduation ceremony?
It’s because she recognized that Hong Kong was always a monolingual-society which was full of bullies due to over-competition among Cantonese speakers, especially school bullying. As coming from an underprivileged family, I was always bullied by children from the privileged class. I couldn’t escape. She believed that I was the only one to help myself in any kind of bullies eventually by finding ways from books. Furthermore, she knew that entering English world was a fate of Hong Kong people, so she encouraged me to read more English books even after graduation from primary school. However, I still cannot create my own road after graduation from PolyU.
During my school days, I was always busy on tackling with exams, so I don’t have much time to choose books that I love to read. Later on, I start picking up reading habit after finishing my tertiary education. As I found that the relationship between reading and writing is so close, I just start practicing writing on Medium. I believe that it’s also an adventure for me too, as I wonder if I can create my own miracle eventually. I doubt again. I feel lost again.
