Kuala Lumpur

The night before the exam, I saw stars in the Malaysian night sky for the first time. With an apparent magnitude of about -4, it shone exceptionally brightly against the backdrop of scattered starlight. Referencing the star chart, I recognized it as Venus, representing love and beauty. It’s funny, three years ago when we huddled on the balcony of dormitory 2901 in the middle of the night, what we saw through the telescope was this very morning star. In my memory, it also sparkled just like this. ...

Then let it go! Having just finished writing “Boring Note,” I feel incredibly powerful! What’s homework? Not writing it! (Checking the schedule… Hmm, I’ll just write for 4 or 5 minutes.) I finally understood one thing: why sometimes, even when I have something to write, I can never bring myself to pick up a pen. It turns out it’s because there are more convenient ways to consume time. Often, with a phone, an hour, what I intended to write will slowly be blown away by the wind on the sand, never to be seen again. ...

Often, there are feelings in my heart, but I don’t know where to go.

I am really easily influenced by others. Today, because the scripture shared did not fit the context, Teacher Zhang took the opportunity to share a bit. I was very unhappy at the time, racking my brains to check ESV and the Hebrew original, only to find that I seemed to have really made a mistake. Unwilling to admit it, I went to search for unorthodox corroborating evidence, going to all lengths so much so that I didn’t hear my classmates’ sharing (anyway, I wasn’t taking notes). ...

I can’t say that I planned to flake out, but a month has truly passed. The week’s studies aren’t over yet, but since I remembered this last night, it’s necessary to write a bit about myself. When people ask me questions like “How’s school going?”, my answer is usually “It’s alright, just the language environment is hard to adapt to.” Studying entirely in English is, of course, a challenge for us. But the challenges don’t end there. The subjects I’ve chosen are EAL, CFL, Mathematical Methods, Physics, Chemistry, and Economics, which lean toward the sciences. There’s a tiny possibility before me that I might not drop a single subject in Grade 12 and instead take exams for all six subjects. If so, the study pressure will be several times that of others, but it seems to mean scholarships and some other things… ...

To be precise, this should be considered the diary entry for the 12th. But I was truly exhausted yesterday… so during the flight, I just kept my phone completely turned off the whole time. Yesterday morning, I crawled out of bed and started rushing for the train. After arriving in Shenzhen, I had lunch at Teacher Zhang Jing’s house and shared some thoughts. In the afternoon, I hurried to the airport to meet up with the “Shenzhen team,” and at 9 PM—takeoff! ...