It drizzled, and then sprinkled, with clouds taking over the sky. The morning sun didn’t show up as everyday and seemed likely to hide till dusk. Without an umbrella, I stroked with all my strength towards Kowloon Tong, where my class wound start in 15 minutes, meanwhile managed to keep either one foot on the ground, so that few splash of mud would kiss my shoes and pants. Several minibuses which bound for the school passed by, but I resisted the temptation of taking one. And finally I made it, resting on the chair, sipping my hot milk tea and witnessing the coming of the lecturer.
It was one of my great times after came to study in Hong Kong, a time for my head running away from suppressing the unabatedly popping up assignments and my fingers relieving from clicking on smart phone to read my friends’ new tweets.
On my way to class, the romantic movie I saw the night before conjured up in mind. The pictures of the characters’ encounter and reunion lingered, while their smiles deepened, and their love tosh echoed. All of a sudden, I became the protagonist in the movie, frozen in the classic dramatized dilemma “to live or to die”.
Soon after, rain dropping on my face sobered me. As I walked on, the fragments of memories were timid and slipped away. By the roadsides, branches of shivering remainder of Chinese redbud came out of nowhere. Under the trees, two paralleling streams of pedals wound down in front; and in my heart, I sensed the blossoming of empathy for beauty and beyond.
The school is not far from my home, just 1.9 kilometers away and 15 minutes by walk. Although taking a minibus might give me an advantageous five minutes and a shelter from rain, I preferred to walk, given that the minibuses contoured over a delicate park. Furthermore, during the 15 minutes’ walk, my mind could roam in the sparkling of ideas and odor of flowers washed by rain.
However, raising high the value of time, how to quickly bustle for work seems an essential starter lesson for us twenty-something in Hong Kong, as we were told for times, millions of dollars evaporated when we yawned. And it seems that the more we submerge in academic or business stuff, the less time left for us to recognize the distance stretches between what we want and us.
The massive grid of traffic repeals us from walking even for a short distance. Thousands of minibuses shuttling, dwindles our last intimacy with nature, and the sparse time we have for musing and pondering. Being a twenty-something in Hong Kong, by no means, would I give up walking to take a short-distance minibus.