not my picture…
Coming of age here, translated…
Me as a child in Uncle Jay’s view, is a child who’s hovered over by my parents, who was really well-taken care of, and so, every time he saw me, he’d called me, “a blessed child”, instead of my name.
And still, one day in my first year of middle school, my household, without a warning, fell, into the storms. That evening, mom woke dad up in a panic, the two of us sisters, as well as my younger brother too, said that ghosts were coming after us, to run! We’d not known anything, and so, we’d run with her, in a panic, into the freezing winter rain, into the darkened woods.
not my art…
The days that followed, my father stressed himself out, taking my mother to various doctors, and gone to an assortment of temples to make the offerings, and the couple of us kids, he’d given, to a friend who was more like an older brother, the Tongs. Two weeks later, my father took me to his older cousin, Uncle Jing-Biao’s place, but later on, he’d discovered, that Uncle Jing-Biao’s place wasn’t ideal for me to live and study in, so, he’d sent me to my grandfather’s youngest brother’s, which was two more blocks away to live.
In my Uncle Jing-Biao’s home, I’d heard my aunt told others, that my mother went crazy, and that it was crazy beyond imagination. As I’d first learned this, I was so shocked, became unsettled, and just couldn’t stop crying.
Back then, I had NO steady place to live in, but hearing my aunt told of my mother’s condition, I’d told myself, that I can’t be that worry free, and completely dependent on my parents’, blessed child anymore, that I needed to know my fate, grow up fast, and work with my older sister, to take care of our younger siblings; and, if I am able to, I’d needed to, help dad take care of mom, so my mom can focus on getting better, so my parents didn’t have to worry.
not my picture still…
And, although I was only in the beginning years of my puberty, but, the environment had turned me into an adult overnight.
And so, it must be very hard to cope, from the worry free, happy kid, with a happy family that you were, into this person who’d needed to, keep watch over your younger siblings, and, imagine the trials of this person’s life, can you imagine, being pressured and pressed, to grow up overnight like that??? Mustn’t have been easy…
Life, the Obstacle Course 