Lesson 10
Dear Fatty,
Thank you for your tenth message. Welcome back
from summer vacation! My comments and corrections follow.
Sincerely,
Dear
Professor Susan Garreis,
It is a long time since we
last contacted with each other。
I came back to China during
the summer vacation for three weeks. I met a lot of friends of the University. We have not changed. We went to sing ,went to
dinner and a drink. We are very happy.
>I'm so glad you could return home for a nice, long visit.
>SZU is a large university, with twenty-eight thousand
undergraduates.
Shenzhen University saw a lot of change.
A stadium has been built.
The incoming are blessed. The summer vacation people are few and the plant were lush.
>My undergraduate college has changed a lot,
too. Some of the changes I wish had been there for me. Some I do not. Colleges
and universities always change over time. This is my undergraduate university:
Notre Dame of Maryland University -http://www.ndm.edu/student-life/. It is a much bigger school now. When I went
there it was a small undergraduate women's college. Now it is co-ed (men and
women). It has graduate students, too.
I miss my youth.
>I assure you that you have a long life ahead
of you. Always look forward. There is always an opportunity to do things well
in the future. Even at my age (sixty-eight) there is a chance to learn or do
something new.
I'm very regretful. During college I was always
playing games.
>Sometimes we do not take advantage of the
opportunities in front of us. So we pick up our feet, continue walking forward
one step at a time and resolve to do better the next time.
>Here is a story we tell in the US:
>Young one: Old One, I wish I were as wise as
you. How did you get so wise?
>Old one: I learned through experience.
>Young one: How did you get experience?
>Old one: Through bad judgment.
>The moral of that story is that all of us can
learn from our mistakes. In the end we can have a better life.
I have a
very good relationship with the boys but hardly ever intersection with the
girls. This is my most regrettable thing.
>There is plenty of time to learn how to
relate to women. You are more mature now. You can avoid some of the mistakes a
younger person might have made.
I came back to my home state, too.
>What is the name of your home state?
I met a lot of relatives.
Everyone cared about me.
I felt touched.
>That is a good feeling. It is wonderful to be
cared about.
My mother said I was fatter and I shouldn't eat.
Nevertheless, she cooked a lot of delicious food for me.
>American mothers do the same thing! It is a
dilemma.
>I'm very sure she would have had her feelings
hurt if you didn't eat the food!
>Ah, well, learning how to relate to our
parents when we are adults is an interesting (and sometime troublesome)
process.
I feel interesting. Perhaps, when I
became a father, I can understand parental love.
>I am sure you will understand much more about
your parents if you become a parent yourself. However, parental love is no
different from other kinds of love. You want the best for your beloved. You
want to help your beloved achieve the best for themselves. You are willing to
compromise when necessary. You want to be the best person you can be for your
beloved and for yourself. A hard lesson for me to learn is that if I don't love
and respect myself, I cannot truly love and respect anyone else.
During the return trip, I met my teacher, too.
She has bought a house and a car in just a few years' time. Everyone is working
hard.
>Good for her! That is quite an
accomplishment.
This is my first time to come back to China since
I came to Japan.
>It must have been an exciting, and perhaps
surprising, return trip.
I exchange thoughts with parents. Parents on the side still more relieved.
Time
flies quickly.
>I know time flies very quickly.
When did you meet your best friend?
>I keep in frequent touch with three women
with whom I went to college. We meet about every six weeks for lunch. I met one
of the women fifty-one years ago in high school. We went to the same college. I
met the other two women forty-six years ago, when we all entered college
together. We have not always been in constant touch. Two of us lived in many
different states for more than twenty years. However, the friendships formed in
college have stayed strong over the years, even when we couldn't see each other
often. Their friendships are very precious to me.
>I hope you make friends in Japan. I hope
those friends stay with you for a very long time, regardless of where you live.
>Are any of your friends from China working or
going to school in other countries?