I am from Taiwan, and from childhood to adulthood, I always thought that my father wanted to train me to become a scholar who "established a heart for heaven and earth, established a destiny for the people, continued to study for the saints, and opened up peace for all the worlds".
"What can you do in the history department?" When I was in college, I mentioned to my father about studying history, and he asked me. I asked him, "Aren't you going to train me to go in that direction?" I still have in my hand the first book my father gave me, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". "What?" I just think that reading history can cultivate human nature, besides, I only bought it because I went through the second-hand book stall at that time, and it just happened to be at a special price... 」
At the same time, I also asked the teacher at the school, and the answer was the same as that of my father. Suddenly, I had the feeling of being forced to liangshan, and finally I had to endure the pain to become a "science and engineering man".
Photo/ Experience the ride of life
A life of mistaken hits
In the year of graduation in our country, because the results of the big exam were not up and down, I finally filled in a department that I didn't even know what I was studying. Only because this department is the first admission, I think the threshold of the first class should not be high, so I filled in the "Graphic Communication Department" on the volunteer form.
When I entered the school gate, I saw the teacher holding a heavy book in his hand and saying, "This is the subject that our department must learn!" I looked, Introduction to Printing? I thought, what does this have to do with graphic communication? The teacher then said, "Although we are the first batch of graphic communication, our predecessor is the Printing Department, so we must not forget the original, we still have to learn."
It turned out to be a new bottle of old wine, and it looked tall and noble when it was packaged. But the king has entered the urn, and can only be at peace with the encounter.
Later, we learned related skills such as design, painting, computer typesetting, etc., especially aesthetic training, which made me a person without beauty a little more color. However, the window paper of all the beautiful illusions was broken by the teacher in the third year of my high school.
"Yang Moumou, you don't have the talent in this area, you should change the runway as soon as possible!" Master Mo Ruo, who knew me, also knew in my heart that I did not love this thing, so I made up my mind to change to the history department.
After informing the parents, they got a cold response that they were not optimistic. At that time, I learned that my father had cultivated my historical literacy from an early age, but it was just a leisure item outside of school, and could not be used as a tool for eating. In desperation, I had to change to the completely opposite department of materials engineering, and none of my high school studies could be used.
The four-year polytechnic men's training course has made me think about many things by leaps and bounds. On the basis of logic and practice, I explore the mysteries of the physical world, but I still know in my heart that this is just a tool for eating, not to fill my heart.
In an era when unemployment was rising, I chose to continue my studies at graduate school, but again switched tracks and mechanical engineering. I followed a professor of chemistry and finally completed two years of master's studies in the role of senior mafia and chemical research and development, which also ended my student days.
Photo/Photo taken at the cross-border office of Iran and Turkey
Escape from science parks and embark on an adventure
Although I have an annual salary of one million yuan in the science park, I am actually playing fish. Others think my major is semiconductors, but people who really know me know that I have no passion for my work at all. It's not that I hate this job, but I always have a historical soul in my heart, often rushing out of my body, dragging me to the library and Eslite Bookstore, staying for an afternoon. Of course, I also wondered if I didn't like history anymore, because I always felt like it didn't work.
Hugo once said, "Books are tools for the soul," and my soul is made of history books. History is my window into the world, and if there is no history book in the house, it is like there is no window in the room, airtight and lifeless. Four years of experience in the tech industry has saved me some money, but a voice in my heart has always told me, "The world is so big, I want to go out and see!" 」 So I decided to hang up the crown and ask for it.
That year, I left everything behind to wander. After traveling all over Eurasia, I found that my historical soul has always been there. As the saying goes, "The divine bird does not fly or sound for three years, but it can soar into the sky when it flies, and it can be amazing when it hits." Then, as if I had shackled and taken off the reins, I began to study past and present lives around the world, immersed in the history I liked, and then went to the scene — to restore the historical present. I watched the scenery seen by Mehmed II on the sky bridge next to the Golden Horn in Istanbul, and recalled the heroic glory of Pharaoh Guf in front of the Egyptian pyramids.
Photo/Accept radio program recording
What you have learned may seem useless, but it has become a boost on the journey
Thinking back on the knowledge I learned on the road of life added a lot of color to my wandering journey. The three years of high school design allowed me to think about "beauty" from different angles; four years of engineering in college made me marvel at the perfect structure of force and beauty in front of Greco-Roman or Islamic architecture; and two years of chemical and mechanical engineering at the institute allowed me to explain the immortality of the Ganges and the stripping of the frescoes of hagia Sophia. As for the history that I have been enjoying since I was a child, it is also a small story that I can tell everywhere I go.
Writing this, I can't help but sigh that what I learned along the way is not useless, but I don't know how to use it. I used to think that those engineering knowledge were just a tool for my survival in the workplace, but now it has become another aspect of my discussion of historical monuments. If I had read the history department single-mindedly, perhaps I would have been able to talk about the past of these monuments now.
This inextricable knowledge eventually became a boost to my wanderings. On the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I exchanged a full meal and a transportation fee by introducing Vietnam's modern history and historic buildings, and in front of the Blue Mosque in Turkey, I exchanged the history of Turkic migration and the aesthetics of Islamic architecture for attraction tickets and meals. Saving money certainly makes me happy, but what makes me even happier is that I can share what I've learned. At that moment, I felt like a storyteller under the overpass, and I had a great sense of accomplishment.
Now, I'm still on the road, continuing to delve into the history I love. I also began to have friends invite me to lead them out of the country and explore the beauty of the world with me. I turned my interest into a career, that's my pride!
Photo/Photo in Varanasi, India
You have good wine, I have stories, we'll see you under the overpass.