The first time I came home from the Chinese New Year was when I was in college. Before I went to college, I hadn't traveled far away, I hadn't even seen what the train looked like, and naturally I didn't have the experience of going home for the Chinese New Year.
When the winter vacation is approaching, the school organizes to buy tickets for us, we only need to give the money and student ID cards to the classmates in the class who organize the ticket purchase, and then report the time to go home, the train number, and the destination, after a period of time, the ticket and student ID card to go home will be issued to us.
At that time, it was very worry-free to buy a ticket, there was no need to run to the train station, there was no need to queue, and I got a ticket home in the classroom. At that time, the real-name system was not implemented to buy tickets, but college students must provide their student ID cards to buy tickets, because it is a half-price ticket, and the ticket purchase address must be exactly the same as the hometown address filled on the student card, otherwise they will not be able to buy a half-price ticket.
Maybe it hasn't been the busiest time for the Spring Festival during the university holidays, and tickets can generally be bought, and there are seats available. Having a seat is a very lucky thing for us. When we returned to school from our hometown, we bought our own tickets, and often we couldn't buy tickets with seats, so we had to stand all the way, in the aisles, at the junction of the carriages, and at the door of the toilet. They are staggered around, and they have to move around from time to time to make way for the carts that sell goods or the people who go to the toilet.
Our fellow villagers and alumni in one place, the seats home are basically next to each other, singing and laughing along the way, the journey is no longer so boring and lonely, the time is not so long, and the way home is always extremely happy.
At that time, the trains were still green cars, and they went very slowly, but because there were fellow alumni chatting or playing cards together, they didn't feel the length of time at all. There are snacks on the train, and from time to time we push a small cart over, but we are all empty in our pockets, no one will buy it, at that time, a bag of melon seeds, a bottle of water are luxury goods for us, sometimes we can't help but take a look, even if it is a satisfaction.
Peers always have endless words to talk about, classmates' stories, teachers' stories, who is in love with whom, who has a crush on whom, can't escape our keen eyes, adolescent we, like to talk about these emotional-related topics, of course, we will also talk about which canteen is delicious, which teacher is the most interesting, which dormitory aunt is the best.
The first time we took the train home, we liked to surround our sophomores and juniors and listen to their stories on campus.
At that time, we didn't have time to think about the future, and it seemed that the graduate school entrance examination or work was far away from us, and we just simply enjoyed the good time of college. We believe in the words of our brothers and sisters, and everything is new to us.
At that time, there were only books and a change of clothes in the luggage to go home, no New Year's goods, no gifts for our families, we were all poor students, there was no extra child in our pockets, and the ticket home had spent all the money in our pockets.
When I was in college, every time I went home for the New Year, I was accompanied by my fellow villagers, and it was lively and joyful. Little attention is paid to the other passengers on the train.
When I go home after work, I am only left alone on the road, and there are no familiar people who accompany me all the way, and the way home seems to have become much longer.
The first time I went to buy a ticket home after work, I took Xiao Mazha and waited in line at the ticket office for two days, and my feet were numb from freezing before I bought a standing ticket. I realized how happy it was for the school to buy us tickets when we were in school.
Waiting for the bus alone in the waiting hall, although there are crowds of people everywhere, there is no familiar face, and I still feel very lonely and lonely, time seems to stand still, and I can't hear the shout of starting the ticket inspection for a long time. When you go to fetch water and go to the toilet, you have to drag heavy luggage, unlike when you were in school, just leave it to your fellow classmates to watch.
Naturally, there will be some strange fellows on the train, although they can speak some cordial vernacular to each other, but they can only be a little bit of water, a shallow taste, because of strangeness, there is always some vigilance. It's not like chatting with familiar classmates and fellow villagers when I was in school, and I was so hearty and cruel.
The books in the suitcase have become all kinds of New Year's goods and gifts, go to work, earn money, no matter how difficult the year is, how much money you earn, you can't go back empty-handed, gifts for parents and friends are stuffed in the suitcase, but none of them are your own. At that time, I was still too young, I had a good face, and I had to be fat if I had a swollen face, and I had money or not, so I went home for the New Year.
After going to work, I know that it is also an extremely laborious thing to go home for the New Year to buy gifts, too expensive to buy, cheap for fear of being laughed at, how to pick up a row of affordable gifts for everyone in the family is also not easy.
I went to the wholesale market, the big warehouse supermarket, I went to the souvenirs I bought for my parents, I bought clothes for my siblings, stuffed my suitcases, and spent my last month's salary.
At that time, mobile phones were not smart, and sometimes I would bring a magazine to relieve my boredom. Eating has also become an important thing in the journey, a bowl of instant noodles is the most commonly eaten rice on the journey, and that bowl of noodles is always much more fragrant than usual when eaten on the train.
The train before and after the Spring Festival is the most tired, in addition to being crowded with people, but also carrying a lot of gifts, the shelves above, the car is full of all kinds of luggage, no need to look, but also know, most of them are gifts for the family, each piece of luggage is filled with the full love of everyone who goes home, the special products bought for the elderly, and the new clothes bought for the children.
Some people are talking, from the boss to the workers, from the work to the salary, from their own experience to what they have seen and heard, and some people are silently being a listener.
The first thing I do when I come home is always to bring a gift to see my dearest grandmother, eat a bowl of hand-rolled noodles made by my grandmother, talk about homely things, the fatigue of the whole way, the fatigue of a year have disappeared, and it seems that I have never left.
Although it is hard to go home to buy a ticket, and although the road home is a long way, when it comes to the end of the year, no matter how difficult it is, you must embark on the road home on time, in order to live up to the expectations of your family, and wait for you to sit on the kang with your closest people and talk about homely things.