As I signed into QQ (this Chinese icq-ish messenger), I was informed that I was added by somebody and that person happened to be online. He asked me to guess who he was which I seriously had no clue. Shockingly he (Ran) turned out to be one of my long-lost friends who had been my classmate in China for 2 years and is currently studying in Vienna.
I left Beijing 4 years ago and revisitied the second summer. While I was in Beijing, I spent a lot of time with my friends including Ran and he told me he was going to Vienna to study bassoon - he has been a professional bassoon player for very long. Somehow we lost touch for more than 2 years and now, he told me that he stopped playing bassoon and is on for bussiness... I feel sorry for him; he isn't happy with what he's doing but he has no choice. He's father suggested him to work for his uncle who is the president of the Asia representative group of some huge New York commerce company; for god's sake, he's only 18 (in fact, tomorrow is his 18th birthday.... ). Screw the Chinese parental manipulation. He has to work to keep himself alive; all his earnings belong to himself and his earnings only is the money to support himself.
It's like pouring freezing water right on my face; I'm shivering with a sense of the alleged reality that I'll be facing when I ... grow up (yes, I'm rather immature..). The world will belong to us, but not this soon...