Okay, here we go.
DAY 1. Back to Alumni Orchestra practice
When I break the news to him that I am interested in writing a biography about him, his first reaction is “how dare you.” No I am exaggerating his reaction, but he told me that he has rejected three people who had thrown the same question at him years ago–all of them were his former students. “Okay, this time it could be different,” I explained. “If you don’t want your name to be mentioned, I understand, that if I were to write your biography, I need to ask for this permission, that permission … there are many ways to write about you … without even mentioning your name.”
“Have you read Tuesday with Morrie? I think I am going to write about you like that … from my own perspective. … And … I am going to need to write it in English, because my Chinese is poor.”
We were putting things away, about to leave the practice hall. On the way out, he pointed at my nose, as an older person admonishing his young student, “Don’t you dare to mention my name.” I opened my mouth but without words coming out in any sort of response, like a speechless, obedient student. And I will see him again at my next attendance to the practice.
(October 8, 2011)
CAN I TRY TO DO something here? Starting a new page? Testing out the water to write something interesting besides my day-to-day experience as a mom? At the age of 38 (going to be 39 in May), it’s still not too late to dream my dream. As I am often reminded of Susan Boyle who made her debut in singing at the British’s Got Talent show at 47, I am certainly not too old for making my dream come true in just an electronical sense.
(March 24, 2010)
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO TURN 39? This is a question that I have been asking myself, as I have found myself growing “older,” so to speak, walking farther and farther away from what I used to think I was, an energetic and daring 30-year-old woman, who has the world in front of her. Am I still turning with the world? Or, am I getting stuck as I have entered motherhood, making a mid-career change by going back to graduate school to obtain my long-awaited doctorate degree, quitting from a good-paying and stable job at a higher education institution, taking up a part-time teaching job teaching psychology to school teachers, which I have never that done before in my whole life?
(March 24, 2010)
rockamama
