I always wonder...
Will the existence of an individual be important and impact others?
Do common people like me bring any meaning to others?
Do I have some influence on others (in a positive manner)?
The country where I did my undergrad study initially did not have a Chinese radio station by itself. During my second year of stay there, I accidentally tuned into this multiethnic radio station. This radio station was supported by several ethnic groups of the community. As far as I understood, it allocated different time slots to different ethnic groups for the radio program. That’s right; one of the programs was in Mandarin cum Cantonese. I could remember clearly the moment I heard the familiar sound of my mother tongue (I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese), I was so excited and nearly knock my head. Anyhow, since then I’d been following the program closely. The radio DJs were on voluntary basis; in another words, they were not professional DJs at all. They were just a bunch of people who worked or studied during the day but came to offer themselves, to host a program out of their interest. I don’t think many Chinese in the community were aware of this program. Anyhow, I was their quiet supportive loyal listener at that time.
I was tuning in one night, as usual. There were two people hosting the show that night. The guy suddenly mentioned, “This is a new program. I wonder is there anyone listening to us.” The girl shared the same doubt too but she remained hopeful by putting a song that they didn’t know who the singer was and requested for a callup from the listeners. There I was sitting there listening to that song. I knew the song inside out, including who was the artist. Yeah, see, I am in a wrong profession. I should be a radio DJ eh?! Guess what I did next? I actually picked up the phone and called them up. I was so surprised about my gesture. You know, I’m just not that sort of person who’s so courageous in making phone calls to strangers and being on air live!! But nevertheless, I still went ahead. The girl answered my call.
Female DJ: Oh, we’ve got a call here!
Me: Hi. I know who sang the song. The singer is *name of the Chinese singer*.
Female DJ: Lovely. Thanks for that info. May I know your name?
Me: My name? Errr…can I be anonymous? (darn it, I should have just made up any name at that time!)
Female DJ: Oh, don’t worry about it. If you don’t mind, can I put you on air?
Me: On air?!! Noooo, I’m too shy.
Female DJ: *giggling* Oh, that’s all right then.
Me: I just want to call you guys up and tell you all that you do have a listener listening out there. Please keep up the good work. I like your program very much.
Female DJ: Thanks for your encouragement and support. We’ll do our best.
I hung up. Seconds later, From the radio…
Male DJ: Wow, I didn’t know we have a listener out there.
Female DJ: Yep, so we better not fool around.
Male DJ: Thanks so much, Anon.
That’s actually my first and only time of calling up a radio station. Why on earth did I have the urge of calling them up? I guess I just wanted to thank them and show my little support to them that someone was listening to them.
******
I shared practically everything with my best friend. In one of our recent phone conversations, while I was venting out a problem that has been bothering me…
Miss D: You know, actually you’ve inspired me a lot.
Me: You find my silly act inspiring? *gasping*
Miss D: Yep, I’m serious about it. This is how I ended up where I am now.
******
I was chatting with my little sister about how her new life was for the first time away from home. Then her experience prompted me to write a post. I told her on the spot that I would be writing an entry about her coping in a new environment, which in the end I did (Hakuna matata).
Me: Hey, I’m going to write an entry about you for tomorrow.
Sis: Really? I didn’t know I could provide inspiration for your blog.
Me: You just did.
Sis. Will I be famous?
Me: Not yet…not until I put up your pic. *lol*
Sis: In that case, I shall ask for a present from you! (Damn, what kind of sister is this?)
******
The boring student doesn’t have anything particular interesting to share here. She doesn’t talk much about her dramas. Nor does she have much exciting stuff to describe. When I first started up the blog, it was purely just a place where I can write some stuff and share it with you; stuff that I see, experience, feel and listen, either first-hand (my own) or from other sources (other people’s). Many people have inspired me a lot somewhere along my life. It can be as minor as someone’s silly joke or a line from a chat that I heard. I like to put down thoughts about that too.
As I said before, I don’t treat here as an outlet. Hence you hardly find me talking about my personal problems here. Do I have any? I must be kidding if I say NO. I have those struggling moments. But I just don’t like to treat this place as a trash-bin. I’d rather recycle the problems, to think things over and then put down the processed thoughts into words. But that doesn’t mean I don’t share. I just prefer a different style of sharing. If you read between the lines of most of the posts, you could find traces of my “secrets” there. Sometimes I even like to reread some of the stuff I wrote earlier on, when days are hazy.
I know I only have a handful of readers. It was really a pleasantly surprise for me to know that there are actually someone reading my blog, other than my sisters, AA and Miss D, who probably feel obliged to do so! And I certainly didn’t expect that some entries could have brought some perspective to some of you.
With this said...
Thanks Jade for your supportive comment! It means a lot to me. When I opened up my mailbox early in the morning, I was so amazed to read your comment in regards to yesterday's post (How to deal?), "Even though we've never met or not know much about each other's lives (except for what we read in each other's blogs) but you seem to ALWAYS know what to write to make me think about the current situation I'm in to make me think perspectively. Thank you :) "
Jade, in case you’re suspecting something. No, I didn’t hire any stalker to check on you. Maybe I should huh?
By the way people, no, I’m not self-complimenting. There’s another Jade hanging around on this blog. Nope, she’s not my twin sister either. Don’t get confused.
People, I would like to thank you here for inspiring me. You might have somehow inspired someone who then further inspires another, somewhere, sometime. And I could be that “someone”, or “another”. So keep inspiring people!
♥ every page of my imagination
