Flying’s Friends

还记得在进大学选专业前，我就告诉过自己：“我宁愿跟机器也不要跟人交道。”最后，我分别选择了国大的SoC和SMA的计算机专业作为自己本科和硕士主攻的方向。

这都是自己从小性格就比较孤僻，也不太会跟人打交道。特别是与那些平时不太经常见面的老朋友们，我就更是很少保持联系了。不过，幸运的是在我的周围总是有许许多多帮助我、关心我的好朋友们。对此我一直都非常感激。

“I prefer working with machines to human beings.” That was how I described my future choice of career path before even I enrolled into a university. Eventually, I opted for the Computer Science programmes in the SoC of NUS and SMA, respectively.

My unsociable nature since young made it relatively difficult for me to keep close contacts with my friends, especially with whom I did not talk to very often. Fortunately, however, there’ve been many kind souls around who always helped me, kept me in contact, and cared for me. I am really grateful for the blessing to have so many good friends despite my passive character.

With some classmates in the kindergarten

A primary school class outing

An outing with middle school classmates during the summer holiday in 1996

The “Nanni Wan” dance team in an arts performance competition in high school

我从小就一直在广州城里长大。身为中国特色计划生育制度下出生的第一代独生子女，我实在没有什么除了同班、同级同学以外的朋友。因此，每当我从一所学校升学后，就必须跟多数的朋友们分离了。虽然非常无奈，但这也许正应了古语所云：“天下无不散之筵席”吧。

自从我离开广州到新加坡留学，我的朋友圈子才得以突破了同学的界限。虽然我还是一如既往地不善交际，但在新加坡这个东西方文明的交汇之地，我毕竟是孤身一人，所以也就“不可避免”地认识了来自世界各地，而且经历各异的新朋友。

I grew up in the city of Guangzhou since my birth. I was the only child in my family under China’s “One Child” policy. I hardly had any friend from outside of my class in the school due to my passive nature. It was very sad that I had to part from most of my good friends whenever I graduated from a school for higher educations. But I had to accept those sad moments, just as what an old Chinese saying told, “Every banquet has to come to an end eventually.”

Since I left Guangzhou for studies in Singapore, it was even more difficult for me to keep in contact with my old friends in China. Moreover, I began to live alone in Singapore, with no family or relatives to turn to when there was any problem. So for the first time in my life, I began to get to know more and more new friends from different countries or different backgrounds, outside of the circle of my classmates.