Experience

A few days ago, I was reading a newspaper in the living room. My son came to talk to me and he said, “Dad, do you have any special experience that you can tell me about?” I said, “Yes, of course”. Every single person has some experience. I am no exception. Throughout our lives we get all kinds of experiences.

For instance, there are some things that happen to us only once. I will never have these kinds of experiences like this in my life again. A hundred men living together, a hundred men eating and drinking together; a hundred men taking showers together, a hundred men being punished together. Everything we did, we always did it together. We… yep, at that time, my son said” Dad, did…did…did you steal anything or kill somebody? I asked, “Why did you say that?” My son answered that he thought maybe I was in a jail. I said “No”. This was my experience in military service. Every single young man growing up in his twenties will share this common experience. When you get to that age, you will also do that. You know, before I joined the military service, I was so scared. To be honest, I really didn’t want to be a soldier, because a lot of people told me that I would have absolutely no freedom. If an officer said one thing, you couldn’t do anything else; if an officer said turn right, you couldn’t ever turn left. But finally I finished my basic training and went to “ 馬祖 ”, where I stayed for about six hundred days. The weather was so cold. The food was so terrible. The officers were so severe. The rules were so strict. You could not go against the commands, you could not have any question in your mind, and you just did what the officers said. Whenever they commanded, you just had to say” Yes, sir.”

But maybe because of these strict rules, I learned how to find ways to release my emotions, I learned how to work under pressure; I learned how to work with others; I learned how to communicate with others; I became more confident self-disciplined and independent. And maybe because of this, I had the chance to learn some thing different in my life that I would never have done in my normal life. For example: I remember having to walk around the island of Mar Tzu with a hundred men from 10 PM to 6 AM. We were in our helmets, backpacks and our guns with belts with full of bullets, preparing to defend the island in case we were attacked. Going to bed at 7 AM, knowing that in a few hours, we would have to wake up and start constructing some buildings to protect ourselves, because the enemy, yep… you know that… the Chinese people who live in china, was so close. So I had to learn to live with this fear. I remember the day I will never forget. It was the time when Chinese fishermen surrounded the island for three days. We didn’t know their intentions or what they would do. During those three days every one of us was nervous.

I said to my son that military service was a very special experience: a transformation from a boy to a real man. And that change was forever. Maybe the process was really hard, but the memories were so sweet. When I talked to my son, he listened to me very seriously; I felt so close to him as he was sitting at my side. He asked me some questions, and I told him what he wanted to know. At that time, I thought… it’s just like “man’s talk”. And he said “Dad… I think I understand” and then he went to play with his younger brother. I was not sure whether he really understood. I went to my study, and wrote down the dialogue in my diary. I thought… it was another good experience.

I think… a footprint on the beach will be washed away by the waves; a footprint on the floor will be mopped up by a mop; a footprint in a cement floor will be filled up with cement; only a footprint in your heart will never be washed away, mopped up or filled up, it will be imprinted in your mind forever. Experience is just like a footprint, whether it’s good or bad, happy or sad. Once you have done it, it will always be in your mind.