關於愛，我是個小學生。

What’s the domestic education that you got in your family and its influence on your growing-up process?

There were actually three phases in the light of my domestic education since I was old enough as a three-year-old toddler to cognize and conceive the world through my thinking and senses till now, at the age of twenty, when I consider myself relatively mature and independent to stand on my own feet and decisive to recognize what is right or wrong.

The first phase began in the house of my grandparents in Hsin-chu when my parents both commuted in Taipei respectively, one served as a civil official and the other as an assistant in an architecture firm. I seldom met them except some big holidays or New Year’s Eves. I was raised and educated by my grandparents. My grandma barely wrote nor read. She only took care of my daily dietaries and other routine chores. My grandpa was a retired air force general, who thrust almost all his attention and vigor to build up the very first grand child in our family. He taught me, with great patience, how to read and write, calligraphy, painting, sketching, history, foreign language, string instrument like er-hu, Chinese operas and chess, and even martial arts. He was a decent humanist, who stressed a balanced development of human cognitions, through which people are able to learn and grow in a manner manifold, both physical and mental.
This gave me a strong impact on the attitude and the motivation of learning. I was taught to learn to be ‘balanced’ in as many aspects, not focused in some solo field, in a rather extensive, general, than far-reaching way to learn, to prepare myself a repertoire of my specialties at basic but quite substantial levels. Till now am I a believer of multi-talented inspiring and cultivating education models, which to me would be an effective way to know the world and oneself better. A human, according to my granny, should not be accustomed to failure.

The second phase of my domestic education was conducted in Taipei as my parents took me back since the age ten. My father thought it was no good to live with the elders too long. As a fourth grader, owing to a well-programmed and scheduled gleaning in Hsin-chu, I did performances far beyond my parents’ expectations, and of course, in all subjects. The benign influence of the first phase education continued to ferment, which was devastated later by countless conflicts between my father and me. There seemed to be too much misunderstanding, paranoid, dogmatism, and arrogance in my family. My father insisted my naive childishness and too idealistic while I thought it was nothing wrong to be ambitious and dream, doing what I was supposed to be doing. He once yelled to me to ‘get the f#$% out of the house’ and just earn my own salt so as to ‘realize’ what he tried to tell me and to experience the real hardness of life. Therefore, I left my home sweet home, waving good-bye to my mom, who saw my off with tears. I brought nothing from home when leaving, except for my father’s blazing fury and discouragement. I thus disliked to communicate with people, hardly trust people, and was quite pessimistic to life, studying and working part-time till now.

The third phase of my ‘domestic’ education occurred not long, when I found my long-lost ‘family member’ during recently, the Lord Jesus, and He made me understand that we, my parents, He, and I, are still family, and have always been family since beginning. He demonstrated me the real love, the egoless sacrifice, and the merciful patience. He tolerated my faults, misconduct, and countless wrong-doings, and He forgave me. He urged me to go back home and make peace with my family. And I did so, which made me released and in peace, retrieving the long-lost love from an ever familiar place --- home. Through His teaching, I found who I am, what I will be, and how I will live for the rest of my life.

I would not complain or criticize at the first two phases of my domestic education, if there should be any problems within. On the contrary, it is the two phases of experience that led me to the third, the most effective and unforgettable lecture of life, which teaches me how much love I am getting and how much gratitude I should owe to people surrounding me. That does make a difference of my life, from now on till forever.