The New Semester Begins the Day After Tomorrow (March 1)

The winter vacation is over, and a new semester is about to begin.

This semester will officially start on March 1 and end on July 3. During this period, national statutory holidays (the Qingming Festival, Labor Day, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and weekends) will be observed as usual.

I am about to enter the "5+2" boarding-student mode again (5 days studying at school on weekdays, 2 days at home on weekends). Barring any accidents, I will return to my Beijing home on Friday evenings and go back to school on Sunday evenings. If there are no major changes in life, I will continue to update one article each day.

This winter vacation has been very busy, and some of my planned reading has been set aside, so I rather miss the comparatively pure student life on campus. Now I am both attached to the warm family life at home and fond of the quiet, regular student life on campus. Fortunately, although I cannot have both perfectly, there are still so many vacations.

For a middle-aged person to return to campus is a luxurious act in terms of time. A whole host of trifles of life must be settled briskly during the holidays, so the vacations are inevitably busy. The greatest benefit of being busy is that one need not be infected by the various emotions prevailing in society.

In an age of well-developed self-media, many negative emotions spread easily and are constantly amplified, forming collective anxiety. Looking back over most of my life, I have always stood separated from society by a protective wall: I live in this society yet remain semi-detached, always keeping a respectful distance from all kinds of popular elements and trendy topics.

I personally think this is quite fine. The floating world is like boiling water, always too noisy; people like me are not suited to a tumultuous environment, and staying moderately away allows one to live more lightly and freely.

Since I have returned to campus at this age, I ask for nothing else; I only hope to complete my studies conscientiously. At school I will learn professional knowledge well, master the professional skills of both Chinese and Western medicine, and understand the mysteries of life more deeply. Where the future leads, I will not dwell on.

One great benefit of studying medicine in middle age is that one can better care for one's own and one's family's health; for this alone, it is worth spending a few years studying. I rarely worry about the future; I prefer to strive to live each day well in the present, not idling away time or wasting this short life. I believe this new semester will surely bring good gains.