As the title describes, this week will be dubbed, “Mid-Term Week”. Truthfully I’m both nervous and surprised. I’m nervous because this Thursday and Friday I’m going to be tested chapters 1-7 in my textbook, and I’m surprised because time is passing by too fast. To give a comparison, I feel like I arrived in Taiwan yesterday. I digress, let’s get on with some of the experiences that I’ve experienced this week~
On Saturday, I had dinner with a Taiwanese friend that I met during my time here. If there’s one thing that I’m constantly impressed by in this world, it’s listening to another person’s story. I believe that life is just one complex diary, or maybe, books on the shelf, each book labeled a different chapter of a person’s life. Whenever we read our own chapters, it feels “comfortable”, familiar, and even close to the heart; but you know what? It’s not new. When I listen to other’s tales, I feel as if they are bringing me into their world, reminiscing about their past, and it brings new perspectives that one might of never learned otherwise.
No one’s heart is exactly alike, and like the clouds, they are constantly changing. Whenever I listen to people’s stories, I always search for the passion in their voice. That alone can make most stories interesting, the classic hook and sinker. I digress, I listened to her tales about her past experiences that include visiting Zion National Park, interning in the States, discovering how different the culture was compared to Taiwan. In life the most important lesson that I learned from stories is that if you don’t make mistakes, there are things you won’t discover.
It doesn’t have to be mistakes, it could just be called the “unexpected”, taking the wrong route, the word “accidentally” might not be real, coincidences don’t exist, it’s meant to be! I’ll admit, I somehow take the philosophical approach to every route in life, and I’m not a bit ashamed. Thanks to her, I’m learning more and more, and one day, I hope to have more experiences that I can share with others. As the years pass and the environment changes, I hope to accumulate more meaningful memories as well.
This is probably not a tale of any sorts, but recently I listened to a song called “Encounter” by Faye Wong, and I’m pretty sure that it changed my life. Quite frankly, I don’t even understand the lyrics, but there’s something about her voice that turns my world upside down. I know the song is about fate, desire, and love. I’ve never been on cloud nine, because this song send me straight to cloud ten, or any number in existence higher than nine. I discovered this song when I was playing Gomoku with my professor, Go is essentially Connect 5, and that’s the name of the game. Suddenly she played this song from her phone and immediately I knew I was in love. Complete heart struck, fall flat, shot with a cupid song arrow, I had a momentarily lapse and I believed that a few tears dropped from my love-struck eyes.
Ballads are my favorite style of music, and Faye Wong must be my favorite artist in the world. I’ve hear ballads in other languages before, but none of them has made me felt the way I did. What did I feel? I was standing on top of a hill, with the vast vistas before me, on one hand I had a paint brush, and another a board filled with colors far beyond the rainbow. The wind is blowing, the sun is shining, and the flowers were all waving at me, in that moment, I’ve never felt true love before, but that feeling might of been the closest emotion that I can call “love struck”. This is 25% exaggeration and 90% truth.
I’ve looped this song so many times while doing homework my roommate is just sick of hearing it. I’ve heard of Faye Wong before, and I’ve listened to her songs in the past, but somehow this song came out of nowhere, from a different galaxy and just made me weak. I’ve finally understand what it means to have a favorite song! To feel such admiration, infatuation, love towards such a brilliant piece of art, my words can not even begin to describe the fullness of my feelings. What can I say? I’m just hopelessly in love. In all seriousness, it’s now my favorite song, and I hope that everyone in the world can listen to it at least once. I apologize for ranting. In truth, I can write for several more paragraphs about my in-depth love for this song, but every word, line, paragraph will just be mere synonyms.
Faye Wong is known as the Diva, or translated in Chinese ๅคฉๅ, that literally translates into Heavenly Queen, and I’m now a devout believer. How could I not after listening to the most perfect song ever?
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_60ch98V5gk
If you listen to this song once, I’m absolutely positive that it’ll change your life like it did to me. No, it’s not a immediate change, but a gradual change that will eventually change your life for the better. You’ll know when the effects are in place, you’ll feel like you’re constantly on cloud ten as well.
