My 2014

Time slips by so fast that I can’t catch hold of either end of it. By the time I come back to my senses, it’s gone. Looking back on my 2014, it just feels like it vanished in a rush.

My 2014 was split in two: one part in China, one part in the US.

Looking back on 2014, I went to Bengbu, Hefei, Rizhao, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tucson.

(A Flash video used to be here. It can no longer be played.)

“Nanshan Nan” was my favorite song at the end of 2014.

Let me look back on the part in China.

00

I remember that after school started last February, I stayed in Bengbu for only about a week before going to Hefei for a training program at a company. Checking my photo album, I went to Hefei on February 25.

The school bus took all of us to Hefei together. Pangzi was sitting next to me, and Xiaohei and Wu Guoguo were behind us,

On March 28, my girlfriend and I set off for Shanghai to see Yayoi Kusama’s art exhibition, and we went back on March 30.

The mirror room

After I got back, in April I got a buzz cut in Hefei, only two millimeters long. It felt nice and cool.

In May, on the 17th, I went to another concert in Hefei. Every time I go to the Hefei Olympic Sports Center, I take a picture of you in the same spot.

June. I still remember that on May 30, the day vacation had just started, I saw the SegmentFault event and couldn’t sleep all night. I told myself that if I didn’t go for it now, it would be too late. So the next day I bought a high-speed rail ticket, stood for several hours, and arrived in Hangzhou for the competition. It was my first time staying in a youth hostel, just because it was cheap and saved some money.

This is early in the morning on June 1, before heading out from the youth hostel

A group photo of everyone there, SegmentFault’s second anniversary

The team I formed on site. The good friends I made at this competition were the biggest takeaway

At that competition I also met an online friend I’d never met in person, who is also a good friend I hadn’t seen in years

In the end we won a grand prize. Thanks to Xiaocao and Lyojo for pulling an all-nighter with me. I also remember taking a hard-seat train back from Hangzhou all by myself. Going home alone, I almost fell asleep in the waiting hall, and once on the train I slept the whole night. It was just a seat, but I was so tired, and when I woke up I was right at home. Then around June 7 I went to Rizhao and had fun for two whole days. It was great. We had barbecue and Korean cold noodles.

After that the training program ended and I got ready to leave Hefei. I remember that at the end of June I got my offer from UA and got ready to set off for the US.

These are the roommates I was closest to in college. One of them wasn’t there, so it was just the four of us, and we took our last group photo of 2014 together. Back then we complained about this and that, and only after leaving did I realize that was the best time. I never had a complete high school experience, and now I don’t have a complete college experience either. After only two years together, my college life in China was over.

01

This section is my summer vacation. I don’t know if it counts as my last summer vacation in China. The whole vacation was only a month long. During that month I went to Shanghai for my visa interview, then took driving lessons and passed the second part of the driving test, only to realize that I’d basically wasted the whole summer.

On August 11, I set off for Shanghai, with my parents along. After eating my last meal in China in 2014 at the Ajisen Ramen at Pudong Airport, I walked through the departure checkpoint without looking back. My dad told me my mom cried that day after I left. At the time I wasn’t sad at all, probably too excited. It was only after arriving in the US that I slowly started to get homesick.

The Boeing 787

This is that night, flying to Tucson, over LA

10

In Tucson I met a bunch of buddies who give me a hard time but also really look out for me. We all have a great time together. I’m pretty happy with how things are now.

My school, UA

Actually, during my time in the US, going from bursting with novelty to now being homesick, missing the food from home, there’s a feeling I really can’t put into words. It’s bottled up in my heart and won’t go away. I remember it was about a month after I came to the US. One night I was making pig’s trotter soup at home, and while I was making it I thought of how my mom used to make me pig’s trotter soup every time I came home from out of town. I couldn’t stop the tears, and I cried the whole night. I’ve also regretted it, asking myself why I came here, but in the end I still told myself: it was my dream, and even if I have to crawl, I’ll crawl all the way to the end.

Coming to the US brought a lot of firsts: the first time cutting my own hair, the first time bowling, the first time cooking for someone else, the first time moving…

Of course, I guess only by going through all this do you really grow up.

So much happened this year. Sometimes I feel the year went by too slowly, making me live through so much turmoil. Sometimes I feel it went by too fast, ending before I could really savor the life in it. Maybe that’s just life. My 2014, goodbye, I’ll never see you again. Maybe I’ll be grateful to this year for making me a lot more mature and helping me grow up quite a bit.

Finally

Maybe you’ll ask me how I’m doing now. I’ll tell you “good,” but the real pain is something only I know. Treat happiness as life, and treat troubles as seasoning. Only by fighting your way through life do you become mature and steady. Hello, 2015, here I come.