A golden opportunity not to be missed

In China, we have a song in order to commemorate a leader-Deng Xiaoping. The economy was changed when he gave a direction on the map with hand. Those directions of China opened up for the world because of his suggestion. In the past, China was a closed society and it took all energy and development in central section. Thus, the coastland didn’t have enough development, and the economy of China couldn’t get forward. However, the substantial support of Deng Xiaoping decided the coastland of China obtained open to the outside world. More than fourteen cities were labeled coastal economic open zones. Afterward, China became a fast developed country. The reform and open-up policy has allowed China step into a burgeoning country. A lot of people’s lives changed because of the economic reform, and my family had an extraordinary experience based on the transformation.

With the economic reform policy actualized, my parents had to depart from a national factory where they worked. I still remember my family was living in a quite composed area. I was just ten years old. I had a carefree childhood, and I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. One day, I heard my parent’s arguing. “If we keep staying here, I just can’t imagine our future.” My mom said in a loud voice. In fact, the national factory where my parents worked faced bankruptcy. My parents graduated from the same university, and then they were assigned to the national factory as engineers. Back in the old days, people expected to get factory job, and it was like a gold bowl for laborers. Because before the economic reform, the national factory was a place that labors got in and thought they might be there until retiring age. Nevertheless, the factory sank into a tough situation, and it was faced with lost orders, and laborers couldn’t receive their compensation. The reason was the national factory used to get orders from Chinese government. Until the economic reform became effective, the national corporations had to get their profit by finding orders themselves. They were step in a social competition too. However, my family still need to maintain our lives and my education. Eventually, due to this kind of competition, my dad temporarily left home and went to another city for work and my mom stayed with me but also got into another company. After a couple of years, my dad became a C.E.O in The Nationalized Business Limited Liability Company, and my mom became a marketing manager. It was a reluctant time because our separated family looked not like a whole family, but our economic situation was getting better.

Another effect was that our home environment had experienced enormous change. We were living in a small group in the suburbs when my parents worked for the national factory. Before, if we went to downtown shopping, it had to be a special day. I wasn’t even familiar with downtown, how poor it was. Nonetheless, our living condition, household income and contact circumstances were all improved after my parents started their new careers. For example, I have more opportunities to attend some higher level meeting with my parents. I deeply felt that I could learn more extensive information from outside. This is the point that my parents always told me need to participating in the communication or learning from others is the best way to know the outside world.

Moreover, I had a rare opportunity come to the U.S for a better education and life because of the change. Therefore, coming to the U.S to learn something the students who are in China couldn’t learn is a special time for me. Before I came here, I was probably just a general university student in China, but now I’m an international student. It costs more money, but the most important things are even some people have a lot of money. It is also not that easy to be here and I knew a lot of students in China dreaming go to another country for study, especially the U.S, but their family couldn’t support them. I appreciate that my family gave me the opportunity, and I left my hometown in order to improve myself and get a higher education. I used to be like a bird always held in my parents’ hands. However, leaving my hometown and living in a foreign country for my education has let me become more independent. To me, this is a good experience.

The reform and open policy encouraged by Deng Xiaoping was a gumptious strategy for China in the past twenty years and the future. My family has changed since that time, and sometimes we discuss there changes. My parents always felt if there hadn’t been that tough situation that compelled them to left the national factory, we wouldn’t be here currently. Besides, China is a developing country; there are a lot of changes we can see every year. The opening to the outside world has produced a good influence internationally and also has been fruitful in China. I was surprised when I returned to visit my hometown and saw that some places, architecture and environment have all been reformed and modernized. I was surprised by those changes, and I believe China will bloom into a mature country in all directions.

Incomplete Family

“Mommy, where’s daddy? When will he be back?” My father used to work in the navy when I was five. The population growth was increasing, and it was hard for people to find a job. Later on, there were a bunch of people who applied for a navy job in my city, and my father was lucky to be selected as a navy. At the beginning, I seemed to be fine because I could at least see my father several times a year, and there were so many people in china that never got to see their family after they went to work. Everything was perfect until I turned seven. My thoughts and feelings had changed after I went to the elementary school. I was more aware that it was not fine to grow up without a father. Also, I felt that I could not be a happy girl to celebrate holidays without a father because it felt incomplete.

The first effect was that my father wasn’t there on the Father’s Day. One day when I was in the elementary school, our teacher taught us how to make a gift for father’s day. Father’s day is a somewhat important holiday, at least to me. Later, our teacher asked us to draw our father’s face on the paper, and I could not draw anything until the end of the class because I didn’t remember how my father looks. I tried hard to think about how my father looked like, how tall he was, and what kind of character he was. After school, I ran home as quickly as I could to ask my mother to see my father’s picture. I started to draw my father’s face from the picture I saw, and I was thinking about how nice it would be if my father came back on father’s day and was to receive the gift that I made for him. My imagination never stopped until Father’s Day. Sadly, I didn’t see my father attended to school on Father’s Day. In addition, I discovered that all my imagination was just a fake image. I cried when I saw my other classmates who were able to give out the gift to their father. At that moment, I deeply realized how important my father is in my life.

The second effect was my mother had to celebrate her birthday without her husband. It is easy to remember my mother’s birthday because it is on a week after Father’s Day. I thought my mother was a brave and independent person. She would prepare well for her own birthday. For instance, she could cook and make a cake by herself. On the day before her birthday, I saw my mother holding the picture of my father and cried when I walked pass her room. At the moment, I realized that my mother wasn’t as independent as I thought. She is just a normal woman like every other woman. Also, she obviously anticipated her husband to come back for celebrating her birthday as he did before he left. She didn’t eat a lot during the dinner. It seemed like she was cooking mainly for me, but not for her birthday. I saw the tears in her eyes when she brought the cake to the table. On that day, I understood that nothing could be more important than having my father to celebrate with us as a family.

The third effect was that my father wasn’t present and couldn’t celebrate with me on Children’s Day. Children’s Day was one of the special days during my childhood, but my father was never there. “Mommy, when will daddy come back?” I asked the same question when I was five.” “Baby, he will be back on Children’s Day.” My mother didn’t want to disappoint me, and both of us wished for this day to come true. At the day of children’s day, I remember one of my classmates made fun of me saying,” Don’t you have a father?” I didn’t cry on that time because I have always believed my father would come back one day, and he will never leave me and mom alone. My mother would usually take me to the park and give me a gift on that day. Even though sometimes I felt unhappy when I saw other kids with their parents in the park, I always pretended to be happy in front of my mother.

I didn’t want to live without a father, and I remember one of my favorite Chinese quotes says “you can earn a lot of money in your life, but you cannot make up for what you lost.” Even though I know he was working hard for us to have a better live, it could not be a complete family without a father or mother. I couldn’t give out the gift that I made for my father, and my mother was never happy, especially during her birthday each year. Sometimes, my classmates would make fun of me for not having a father. I expected my children’s day to be happy instead of being upset. After a year, our dream finally came true, and my father came back on my eighth birthday. I cherish everything that I own now, especially the relationships in my family.