Turning 21

It’s supposed to be fun turning 21🎵 – All Too Well (10 Minute Version)

This year, I sorted out a lot of information and got to know a new side of myself every day. Although I'm still a bit of a loner, I've finally come to like and accept myself as I am now. I've made peace with everything in the past and stopped the high-power internal friction that had been going on for years without me even realizing it.

I really like yetone's card. It's a style I personally adore, so I made one for myself too :)

I remember the last time I threw a birthday party (or was it the time before that?), I was still in elementary school in the UK 🇬🇧. I think I invited a few classmates over for a meal. Come to think of it, that was over a decade ago.

Where are they now? What are they doing? The email address I left when I departed is no longer valid. Did they try to contact me? I don't know. Maybe one day we'll meet again, and we can chat about these things then.

The super delicious ice cream cake my friends bought!

What else happened this year?

• I got into JavaScript and started Coding in the true sense. Although I haven't studied it deeply or earned any money from it, I still want to say "Thank you JavaScript". I didn't experience the joy of programming in the computer lab terminals, but I found it two years later in the tutorial videos of a foreign teacher. Thank you, Jonas Schmedtmann!

• Then there was The Cherno, my C++ mentor. Although I haven't worked on any engineering projects yet, the programming philosophy and low-level knowledge he taught me helped bridge the gaps in my understanding of computer systems. It led to many inner exclamations later on like, "Oh, Cherno talked about this! So that's what this means."

• During the most stressful period of exam review in the second semester of my sophomore year, I chose to defer two exams to make time to establish "bjut-swift" (originally called Open-BJUT). I initiated the Beijing University of Technology Course Resource Sharing Project, which to some extent reduced the ugly phenomenon of buying and selling public exam papers on campus.

• I met many excellent people through GitHub and Twitter. I hope to do meaningful things we enjoy together in the future. This was the year I truly started using GitHub, and I've made some gains:

• Hitsujibungaku (羊文学) is just too ethereal 😭. I listen to "more than words" at least twice every day.

• It was a year of complete disappointment with the curriculum planning of my major. After seeing excellent textbooks and learning real knowledge, the content I previously found tasteless but had to learn became harmful rubbish. As the saying goes, "Having seen the sun," it's hard to go back to the old days.

• It was a year full of confidence in my future.

Let's end this year's summary with a quote from Lu Xun:

I wish that the youth of China would escape the cold air and just move upward.
Do not listen to the words of those who give up on themselves.
Let those who can work, work; let those who can speak, speak.
If you have a bit of light, emit a bit of heat.
Even if it is like a firefly, you can still emit a little light in the darkness.
You need not wait for the torch.