Two years ago, after watching Begin Again, I felt something stirring and wrote a short review on Douban. Last year when the film was released in China, some Douban users left comments under that review. Careless as I am, I only recently clicked in to read them carefully, and I felt a deep warmth as I did. It seems that since graduating from college and leaving behind that age when expressing oneself came so naturally, I’ve rarely experienced this kind of connection—where a melody or a line of dialogue makes you click instantly with someone else. To put it a little pretentiously in classical Chinese: 知音难觅. As everyone around me migrated from RenRen (the Chinese version of Facebook) to WeChat Moments, as likes and “2333”s on nine-square grid photo posts replaced those heartfelt journal posts and comments, in this seemingly more intimate social environment, we’ve actually become less and less expressive.
Like the rest of the world, I binge-watched Love O2O, and like the rest of the world…my inner schoolgirl heart exploded (:з」∠). Undoubtedly, Xiao Nai’s good looks were one reason :shy_face_emoji:; But it was more about the nostalgia from those snapshots of campus life. I still often think of the campus broadcast after the first morning class, the wind whispering in my ears as I biked back to the dorm after the library closed, the gossip and chats with my roommates after lights out—everything from PG-13-unfriendly content to parallel universes. I occasionally think of those flutters, those throbbing feelings that couldn’t even be called love. Those youthful days—occasional showers, but mostly sunny.
At the beginning of the year, I started using the Keep app to motivate myself to exercise. I’ve seen so many people putting on belly fat within a few years of leaving school and entering the workplace…The daily grind of life always inevitably dulls youthful spirit to some degree, but I really don’t want that day to arrive so soon. My motivation for struggling out of bed every morning to work out is this: if I can’t do these things now, later I’ll just give up entirely and be too lazy to even try (what a simple philosophy =.=).
Years ago, I discovered a Douban user named 陈苏苏二逼人生 through a review of the film You Are the Apple of My Eye. I really enjoyed reading her writing—it had that simplicity, sincerity and stubbornness you find in Mayday’s lyrics. Later she seemed to have gotten married and had a baby, and I haven’t seen her update any reviews since. Sad.
Meow. I’m probably just a bit hungry (emphasis underline added here) and missing home.