The season of lighting up youthful dreams

I had just sat down at my desk for a short while when a downpour came, dark clouds gathered, I hurriedly put down my pen and books and went out into the yard… to collect the rice. I had to take care of a whole yard full of rice by myself, not knowing if I would be able to collect it in the house before the rain came. Exam days often coincided with harvest season, so “students” like me who were about to take the exam were given priority to stay home to study, occasionally helping my family with some odd jobs. Collecting the rice in the porch was also the time when the downpour came. The exam was temporarily put aside…

Twenty years have passed, I became an adult without realizing it. The image of the dreamy and ambitious seventeen years with the difficult exam season appeared. Those were the days in the countryside when the sun was as hot as it had ever been. The scorching summer covered every corner of the countryside, the study places of the 12th graders were also hard and hot because of that. At school, almost all the subjects had been completed, all the registration procedures for the exam had been completed. Only the important review sessions remained. Twelve years of studying flew by like a dream, no one thought it would pass so quickly. Just yesterday, I was still naively teasing my friends, carelessly making mistakes of the age of "first mischief, second ghost..." and in the blink of an eye, I was seventeen, eighteen with the difficult final exam season.

Children from poor villages are always taught by their parents that only through education can they escape poverty. Only through education can they go beyond the bamboo fences of the village, broaden their minds, and enrich their knowledge. Therefore, everyone tries their best. Even if they have to walk or pedal their bicycles for dozens of kilometers on difficult, winding mountain roads, they still have to try. Even though it is summer, the sun is scorching their backs, and their school uniforms are soaked with sweat, no one complains. Poor students bury their heads in books, forgetting time, forgetting days, hoping that their knowledge will be as solid as possible for the important exam of their lives.

The exam season was a period of hardship and deprivation. It was still the same simple daily meals, with vegetables to eat, and porridge to eat. Once in a while, if my parents went to harvest and caught a fish or a shrimp, that day’s meal would be considered a little more… sumptuous. The wild vegetables growing around the house were often the main food of my family. I still remember that those vegetables were barren and dry because the scorching summer sun could not grow. But when they were served, they became surprisingly delicious. I also remember the days when the electricity went out, I had to stay up late at night to study. After finishing studying, the new day had already come, I hurriedly ran to the well to pour a few buckets of water before falling asleep.

When exam season comes, I miss the sunken eyes and dark circles of my friends. I feel sorry for my friends and myself with all the worries. What if I can’t get into my dream school? What if I have to stop after twelve years of student life? And the worries at the crossroads of my unstable life, because of family and circumstances, I can’t continue my education. I miss the affectionate, lingering eyes, the loving handshakes that hold on to something for friendship, for youthful dreams.

Exam season for me and my friends back then was not simply a normal exam season but a season that lit up youthful dreams. A season of motivation, a season of breakthroughs… And I also silently thanked those beautiful days, thanked myself for not giving up, so that now looking back, despite the hardships and difficulties, I lived fully, enthusiastically so that now I can confidently step into life…