鐘凱紋

“Things are not going so well lately. I just had my second prelim①. I did not go well. I am so upset！ I thought I was doing great but I just choked② during the exam. What should I do？！ I messed up！”

This sentence might well be a line of my chat with my parents. After I come to Cornell University，my parents and I have been videochatting③ regularly（about once or twice every week）. We leave each other a message if either of us is not online. I occasionally complain about the weather，my workload and grades，my social④ during our chat，and my parents，just as any other caring⑤ parents，will get worried and try to come up with one hundred ways of solving the problems. But because we meet each other so often，they start to understand that most of my complaints and troubles are temporary and are under my control.

However，imagine this was a part of a PAPER letter that I sent to my parents. Imagine I was a girl who went abroad to Cornell University in Ithaca，NY，the US for college twenty years ago. Two months later，I might receive a stressedout⑥ letter about how to build selfconfidence after a bad prelim， how to concentrate on studies， how to learn the specific⑦ subject，how to relax and so on. I believe they would also stress⑧ how much they love me no matter what results I got. After reading the letter，however，I guess I would be like：

“What prelim？I did not do badly on the last prelim that happened two days ago！What are they worrying about？！”

Here，I just want to stress how grateful I am to the advanced technologies that connect the world together. The electronic inventions that bring my instant change of expression to my parents and bring the look of their pajamas⑨ through the ocean remind me that the love within home can conquer⑩ distances and I am never alone. I just cannot imagine how my life would be like if I could only see my parents on photos that I brought from China.

How lucky we are these days！

（By Kaiwen Zhong on Sept.3， 2012 in Ithaca， NY）

① prelim n. 預(yù)備考試（通常指期末考試前的小考、月考或段考）

② choke vt. & vi. 填塞，（使）窒息，（使）說不出話來

③ videochat vi. 視頻聊天

④ social n. 社交活動，聯(lián)歡會，交誼會（在該句中作名詞）

⑤ caring adj. 表示或感到關(guān)懷或關(guān)心的

⑥ stressedout adj. 因心理緊張而被壓垮的

⑦ specific adj. 具體的，特有的，特定的，明確的，確切的，詳盡的

⑧ stress vt. 強調(diào)，重讀 n. 壓力， 緊張，強調(diào)， 重要性

⑨ pajamas n. 睡衣褲

⑩ conquer vt. 攻克，征服，破除，克服

編輯/梁宇清