When I was 13 or 14, I started keeping a diary.  For many years, I faithfully wrote in my diary everyday.  Yes, everyday.  Nobody told me to do it.  I just loved writing things down.  As you can imagine, over the years, I accumulated volumes of handwritten diaries.  This became a huge issue when we moved into a 1-bedroom condo after we sold our East Van house.  So I took on a project to scan all of my diaries from the 90’s into digital files, so I can keep them all in a small hard drive.

I was reading through some of the scanned pages today for fun.  As usual, I feel embarrassed by some of the things I wrote.  I mean, when you’re 13 or 14, the universe revolves around yourself and life is so full of d.r.a.m.a.!

I thought I’d share some of these pages so everyone can have a little laugh.  All the entries here relate to school or things that happened in school (because that’s the only life I had back then–school).

Jun 24, 1990

On Friday I got 63% on my math test. I received 4 rattan lashes on the hands. The teacher really hurt me. My thumb still hurts now!

Jun 25, 1990

Almost time for the monthly exams!  I’m so nervous!

Jun 29, 1990

The monthly exams are over.  Summer vacation also begins this afternoon.  I’m not sure if I’m going to rank 40-something again.  I got 86% on Chinese, 8% worse than last time.  I got 94% on English, 6% better than last time.

I went to a movie in the afternoon.  Being with those people who do better than me in school makes me feel so self conscious. 

Oct 18, 1990

Tomorrow is the quarterly exams.  We had 3 self-study periods today.  In the first period, I focused on studying History.  In the second period, I chatted and played for 15 minutes.  In the third period, other than tidying up my desk, I got nothing done.  I can see that I am not very focused.  Improvement needed.

Oct 19, 1990

The exams today were Chinese, English, History, and Geography. On Chinese, so far I know I was wrong on two questions.  English, I’m not sure yet.  History, seems ok so far.  Geography, I am dead.  

Nov 1, 1990

What a horrible day!

I fell off the back of a chair.  I hit my head on the corner of a desk, and then fell head first onto the ground.  After I fell, I can clearly hear people talking.  Someone said I was playing dead.  Someone said they should pull me up.  I just wanted to lay there and sleep.  I feel tired.  My head hurt.

To be honest, when you’re so close to death, you can make decisions on over 100 things within that extremely short period of time, in less than 1 second.  When you awake, you will see many things clearly, make the right decisions, and never regret anything.  

The only down side is that I have a huge bump on my head.  It hurts!