I say this because if I had not chosen to move to Shenzhen and follow my mother, I might have been like many of my classmates, achieving solid results after only a few months in a foreign-funded company. At times, I felt as though I had wasted half a year. Looking back now, however, I am truly grateful to my mother and to the time I spent in Shenzhen.
During those days, I witnessed how many people at the bottom of society struggled to make a living, and I met individuals from all walks of life. They pursued different paths: some worked diligently and patiently searched for opportunities, while others hoped to make the most money in the shortest possible time through improper means. Yet their original motivation was the same—to survive.
Through these experiences, I came to understand that survival and personal growth often require tremendous courage and resilience to face the challenges and complexities of society.
One of my classmates lived with me in Shenzhen for a month before returning to a remote county in his hometown of Hunan. He once told me that his dream was to work at a television station. Later, I heard that he was hosting children's programs at the local TV station, and eventually we lost touch.
Eight years later, when we met again in Beijing, he had become a producer-director at Zhuhai Television, while I had become a reporter for Phoenix Television. He shared how he spent five years progressing from a county-level station to a provincial television station, and then moved alone to Zhuhai, where he advanced from a temporary staff member to a full-time employee. He told me that those days in Shenzhen taught him how to encourage himself and keep moving forward whenever life became difficult.
