十年光景

When I had dinner with N on Sunday, I asked her if she remembers what happened exactly ten years ago. It was July 1st, 1997, the day of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.

And what a decade it has been.

Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, is now the chancellor of Oxford University.

I entered my last year of high school in 1997 and now I am again in my last year of graduate school.

I have since acquired another language and been to 11 more countries.

Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest.

Numerous wars broke out but isn't that a rule than an exception....though I believe it is a rule we can change if we choose to.

China is under a new leadership but is it better?

There are still those who believe that history didn't happen, but there are many more who remember.

Many of my older relatives have passed on, and the flow of time manifests itself on the face of those still with us.

There have been new members, and I am always glad to see them.

Some have tied the knots, though I think marriage (but not familiy) is overrated.

One good memory replaces another, but they are always here to stay and each in its own way paves the path ahead.

And now I am in my apartment in this city I love, after my first day at my internship, finally feeling like a New Yorker.

And I am reading the few words on P's postcard in a language I can't read but a message I understand and feel.

These are the good times.