Interaction with HKBU partner: Thoughts and Inspiration


Reindeer had just finished a yoga class when I WhatsApp video called her. The English Major student at Hong Kong Baptist University calls herself Reindeer simply because she likes reindeer. We laughed easily and were able to speak to each other for over an hour and the time drifted away. She spoke from her yoga studio and I was inside my bedroom.

We found little similarities: we both poster our bedroom walls, like yoga, have similar taste in movies, enjoy contemplative walking. When we talked a bit deeper we found some of our thoughts and values to overlap.

She was concerned with childhood, innocence and growing up in a similar way that I was. But she had a different kind of insight. She feared the loss of innocence of her young cousin who is about to enter primary school. She feels that the pressurised school system in Hong Kong will rob him of his time. His playtime will turn to homework time, and then she won’t be able to spend as much time with him. She wants to treasure the time now with him because she knows it won’t last forever. In the interview a simple yet profound message made a mark on me: “the forever lesson in life – try your best to love each other, not to hurt them because you are having a bad day.”

She said a number of things that had a similar “quotable” kind of essence, emphasizing the need to treasure the people in your life and life itself because often we let our surroundings distract us from really cherishing, and also we don’t know when we’ll die and everything will be lost.

In the interview process I had to revise some questions as I had a number of questions designed for a writing student. I was surprised that she wrote postcards and letters to herself so I could still use some of the writing questions in a way. She was still a kind of writer; she likes to capture dialogues she has with friends or things she may forget. 

When Reindeer received her assignment details she planned to for us to both write “a day in the life” of each other. So we quickly developed a habit of sharing simple everyday things; sending pictures of our food, the places we go, things we do, recounting little incidents that happened to us, short videos etc. There’s a lot you can learn from the mundane everyday. Little messages and meaning comes out of the simplest of stories and the most everyday pictures. I have got to reflect on the things we notice, the things we think about, and the way we think about these things. This exercise from her assignment is in turn inspiring mine. Sharing the everyday is really linked to ideas of cherishing and fears of loss.

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