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Dear Givology:
My name is Guangen Shen, I am very happy to receive your letter. I really like what you wrote me and thank you very much for your support and encouragement. I also would like to thank you for your financial support, because this is what gives me a chance to study and brings me the opportunity to change my life. Your support is like a lighthouse when I am lost in the sea, helping me find a way out and ensuring that I don’t need to worry about being lost again. I am from a family that isn’t financially secure mostly because my parents are illiterate. They never had a chance to make good money. My two sisters are in school; therefore we are cutting down our expenses trying to save as much money as possible. My parents even had to borrow money from our neighbors door to door in order to get us enough tuition. They also had to work really hard in order to provide us enough money. I can really see how hard they worked from wrinkles on their face and gray hair on their head. Their wrinkles and gray hairs showed me how hard they had worked. However as they get older, they have been getting angry more easily.
My school life is very good right now. My grades are pretty stable as well. I even get financial aid from my school because my grades are good. Even though it wasn’t a lot, it is enough for a week of my living expense. Also it can help my parents a little. The only thing that I feel regret about was that I haven’t got the 800 yuan tuition reduction from my school that I promised to my parents. But I will still keep working hard till my high school career is over. The thing I worry the most is that nowadays my sisters’ college tuition is way too expensive. Things are getting much more expensive but my village's economic situation hasn't improved at all. I also worry that my parents may have to find other jobs in other more dangerous areas in order to make enough money. They are already heavily in debt because of us.
However, I promise myself that I will clear those debts once I enter society because those debts were spent on my tuition.
I really envy you that you can have a harmonious family. My parents are both very stubborn so they fight frequently. It really depresses me. Why can’t they just compromise a little bit? There’s an old saying in Chinese, “When fighting begins, a step backwards will resolve everything." They never think about how we as children feel when they are fighting. Once they even mentioned divorce. That day my sisters and I were all there. Even though I know they are just stubborn and they’d be fine after just couple days, what they said really frightened me. The good thing is later that day they were peaceful again. From that day I told myself I need to be strong. But I also think fighting is excusable and sometimes unpreventable because you can’t really imagine how hard is it to make enough money for your children to get education in China.
I truly thank you, and my family is thankful as well.
And I also hope your parents are happy.
Best,
Feb 29, 2010
Guangen Shen
