"A little sunshine, a little wind"

The early summer sun began to pour down on the school yard as the last winds of the season just brought the spring days far away…

The rays of sunlight lingered on the green leaves of the banyan trees, the old royal poinciana trees were about to bloom again… day after day, sliding down the slope, in a flash, the early autumn days of the past were far away, the new students with hesitant and bewildered steps, stepped through the gate of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Like many other new students, I – who had not yet wiped off the soil of the countryside from my feet, set out on the journey to return to the university lecture hall.

In the long shadow as the sun called the day to go down the mountain this afternoon, suddenly in my clear eyes, the image of that beginning was anchored. It was not the “first day of school” without crying on my mother’s shoulder, a frightened look… But in my heart arose a joy, a joy that until later I could not call into a specific name, only knowing that it was strange, difficult to describe and… difficult to forget. A little bit of confusion, a little bit of excitement, hope… rolled into question marks in my own consciousness. Through autumn, through winter and the last days of spring, now, my school yard has begun the sunny days of summer. The memory of that beginning is only a nostalgic stream of yesterday, in the pages of my diary.

The question mark that had been rolling around inside me at that time was finally untied by the days I lived in the beloved Me Tri dormitory. The friendly looks I received every day, the attention from the smallest things - a book, a stack of documents, a textbook for class, a bowl of hot onion porridge while curled up on the hospital bed, a pack of instant noodles while reading at midnight... all, all went beyond the boundaries of fellow countrymen's love to become an invisible glue, connecting the people, teachers, and students under this school roof. So I had a second homeland for me to love, to remember during the days I returned home for Tet or during the upcoming summer vacation; a homeland for me to linger and feel regretful when the last summer I was able to go to class with my teachers, with my friends who went through my student life with sadness - joy, private corners of the sky, far away from the past. The pressures and barriers have gradually eased and stopped at the “no boundary” side. I have gone through beautiful student years with teachers, friends, and people I met every day at school, in the heart of Hanoi.

The last rays of sunlight have fallen asleep on the si leaves. Ending a day filled with books and worries in the lecture hall, sitting on the stone bench in the dormitory yard, silently counting the steps of the afternoon, letting my mind drift into endless thoughts following the rotation of the ball someone threw in the yard. The days in the lecture hall are full of joy and sadness and also full of worries and concerns, how can I hide them behind all the giggles every time I come home from school!?!

A little bit of sunshine still lingers, a little bit of wind in the late afternoon… trying to hold on… to the passing day…