Forever

Nothing is forever in our universe, and everything changes over time, some would argue. I agree in general, but changing itself would be forever. I would definitely think it was an important exception when I think about the concept of forever deeply in a broader context.

Life is full of changes with surprises, isn't it? Growing up in China, I was often told to study hard to have a better career in order to serve the country. But this came to an end abruptly when I was given an immigration visa to join my grandmother's family here in the US. I was still in college at that time, but I would need to leave everything behide, saying goodbye to everything I had, my hometown, my relatives, my friends, my schools, my teachers, my classmates, and my favorite radio stations, too.

I was fond of listening to radio, mostly because there wasn't too much entertainment back in the eighties when televisions were rare in China, let alone computers and internet that we have today. I was very grateful that my aunt, Lola, a native San Franciscan, gave me a portable radio as a gift when she came from the US to visit our family in China in early eighties. The device, traveling across the Pacific with Lola's passion of caring for our family in China, brought me a lot of warmth and joy. Although the device was pocket-sized with earphones, it was pretty well made that would produce wonderful stereo sounds.

I was enchanted by this little device as I could enjoy the sounds that I had never experienced before. I especially liked to listen to some music programs from the local stations when I was in the colleage campus in Guangzhou. The sound quality coming out from the device was awesome as the signals there were strong because of their proximities. I was especially joyful to listen to some natural sounds of raining, thundering, or bird chirping, broadcasted usually around midnight every Saturday. I would go sleeping with those wonderful sounds.

I had to say goodbye to my other favorite radio stations that I listened to when I was in my hometown too, mainly stations from RTHK, which would provide us news services, pop cultural contents mostly. I would listen to pop, classical music, and even some programs from their English channels to get to know more about English.

All these would need to stop as I was afraid of, and it did halt when I departed from an airport in Hongkong and then landed in San Francisco.

The thirty plus years that followed, we were busy for our survival in the new land, and most connections with the old land faded away gradually, especially in the earlier period of time when communications were not that advanced as what we were today. Out of sight, out of mind, everything seemed so natural but irreversible.

One day not long ago, when I turned on the bluetooth radio in my newly purchased SUV, a long forgotten radio call name filled my ears. Yes, it's RTHK, the same call name that I had listened to numerous times thirty years ago! This familiar radio call name had disappeared from my vision for thirty years, and it now came back live to me from my SUV via internet again! Tears in my eyes, some vague memory started to rejuvenate, faces of my playmates, my uncles, aunts, my classmates, my schools, my hometown and more such sentimental images reappearing in my mind again, vividly. I felt as if I was back to the old days after a long and circular journey.

It's magical, isn't it? The things that lost track of for thirty years would reappear again in another dimension that would stun me in an unbelievable way. Have you experienced such wonderful rediscovery in life when life itself changes forever over the years? If you have, please let me know if you were emotional as I was.