A week ago, my college friend Yong commented on an old tweet I posted in my personal Wechat's Moments almost a year ago. The tweet was about the mixing thoughts I had when I received an email letter from Futureme.org. That was the first letter I wrote to myself in the form of saying a hi to yourself in one year.
I got yet another letter on June 17th. Touched again by what I wrote, thought and expected, I whisper to myself "hey man, this is exactly what your need to hear now". Yeah, how time flies! Think about it: one year ago, I was still sitting at the corner of the college library, downing the Silicon Valley TV series, and now I am working at the center of the Silicon Valley(ideally but not geographically), watching the same show on HBO Now. If going back one more year further, I wasn't even sure about where I should go and what I should do in the future. I am really surprised to see my growing trajectory through these letters and my after-thoughts.
I was hoping I could travel around China and I made it last summer, taking trains all long the northern part and western part of China and arriving at my "Jerusalem" Tibet; I was hoping I won't be bored in the USA and I am glad to say I enjoy the life here pretty much, having many interesting friends and going to various concerts and shows periodically. Even working at Google itself gives me a lot of motivations to work hard and play harder!; I was hoping I can learn more about the American cultures and history and I am just going to pay a visit to New York and Boston during late June and early July.
I also missed a lot of things. I missed my sister's wedding, missed my friends' birthdays, missed busting opportunities and fortunes in China. But there is one thing I should never miss: my freedom. Young and free, I can't imagine a better age than what I am now, literally being able to pursue anything I want.
This is the best age I could have while this might also be the worst world I could live in. At first, I am definitely an optimist and futurist. However, if you look at the other side of the earth, where thousands of innocent kids, men and women died of wars and terrorist attacks, given we are already living in the 21st century! After world war I, most of the Europeans believed there would be no wars anymore. World war II broke out shortly twenty years later. And here we go, at the intersection where technology(broadly speaking, ironically when we say technology now, most people will think about their apps and devices) is evolving rapidly and is reshaping the future of our life, numerous people still live in extreme poverty and die every second. The disgusting and dark side of human beings hangs over the human history from thousands of year ago till today.
Should I put my faith on looking for some spiritual utopia? Or should I swallow my dismay and take some actions? Here comes the third thought: it's reported that the gravitational waves have been detected for the second time in history and they are caused by the collisions of two black holes 1.4 billion light years away far from us. It takes a light 1.4 billion years to travel through the dark and mysterious universes to say a hi to the earth, as a species most of whom may live at most 100 years, what's the point of wars and disasters? They are merely the nature of Nature. We comes from nothing, and we will return to nothing.
But every night, when I fall asleep, I always dream about traveling billions of light years to say a hi to myself there.