Before I Became Myself

In high school, he stood in the sunlight and smiled at her.

“You don’t have to become better to deserve love. You deserve it just as you are.”

She thought back to those days: he carried her water, stood up for her, and held her whole world together.

In her heart, Shen Yijian was a light.

Years later, she sat in a bar on a New York street as snow fell softly.

“Do you remember the hardest times back in school?” Liu Zhaoyan asked with a smile.

“Of course. I was mocked and ostracized. Even when I spoke English, people laughed at me.”

“How did you make it through?”

“Because once, a boy told me: You don’t need other people to look up to you. Just don’t look down on yourself.”

“And after that?”

“Later, I was standing alone on the other side of the ocean, crying so hard I could barely breathe. I was almost ready to give up.”

“Then?”

“Then I thought of him. I wiped away my tears and kept living.”

Once, she had fought with all her might to get closer to the light.

Eventually, she understood:

Some lights are there to guide you out of the darkness,

not to stay by your side until the end.

Theme: This is not a story about changing for love, but a journey of waking up because of love. The person who saved her did not stay with her to the end, but gave her the strength to keep going.