The Soil in the Garden

by Tina Zhang, Nicolas Navarro, and Hannah Warren

If no one pays attention to the soil, then what about the people in SSIS that work hard daily just to have us walk past them not even aware of their existence?

You go to the library. You need to get a book for English class, because it’s Monday. On Monday, you need a book. It’s Independent Reading and you left your book at home. You go to the back of the library, with the fiction section. You pick a book you've read before. Nothing new. You go up to the desk to check it out. You're in a rush so you don't look at what's happening. You rush out with the book in your hand.

You missed something there. Yeah. You missed something. Look down at your hand. There's a book there, right? You just took that book out of the library, right? So shouldn't you have checked it out? I know, of COURSE you checked it out. The lady at the desk checked it out for you. So, do you know who she is?

Her name is Ma, Ying Yun, but you may know her as Grace. 27 years ago, she was born right in Suzhou. She likes being in Suzhou because it is beautiful. She is a single child, like most Chinese people her age.

When she was a child, she played in a playground near to her house every day. She didn't like the time when she forgot to give in her homework. "The teachers got really mad", she tells us. She got to school each morning by bike. It took her half an hour. She didn't like school when she was younger, yet she aspired to become a teacher. Her favourite subject was history.

An obstacle she faced after university was that it was difficult to find a job, but she worked very hard and tried to find a job she liked.

Now, she works in the library. She leaves for work in the morning at 8:00 am and returns home at 5:00 pm. She doesn't like the canteen food, but then, who does? She has been working at SSIS for two and a half years.

She likes listening to soft music and Xiao Hu Dui. On TV, she watches the news, sports, and fashion shows. She believes that she is quite normal. She also likes playing badminton. She thinks her life is quite good.

She aspires to learn Japanese. If she had her own private airplane, she would travel around the world, not missing anything, but she would travel to Mongolia first.

Her advice to SSIS students is to be more open. Get in touch more with the local students and learn more about the Chinese culture, because China is the best place to do so. China, in her opinion, has a long and very interesting history.

Next time you're in the library, say hi to Grace. Everyone appreciates a nice hello.

You go back to the flower garden. You still smell the beautiful flowers and listen to the birds chirp, but you also notice the soil that helped these flowers to grow.

View or download the colorful PDF version of Grace's profile: