A Peek Into the Lives of Those Around Us

by Chong Hao Goh, Kevin Toyloy, and Lifan Xu

Sun Long Zhen (孙龙珍) was born as a single child and raised in Suzhou, China. She is married and has a daughter, age 31, who is currently working as a secretary. Her husband, on the other hand, is a freelance worker, and changes professions according to his heart’s desire.

She entered the education system sometime around the Cultural Revolution. As a result, her education was heavily compromised. That coupled up with the fact that she didn’t work hard enough meant that she did not reach her life’s aspiration, which was to become a doctor.

After graduating from school, she started her own textile company. However, due to some economical factors, she was forced to close it down and find other work. For a short while, she worked as a kindergarten ayi. One day eight years ago, whilst she was reading the newspaper, she stumbled upon an ad that had been placed there by Suzhou Singapore International School. Because of her background as a kindergarten ayi, she took up the job, and ever since has been working for the school.

On weekdays, she travels two hours by bus to get to work. She even has to come in and work when we are on vacation. This means that she has to wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning. She has no fixed job description; on some days, she can be found helping out in the admissions office, or photocopying administrative documents; on others, she can be found in the kindergarten/nursery area, looking after the small children. This, along with a thirty-minute lunch break, which she thinks is much too short, makes her workdays busy.

She enjoys swimming, reading, and traveling. To this date, the farthest place she has visited is Yellow Mountain. If she stumbled upon an unlimited source of cash, she would donate part of it to areas affected by natural disasters and spend the rest of it to enrich her own life, along with traveling around the world. Despite her love for swimming, she is not allowed to swim in our school pool.

She feels that the environment at school is pretty good. However, she is saddened by how people have changed now. When she was young, people were open and warm. However, they are now cold and secluded, only talking within their group of friends. Sometimes she feels like she lives in a totally different world from the students. The exception is in the kindergarten department, where the children are very naïve and simple.

Whilst she is content with her job now, she sometimes tires of it, and wishes that she could do something more appropriate to her strengths and liking. Her main regret in life is the fact that she didn’t study hard enough when she was a child. If she had the chance, she would definitely go back in time and work harder so as to get a better future, as she feels that her current life is too average. She hopes that students will learn from her mistakes, and not follow the same path that she did. In addition to that, she also advises students to respect and interact with each other, as she feels that the world is too cold and indifferent, which is a complete opposite of what she remembers as a child.