- Me, Bauhinia
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Once upon a time, actually not that long ago, I was a first year university student at City University. Everyone called it Shitty U, I wasn’t too clear what made that distinction but I bet it was because it wasn’t one of the best academic universities in Hong Kong. And people were obsessed with that stuff, grades, academics, salaries, status, etc. That’s how humans worked. Getting skills and levelling up. Up and up. I didn’t want to go to HKU frankly, because the effect of moral blame for not trying your best academically would be too overwhelming. I was a better than average student though, throughout my education, I tried my best to be better than average, never the top, never the bottom. I was best at being average. Once my teacher said, I was such a ma farn noisy body, I would grow up to be an activist and cause nuisance to everyone. I didn’t want to prove her correct, so I tried to be polite and changed myself to fit in with the system in every way I could. I even kept a diary to make sure my thoughts were in line with what the average person thought.
I worked part-time in a milk tea shop. It was for training myself, to become an adult, and to fit in with the world where economy reigned above all. To turn myself into an economic entity. The apron had the logo of the shop on it, and the B was faded from the Beau Tea. The customers were really stupid and were really smug about being able to order tea like a so called “pro”. They would come in, their eyes on the top of their forehead, and placed orders, thinking they were the boss. They didn’t realise they were crazy people with smug requirements on milk tea.
“Oh! Can I have one original matcha milk tea at 46% sweetness, extra crystal boba pearls, coconut pudding jellies, without ice, substitute milk with half skimmed milk and half almond milk, extra cheese roasted cream on top.”
They would say this all very quickly like a mantra. Anyway you get the idea. Crazy people.
I was there to build character. The money wasn’t enough to cover school fees, but made for some good spare money. I tried to make myself money savvy, that way I could appear more mature than my peers and be like part of the crowd again. My colleague at the milk tea shop approved of it. And I desperately needed approval.
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