History

我們的年代 --- 已成歷史 (農晴依) 因見有人回應﹐提到眷村生活﹐故剪貼此文﹐紀念我們很多人共有的童年經驗。 無意中逛到1974建中的網站，看到上述標題，好奇心驅使，點選下去，讀到原文及諸多回應，心有所感，附上也是北一女畢業生的….所寫的一篇感想，與同學分享。此文若作者或讀者覺得不適合此部落格，當立即取下，有緣人碰巧讀到就算有緣。
Somewhere I came across a pithy saying that goes like this, "Life could only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward." Histories the world over mostly consist of long stretches of blunders, connected by very brief interludes of brilliant feats. It often takes many dedicated historians years to look into the rearview mirror, trying to figure out why people did what they did during those critical, tumultuous times. It's even harder for ordinary folks (like myself) to rise up to an altitude high enough to survey the inter-connected historical terrains, to comprehend and to assess merits and demerits of a regime. On a personal level, we know life is essentially unfair. I belong to an ethnic group faced with harsh environments no more favorable than those faced by many Taiwanese-speaking friends. But to be fair with KMT government over the years when it was in power, at least it established a system that provided a fair opportunity of educations and a fair opportunity of examinations to open up a gateway through which many talented, upward-mobile poor kids were able to realize their potentials. My own background has done nothing to hinder me from climbing the rungs of education ladder to reach up, neither has it prevented me from passing prestigious national exams administered by the Examination Yuan. Well, my thought is that, there are 2 biggest rooms in this world. There is room for improvement, improvement of our ability to perceive, interpret, and understand things that are bigger than ourselves as an individual. And there is room for change, change for the better for the sake of all humanity.