It was a great time.

I made a serious mistake by trying to walk the “PM” path before becoming a good engineer, and now finally I am able to make things right. Finally I was able slow down and learn technical issues real seriously, covering the fine details behind each and every problem I encountered.

Just sit down, take a deep breath, and start to train myself into a hacker. It takes time, but I have plenty of time.

I learnt Ruby the hard way. I learnt Rails the hard way. I started to re-learn Objective-C and the art of iOS app development. I started to solve problems on projecteuler.net and share codes on Github.

I signed up online courses from Stanford: mlclass, aiclass and dbclass, and finished them all with good grades, simply because I regret did not learn them well at college.

I started to read in English most of the time, and I read a lot. After realizing the painful truth that most things written in Chinese (to be precise, Simplified Chinese) are garbages, I know I have to master English, perhaps some more other languages as well. Thank you my Kindle for being my beloved and trusted friend.

And now I am writing too.

Then I started to develop a taste in music. I was never really into music before, but thanks to Spotify and iTunes Store and a peaceful mind, I got to know a lot of bands and understand different genres. Now I cannot imagine my life without music, sometimes they are so good that they almost made me cry.

I even started to learn playing guitar.

I learnt to cook. Eating healthy and delicious foods in China could be either challenging or luxury. And I have to take care of myself.

I started to travel. More and more. And I am pretty sure there will be even more. While I would appreciate some great traveling companions, traveling alone is quite a rewarding experience.

I began to respect more about intellectual properties. Every app I use on my Mac and my iPhone is either genuine or free, and every e-book I read is either purchased from Kindle Store or The Pragmatic Bookshelf or somewhere else. It feels great. After all, they are all produced by programmers and writers like me, or the me I wanted so bad to become. And if you really try, it’s not difficult at all.

And I got used to making no compromises. Whenever I can, I would rather have nothing at all than having something that is merely okay. I would rather be alone than spending my time with people I don’t care. It’s rather difficult, but life is never easy, and the road less traveled almost always leads to some place more beautiful.

Mind control, brain wash, poor education, incredibly high living pressures, moral degradation, blind Patriotism and lack of faith are destroying the younger generation of this country, and thus bring about uncertainty to the future, or even pose danger on the entire human race. To fight back, I started to provide anti-Great-Firewall-of-China solutions and technical supports for my friends, something I thought I would never do because it would be categorized into “fixing the computer”.

And after I reclaimed my free will and completed my self-guided rebirth, I suddenly realized I started to know how to love.

It is just, different.

It’s the kind of human affection which drives you crazy, to do things you have never done before, and have the courage to face any difficulties. It can make you the happiest and the most miserable person in the world at the same time.

And I learnt how to hate.

I started to believe that integrity, kindness, generosity, freewill, bravery, audacity and all other sorts of human virtues are the foundamentals of modern human society. Without the right values, a person with greater power can do more harm than good.

And that’s why I don’t like most so-called successful people in China.

And that’s why I hate China. And that’s why I am leaving.

Everything that has a beginning has an end. Now, as time calls, hereby I formally announce that I am back to work, ending my gap year early since I have more important things to do.

It’s been a great journey, but It’s time to start a new adventure. It will be fun.

I think I am more than ready.

If my life is meant to be running at the speed of 180 MPH, so be it :)

Hell, I am back to work.

To infinity and beyond.