Shortcut (This time in English)

Driving from Dunedin toward north for about 4 hours, you will reach Christchurch. It's the biggest city in South Island, there are more restaurants and bars there, and the shopping is certainly better. This 4 hours of drive, about the same distance from Taipei to Kaohsiung, is something I used to do a lot: sometimes to take friends to the airport, sometimes to pay a visit to a long lost friend, and sometimes, just to feel like I am in a different city, that my life isn't necessarily the same day after day.

Having driven so many times back and forth on state highway one, I can almost memorize this route by heart. "There is a 65km turn to the right, followed by another 55km left turn, and then there is another 20 minutes driving until I hit the ocean and the beach scene. Not far away, there is a railway crossing...".

I guess because I became so familiar with this route, I never pay much attention to it anymore. This 4 hours roadtrip is just a necessary evil to reach my destination. I even sometimes choose to drive at night, when it is all dark and no other cars around, hoping to get to my destination a little faster.

Until this one time, when I was on a South Island tour with a friend, I found that one part of the state highway one was blocked for some unknown reasons. The highway marshal kindly directed us to a smaller country road which I have never been before. "No matter, we have plenty of time" I said to my friend, and followed the cars in front of me to this country road.

And what a beautiful detour that was! In fact, even though I have stayed in New Zealand for so many years, the beauty unveiled in front of me still easily took my breathe away. On the right side of the car, you can see the ocean, so blue it looked unreal, the country road goes up and down on the endless fields of green, separated by the fences and little farm houses, and herds of sheep and cows were just there chewing the grass or following each other around. The cars in front of us moved slowly, which could make our planned 4 hours trip into a 6 hours one, but I wasn't frustrated. The unexpected, yet beautiful scenery, became one of the highlights of that entire trip.

Then I thought of a movie I watched a while ago called "Click", the main character was an architect who just found this amazing remote control of life. In order to reach his goal sooner, he chose to fast-forward his life to the day he became so rich and successful. He thought he had it all, and then he realized some of the most important things are missing: watching his kids growing up, spending time with the loving wife, and the days when his dad is still around.

The likeliness between the 4 hours road trip and this movie suddenly hits me. We too, have all sorts of plans in life, whether it is arranged by ourselves or the others. When to get married, when to have kids, when to buy that first property, and when to retire, all carefully scheduled like a dotted map. We set all sorts of goals and milestones: "I want to get married by 30", "I want to have an annual income of a million dollars by 30", "I want to retire by 30"... and became so obsessed with these goals, titles, and achievements, as if they are the only things that matter in life. Our society placed so much emphasis on these goals, that no one really cares about what happened in between anymore, not even ourselves. We hold our own life's remote control, searching for that fast-forward button, or at least a button which makes us numb. After all, if we don't feel a thing, time will pass us by faster. Just like driving in that long, dark highway, we reach our destination without even realizing it.

But if life is a journey started with the day we were born, then I can only assume this journey ends on the day we die. So what is the rush? I suppose it is a good thing to focus on the goals, but what's so interesting with a life that can only be defined by a few milestones? And how boring a life will be when it can only be described by the current value of share holdings or the number of zeros in the bank accounts? I remember having conversations with some of the most interesting people I met, and they all summarize their "achievements" in 2 or 3 short sentences! I also noticed the topics that really gets them excited are those unexpected ones... may those be the outrageous experiences during a trip, or an untold love story.

I started to think, maybe a detour on our already planned life, an unexpected turn, is not necessarily a bad thing. It may take us longer to reach our goal, but so what? It can also lead us to a whole new world beyond our wildest imagination, and bring our attention to the things (or people) we often ignore. What sounds like more like a waste of time, anyway? Driving in the dark for 4 hours, or driving in a breathtakingly beautiful scenery for 6?

These days, every time I drove to this same corner, I would smile.

Then, I would flash my indicator lights, and make that right turn.

This is not a shortcut, I know.

But a detour like this, has made my life less predictable, and therefore much, much more interesting.

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1. 這篇完全只是在做英文寫作練習而已....

2. 不過後來貼上來之後, 因為每次進來看到英文太多, 眼睛都很痛(是的, 就算是自己寫的, 英文還是英文, 看久了還是會頭昏腦脹的 -_-), 所以又偷偷藏起來...

3. 但是後來藏起來之後, 又有人嘟嚷著說想要看...

4. 所以我又把他貼出來, 不過時間掉轉了一下, 所以一進來還是看到中文.. 頭就不會那麼昏了...

5. 我好聰明啊 (大心)

6. 我好囉唆啊 (囧)

7. 我好三八啊 (怒)

(我覺得我還是閉嘴比較好, 沉默是金, 沉默是金啊...)