My family has a house in Guangzhou. When I was little, I spent a lot of holidays there, so it carried a lot of weight in my childhood. The most special thing there is a broken table that has been sitting there for more than a decade. My mum had kept on purpose.
I used to hate it, but my mind has changed as I grew up.
It is my greatest treasure, so to speak.
It has witnessed me grew up with my playmates.
I have two cousins who are a similar age as I am. We got along well with each another because we have been playing together since we were babies. We not only had many hobbies in common but also shared a lot of our experiences. We just had so many things to do and chat about. In fact, we seldom fought. “It is very weird,” my aunt said. “I expected lots of fights among you guys when you were all together, but nothing has happened.” She smiled while recalling the time when we were little.
Our first fight finally came when I was eight.
Every summer holiday, my cousins and I, along with my mum, would travel to Guangzhou and stay there for a few weeks.
One night, I was asked to go downstairs to buy something. I can still vividly remember that one of the items was soy sauce.
"Mommy, we can buy soy sauce tomorrow, it is not that important." "No, this is what you promised to do hours ago," my mum rejected my suggestion firmly. She took promises very seriously and she always empasized that honesty and being a man of his word were the key elements of being a trustworthy person.
I didn't actually understand what she meant but I didn't want her to get angry or frustrated, so I agreed with what she said. Adults around me loved to say things like this, "Your mum has a tough life, raising you as a single-parent, you have to be obedient and respect her." I couldn't understand that as well because my life had been better after she divorced from my dad, the drunkard. But I needed to act like I could understand what they said. Otherwise, they would continue talking to me for another 5 minutes.
I didn’t want to go out as it was about time to decide the order of who will take a bath first. It was a routine thing for our family since we only had one bathroom. The sequence was determined by lucky draw. We would write different numbers on each piece of paper. The one who got the smallest number would have the priority to use the bathroom. I took it very seriously because I thought it would tell me how lucky I had been that day. Most importantly, I could be the first one to use the bathroom. It was like choosing the winner of the day. It was a really exciting daily event for me.
Before heading out, I got a promise from my mum that the lucky draw would only be conducted after I got home.
Nevertheless, when I was back, I found that my two cousins had already come up with the order of taking a bath. What was more, they reached an agreement that I would be the last one in line. I was outraged as I considered this very unjust.
"I disagree!" I told them. "You can't do the lucky draw without me. It’s unfair!"
I tried to act as calmly as I could because I thought that I was mature. But in fact, my face had already turned red when I was speaking.
It was a clear sign of anger and impatience. I might have scared them because they looked at each other for a while after that.
My older cousin suddenly shouted out, "We have voted to make that decision.” He might have been inspired by the news program broadcasting on the television. The reporter was talking about the result of the election in the United States. He shouted even more loudly, "It is democratic and we had 2 out of 3 votes!"
"So it is a valid decision," the other cousin quickly added.
"No, it is unjust!" I could not think of what to say at the moment. I was completely at a loss for words. I stepped onto the dining table and kept yelling. My cousins started to panic as they considered my behaviour to be dangerous and asked me to calm down. Because I was thinking of revenge as well and my anger had escalated, I began to jump on the table. After a moment, my mum noticed what I was doing.
She warned me, "Stop that or you will get hurt!" But at that point, I was too angry and could not take any words or advice from her. I jumped even more vigorously.
The next second, the table broke from the middle as it could not take any more pressure. At that point, I fell on the floor. I neither felt pain nor shock. Fear was the only thing I experienced. I stopped yelling just as my mum wished but it did not end in a good way.
Surprisingly, my mum did not scold at me. She rushed to me and quickly checked whether I was hurt. Then, she pulled me up and repeated saying "Think twice before you do something stupid." From that day onwards, her words were imprinted on my brain. In hindsight, it was only a small issue in the beginning, the arguments and what followed were avoidable. I should have been more patient and even-tempered.
After the incident, the table was 'fixed'. Originally, it consisted of two parts, a wooden rectangular base and a layer of marble stone on top of it. The force I exerted broke the upper part of the rectangle and split the stone into half. To make sure I learnt a lesson from it, my mum simply bought another base and fixed the stones onto it using some nails. The new base was as costly as a new wooden dining table.
I hated it. I thought it was a mark of shame.
However, as time went by, my feelings changed. The table remains a bit humiliating to me but it is now a mark of how I've grown in my life..
Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American poet once said, "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." I believe making mistakes does not matter, what truly matters is whether you can learn something from it.