It is more than ten miles away from home to the junior high school campus. I walked this road for three years before finally entering the county town.
I just entered junior high school, and my riding skills are not yet mature. I only started learning in the second semester of fifth grade. There were no smooth roads in the mountainous areas. Every time I learned to drive, I would get bruised and bruised.
I am short, and I always ride a big-wheeled bicycle. My mother said that every time she picked me up when I came home, she only saw the bicycle moving slowly and could not see me at all.
The road was still a dirt road at that time. Sunny days are fine, but as soon as it rains, the roads are slippery and muddy, and the wheels often get stuck in the mud, so you have to push them.
I have little strength. Once when I came home after it had just rained, I had to push and carry the cart for a while. When I got home, I burst into tears from exhaustion.
You will never imagine the suffering of students.
It snowed another time, and most of the ten-mile journey was downhill. I stumbled all the way, and I didn't look like a human being when I arrived at school.
The most profound memory I have is when I was halfway through the ride. Suddenly there was a strong wind and heavy rain, and my vision suddenly became blurry.
We were halfway on the road again. There was no village in front of us and there was no shelter from the rain, so we had to brave the rain.
That was the time when a female classmate of mine collided with a tractor pulling sand because she could not see the situation clearly. The tractor fell into a deep pit on the roadside to avoid it, and the sand suddenly buried the driver deeply.
It was raining heavily at that time, and we were all so scared that we shouted and cried and hurried to find someone. After hearing this, many adults came over and dug sand with shovels. But in the end the driver died.
This incident had such an impact on me that every time I walked there, my scalp would tingle.
When I was in the third grade of junior high school, there was a preliminary exam. I got up very early, the sky was still foggy, and I could only feel my way forward while riding the bike.
Halfway through, the car hit a stone in the middle of the road, and I was thrown off the car. When I rode the bike again, I saw that the chain had fallen off.
fumbled around and finally reinstalled it, then left in a hurry.
The first test was Chinese language. I was so nervous at the time. After the test and handing in the paper, I discovered that the paper was covered with black oil from the chain. I also discovered that there was a crack on my palm and it became painful.
But I did very well in that exam.
Sometimes when I meet cyclists or drivers on the road, I feel envious. When will I no longer have to suffer from cycling?
After that, I went to the county town to study. I rode for more than an hour at a time and went back and forth for three years. But after all, I was getting older, and the hardships I suffered on the road were no longer a problem.
Back then, many students failed to persist in this path of study. There were 43 people in our primary school, and only 6 of them were able to pass the exam.
Most of them went out to work early and experienced more hardships in life than me!
Now this road has long been turned into a paint road, and the road surface is clean and tidy. Children have school buses to go to school, and they no longer have to worry about wind and rain.
Suffering is a school, just like this road, it sharpens my character and always reminds me that life is not smooth sailing, only hard work will yield rewards, and struggle will lead to success!
(written at six o'clock in the morning on July 8, 2022)
