Dreams 夢想
Recently the A level results were released in the UK. For those who don’t know A Levels stands for Advanced Level exams and are public exams taken by students in the UK to enter university. Often the A level results can make or break one’s dreams. 最近英國高考 A level 放榜。這是英國入大學的公開試，成績可能會決定一個人可否達成人生夢想。
What about my own dream? To be honest, I don’t think I ever had one. I remember the day many years ago when I received my A level results. My first choice was to go to The University of Kent to read Industrial Relations, or was it International Relations? I can’t remember, either way it was something relations as it sounded cool. Sadly, I didn’t make the grade in one of the exams so didn’t get in. My second to fifth choices were subjects that I didn’t really fancy studying as I recall I hadn’t paid much attention at the selection during the application round. 那我自己夢想又如何? 回想很多年前，我自己也經過這一天。記得當年我第一自願是去 University of Kent 修讀 Industrial Relations，還是 International Relations ?我也記不清楚，反而就是不知甚麼 relations, 聽起來很棒。結果收到成績單(信)時，有一科考得比想像中沒那麼理想，吃閉門羹。我記得入不到第一自願大學，之後第二至五自願其實也是亂選，所以興趣也不大。
In those days, the internet wasn’t as developed, and there was no online central clearing system. So I dug out the university application handbook and started calling the universities to see who had course vacancies that I was interested in and was willing to take me on. Anyway, I started from A, got to E, found a place to read Sociology and Social Policy which I thought sounded interested and accepted the offer over the phone. 那個年代還未流行互聯網，更沒有中央後補派位系統，於是我就拿著當時的全英大學手冊，從 A 開始打電話到每一家大學，訊問甚麼科目還有學位願意收我 而我又有興趣讀。打到 E大學，Sociology and Social Policy聽起來不錯，於是就這樣決定吧(我都說過我沒甚麼夢想)。
To be honest, I had no idea what the course was about, and after studying sociology for a year, I thought it was rather boring. Luckily, us social studies students all took the same common subjects in the first year so at the end of the first year I switched courses to Policy Making & Administration. Why? Well I thought the course name sounded really grand. But more importantly, the course was run by our Government Department, and in those days, our Government department along with Cambridge University were two of the best in UK. 其實當時我也不知道Sociology是甚麼，入到大學後才認識多一點，結果又覺得社會學好像比較沉悶。我們第一年社會系學生跟其他文科例如經濟，財務，政治，法律學生都是修共同科目，所以讀完第一年，我就決定轉課，修讀 Policy Making & Adminstration。聽起來很嚇人吧！這科目是屬於政治系，選它除了因為一個非常嚇人的科目名稱(經過一年我還是沒夢想!)，但主要原因是因為大學的政治系當時在英國非常有名，跟劍橋大學是名列前茅。
After I graduated, I still had no dream, or rather I don’t think I ever actively sought out my dream. I got a job, started working, switched jobs, continued to work and life continued. Life was fair with me, I never had to worry much, and always found time to go away on holidays. 一直到大學畢業時，我都還未找到我的夢想，嚴格來說我從來都沒有刻意去找。畢業，工作，轉工，繼續工作，又轉工，多年來都是如此。雖然未有過我所為的夢想生活(是甚麼?)，但我還是覺得生命待我不錯。工作從來都不用過行屍體肉的日子，有假期就出門去旅遊，很不開心。
Today, I am very fortunate to be able to live the lifestyle I want. Maybe I found my dream without realising it? 到現在我可以很幸運過一些優哉游哉的日子，不用擔心生活， 莫非原來早以找到夢想也不知?
