週末在《追新聞》看到來自香港的女會計師，在英國三年間花了4,620小時實習，重新獲取會計師資格的故事，很受鼓舞。我自己來了溫哥華兩年，也很努力地拓展事業，因我深信對我而言，讓自己更優秀是最好的抗爭。
我在下面記敘最近一週是怎麼過的：
One week this summer I didn’t sleep for three nights.
Originally, I was expecting to go without sleep for one night only. To slip a three-hour oral surgery into my busy teaching schedule, I came up with the following plan: Teach seven students back to back 12 – 7 am on Wednesday (I work these hours because my students are in a different time zone), then head off to the dental clinic to undergo sedation and extensive work on my gums and teeth from 8:30am – 11:30am, then come back home and rest till 12 am the next day to teach again.
Unfortunately, during my operation, something called the surgical guide broke. “I need you to come in two days later for another three-hour surgery,” were the first words my dentist spoke to me when I woke up from those sleep drugs. So, there was no option but to slip in another three-hour dental appointment. This time round, I taught from 1 – 5 am, napped for two hours, then went to the clinic at 8 am. I came back home at 12 pm.12 hours later I had six students to teach. The next day, I taught seven.
Before the week was over, an important business contact suddenly told me he was going to have a half-day stopover in Vancouver the next morning. To make it to that meeting, I taught non-stop from 12 – 7 am, then rushed to the airport. We ended up chatting for five hours.
I’ve recounted that hectic week at length because it can demonstrate the one quality people meeting me for the first time would probably not suspect in me. Physically small-boned, I project an air of fragility; mentally, in contrast, I am very tough. Of course I could have cancelled classes and just let myself rest after the surgeries. But I know as a Hong Kong writer living in exile, I have a hard road ahead of me – navigating the twin challenges of writing and earning an income being one of them – and I wanted to see how far I could stretch my limits.
It did turn out that I had over-exerted myself that week, for it took me over a month to recover my strength. I didn’t regret putting my capacity for work to such a severe test, though, for it is only through trial and error that I will come to discover what I’m capable of.
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
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