My Father: A Life of Meaning

Jul 2020

As I said about what Lego means in my life, I am a zealous Lego lover. I have a great interest in Lego and have an amazing collection of Lego. When I was younger, I use LEGO blocks to build something I saw or imagined. Nowadays, I am learning some software like Sketch-up with my father to explore more in the world of designing.

If we were asked to show our dream, many of us will give a vivid account, some will resort to a paintbrush, and however, I will definitely use Lego to build it out. I have been persistently building my ideal school with Lego ever since I went to primary school, dreaming about a larger playground, a brighter dining hall, and more common spaces for fun and interaction. I hope we can perceive the changes in seasons, the smell of nature instead of being confined to the classrooms. Inspired by my passion for building schools, my father, an architect, incorporates my ideas into his design of a new school in Zhejiang Province. When I finally see my dream come true, I feel the power of designing to make a change and decide to take it as my future career.

Speaking of my father, I think he is the guy who I admire the most, not only because he is a great father, or he encourages me to use Lego as a way to present my idea, but also his compassion and what had done to other instead of himself.

He is an architect, and quite an outstanding one. He used to win a lot of awards for his design. But I admire him not only because of his success in his career, but also his courage to fulfil his dream, and his commitment to social responsibility. He majors in civil engineering in university, but when he finds that his real interest in design, he works very hard to get admitted to postgraduate study with a famous tutor in China. It seems he never cease to try.

After he has graduated and works as a professional architect, he starts to think about the essence of design.

Besides his courage to make a change, and his persistence to fulfil his dream, I am deeply touched by most of his strong social responsibility. During the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, which was a devastating disaster that took many people’s lives and made so many people homeless and children unable to go to school. At that time he was entrusted with the task of rebuilding the disaster-stricken areas. At the risk of the aftershock, he stayed there for several months to help to build the new schools for the local students. Of course, the new buildings were anti-seismic. He used the wreckage of the old campus to build the walls in order to memorize the deceased and encourage the students to face up to the disaster.

I was shocked when I heard his experience from my dad, about how he put himself in the risk of the earthquake, and how he worked incessantly to help those people in need. I asked him why he chose to go even it was so risky, he told me about his fear, and how the social responsibility pushes him to assume the duty fearlessly. I would never forget what he told me, “When we left the world, what makes us feel fulfilled and worthy is not how much we have, but how much we give.”