ABOUT

It was just another school day in junior high. The teacher asked us to fill the blackboard with our dreams. We didn’t take it seriously, of course. We were all pouring out our wildest dreams: “Travel the world”; “Become an astronaut”; “Be a scientist”…

I remember writing on the top left corner of the blackboard with a pink chalk: I wish to see the Northern Lights one day. I was thirteen. That was the most distant and mysterious thing I could think of.

But perhaps dreams are never too far. In March 2023, I got the opportunity to go on a lapland adventure with around 60 international students as a volunteer group leader. It was magical, inspiring, and emotional. So I wrote:

A faraway land dressed in white,
Where myths and fairy tales come alive.
Glittering in silence,
On the horizon snow meets the sky.
Are those clouds or mountain tops?
Oh my, oh my!
In the song of Sámi we drove on,
My heart lingers on the emerald sky, the northern lights.

—— Shixuan