Born in the 1990s -- Ye Ronghua, 21
Print Edition
“My dream is to one day become an assistant engineer at Shanghai Metro. That would be really cool.”
Ye Ronghua, 21, has just started his work life as an inspector of digital signals at Shanghai Shentong Metro Co.
This summer, under scorching heat, his job is to visit Metro stations, near and far, as part of job training for new employees.
“My dream is to one day become an assistant engineer at Shanghai Metro,” he says. “That would be really cool.”
Ye would hardly have imagined that dream three years ago. At that time, he was obsessed with basketball and wanted to become a superstar like Yao Ming.
Ye, who is 1.95 meters tall, was singled out as a good basketball prospect at the age of 12. In the ensuing six years, he practiced more than three hours almost every day, finally achieving the status as a city-level player.
“It is really hard to be great in sports,” he admits. “There’s the endless training, which can be quite boring, and a lot of injuries.”
Ye finally dumped his sports dream in 2010, when he suffered a serve chest injury.
“The doctor told me I could no longer do intense exercise, which meant the end of my sports life,” he explains.
By that time, it was too late for Ye to switch to an academic path because he had neglected his studies for basketball.
“I’m not very good at studies anyway, and I hate to recite things, English in particular,” Ye says, still amazed that Jeremy Lin, a rising NBA player, managed to graduate from Harvard while pursing his sports talent.
Ye later enrolled at the Shanghai Xingjian College, a vocational school, and plans to attend night school to get certification as an assistant engineer.
He says a job as chief engineer is probably out of the question since it requires a higher degree of education.
However, Ye hasn’t severed all ties with basketball. His best friends are all players, and he works part-time as a basketball coach for children at a private educational institution.
“I don’t regret the time I spent on basketball.” Ye says. “But the reality is so different from the dream. Sometimes you can make big efforts, and it all comes to naught.”
He fondly remembers his childhood, when dreams were simply delicious food and new toys.
“Dreams are best when they are pure,” he says.
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