Log #6

Book: When Breath Becomes Air

Author: Paul Kalanithi

    I have finished two thirds of this book, most of the time I could feel the atmosphere of sorrow while reading, since what the author talked about were all surrounded by “death.” What is DEATH then? Is it dead to live a life of muddle along without any aim? Or is it alive to stay in bed with intubation for the rest of the life? What makes people feel death so frightful but also so meaningful at the same time?

    DREAM, I would say, death able us to have the courage to pursue our dreams.

Paul, the well-respected neurosurgeon who used to have bright future and successful career until he was diagnosed to have lung cancer, as a doctor he knew that the survival rate is low, however he didn’t give up on his dream to be a writer, this is why I got the chance to read this book. To me, “dream” is an important element in my life, but the path to achieve dreams is never easy.

    I started to pursue my dream when I was in vocational high school. I studied advertisement design just because I LOVE to draw, hoping that I would become a graphic designer someday, though deeply in my heart I knew what I really wanted to be is an artist, however we need to be practical sometimes so as to have a better quality of life in the future. Dream changed because of what we had seen, what we had heard and what we had learned. I studied art, fashion and design history, which caused new dreams appeared in my mind that I would like to become a fashion magazine editor or an interior designer. At the time in high school, I knew interior designer is more suitable for me since I was already in the field of design. I studied hard, everything went smoothly, I was the beloved student among teachers, I entered Department of Architecture in NTUST, I thought my future will be as bright as high school life until I sank into serious depression as a sophomore.

    Lack of understanding, interior and architecture design is totally different from my thought, I gave up in the field of  design, I felt like a walking dead without hope, going to school everyday to attend courses that I wasn't interest at all. Until I started to pick up my interest again, which is drawing and read the history of art and fashion, and it was also the time that I decided to transform my major to foreign language. The other dream I had in high school came up my mind again, which is to be a fashion magazine editor. The more I learned in literature, in history, in writing, the more interest I felt. It seems that my life started to sparkle again, and finally as a senior I am able to pursue my true dream.