“Childhood passions aren’t distractions—they’re the early whispers of the soul.”“童年的热爱，不是浪费时间，而是灵魂的启蒙。”

When I was little, I loved spending time playing with my neighbors or school friends. One of my greatest passions back then was collecting stickers. At school, exchanging sticker books became almost like a “social ritual.” During our short ten-minute breaks, we would quickly swap our sticker books and pick out our favorite stickers to trade. If someone liked one of my stickers but didn’t have anything I wanted, I would even “name a price” and sell it to her. That tiny act of buying and selling unexpectedly taught me the joy of making a deal. Looking back, maybe that was the first time I felt like a little entrepreneur—discovering how fun trading could be.

小时候，我最喜欢跟邻居或学校的朋友一起玩。我当时最热衷的一个兴趣，就是收集贴纸。在学校，交换贴纸簿几乎是一种“社交仪式”。短短的10分钟下课时间，我们会迅速交换贴纸簿，挑出想要的贴纸来交换。如果有同学喜欢我的贴纸，但她的贴纸簿里没有我喜欢的，我还会“开价”卖给她。这个小小的买卖过程，竟然让我体会到交易的乐趣。现在回想，那大概是我第一次感受到当“小小创业家”的成就感——原来买卖可以这么好玩！

Because my dad was always busy working, he tended to give me a bit more pocket money, perhaps out of a sense of compensation. To me, that money felt like an adventure passport. Every summer vacation brought me pure excitement because it meant two whole months of freedom. I spent nearly every day at Tom’s World arcade and the small theme park next to it. I was always playing Whac-A-Mole, riding the pirate ship, or dropping from the free-fall ride just to feel that rush of adrenaline. The atmosphere was filled with electronic game sounds, children’s laughter, and the tiny sense of achievement after winning a game.

因为爸爸工作很忙，也许是补偿心理，他常常给我比较多零用钱。对当时的我来说，零用钱就像是冒险的通行证。每到暑假我都超兴奋，因为那代表两个月的完全自由。我几乎天天报到汤姆熊游乐场，以及旁边的小型主题乐园。我不是疯狂打地鼠，就是坐上海盗船和自由落体，感受心跳加速的刺激。耳边充满了游戏机的电子音、小孩的欢笑声，还有每次赢得游戏后那种微小而满足的成就感。

I also enjoyed going alone to rent videotapes and then curling up at home watching Japanese cartoons and dramas. I had a little habit: once I started a show, I had to finish it in one go, or my heart felt unsettled. Because of that, I often stayed up all night—but knowing that I didn’t need to go to school the next day made everything feel deliciously liberating.

除了游乐场，我也很爱一个人去租录影带，回家窝着看日本卡通或日剧。我有个小习惯：只要开始追剧，就一定要一口气看完，不然心里不踏实。因此我经常熬夜到天亮，但想到隔天不用上学，心里就觉得特别自由，仿佛拥有全世界。

Looking back, my childhood free time was filled with boundless curiosity and passion. Whenever something interested me, I could devote myself to it for hours—sometimes repeating it dozens of times without ever getting bored. For a period of time, I was deeply obsessed with Western and Japanese music. I loved buying my favorite CDs and concert videotapes. My favorite boy band was Boyzone, and I watched their concert video more than forty times before I finally pressed the stop button.

回头看，我的童年空闲时光充满了无拘无束的探索与热情。只要遇到感兴趣的事情，我可以全心投入好几个小时，甚至重复做几十遍也不会腻。有段时间我深深迷上西洋和日本音乐，特别爱买CD和演唱会录影带。我最喜欢的男子团体是 Boyzone，他们的演唱会录影带我大概看了超过 40 次才舍得按暂停。

That love unexpectedly sparked my self-taught English journey. I would study the lyrics carefully, look up unfamiliar words with an electronic dictionary, and write them onto vocabulary cards I carried everywhere. I memorized them repeatedly on the bus to school. Without realizing it, I had collected quite a strong set of English vocabulary. When I found out that Boyzone was coming to Taipei for a concert, I almost jumped with excitement and begged my dad to let me go to Taipei for it. That concert not only let me meet my idols but also gave me my first-ever solo airplane experience—I was only seventeen.

也正是这份热爱，意外开启了我自学英文的旅程。我会研究歌词，用电子词典查生字，再抄到单字卡上，带着上学路上反覆背诵。在不知不觉中，我累积了一大堆英文单字。有一次知道 Boyzone 要来台北开演唱会，我兴奋到差点跳起来，立刻央求爸爸让我去台北。那次演唱会不只让我见到偶像，也让我第一次独自搭飞机——当时我才 17 岁。

Now, when I look back, those seemingly ordinary childhood moments were actually full of infinite possibilities. Every small passion and every little discovery became a shining fragment on the path of my growth.

现在回想，那些看似平凡的童年时光，其实充满了无限可能。每一个小小的兴趣、每一次探索，都是我成长路上闪闪发亮的珍贵片段。

我的网站：flywithlily.com