Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy

Finally Fall in Love with E-mail

One of my friends who have been living in the US for years surprised and praised me for writing him emails. In fact, it’s more convenient and easy to keep in contact with each other through emails. Even my twin sister, who immigrated to South Africa, with the help of her son, contacts me with e-mails. We asked for each other’s current situations and send messages to each other. Through the communication, my nephew wrote that "Aunt Chiong Shia, you can really catching up with the times and know how to write emails. You are awesome! My mom doesn’t even know how to use such stuff." Compliments from my friend and nephew make me very happy. For an elder lady such as me, when did I start to learn to use the Internet, a modern technology that develops beyond borders?

Four years ago, I received a letter from my friend in the US. What she wrote was simple, mainly concerning about the recovery of my feet after the car accident. Yet at the end, she wrote, "Chiong Shia, you should learn how to use computer so that we can send e-mails to each other. Nowadays people seldom write letters. This form of communication wastes too much time and money! You can also write e-mails on computer anytime, and the mails can be delivered and received anytime. You should follow the trend!" I was sad after reading my friend’s words on the card, and felt like I would be outdated if I did not know how to use email, and soon be eliminated in this high-tech world. Thus, I decided that I need to learn how to use computer, I could not be seen as an outdated person from my friends.

I didn’t have much time to learn computer because I was still working full time back then. I could recall that a nearby community university was recruiting students who wanted to learn to use computers. However, I was not fond of taking those courses. Later, I found out that almost all brothers and sisters in Tai Ji Men were capable of using computers, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn such skill from them. It was surprising that they were all willing to teach me without any conditions. Since then I have started a learning journey full of love, yet full fears and difficulties. With only graduating from elementary school, I barely recognized the 26 English alphabets, not to mention the location of each Chinese phonetic symbol on the key board. I started to wonder how much time I needed to get used to all of these, to be familiar with them would take me lot of efforts.

I began learning to use computers when I was 58 years old. At first, fellow sisters and brothers taught me how to turn on and off a computer. Then they would set blank columns for me to start learning typing. It was novel for an aged person like me to type in computers. I worked very hard to practice, but due to my old age, my reaction and sensibility were not good. Sometimes, I could only type few words in one night, and those words even suddenly disappeared when I was typing. Later, I realized that I pressed the wrong button. If I didn’t save the file, I had to start it all overall again, which made me feel frustrated and depressed. I almost wanted to give up and quit learning it. Once when a same thing happened again, it occurred to me what my Shifu, Dr. Hong Tao-Tze, told me, "Whatever you are doing, if you fail, do it again. If you continue to fail, do it one more time. Don’t be discouraged. Practice makes perfect. Everything is difficult at the beginning." What Shifu’s said were phenomenal, and that I never gave up learning using computer. Day by day, I practiced once when I had leisure time. With fellow brothers and sisters’ assistances, I could finally type a whole article by myself! Although typing an article was still time-consuming, I think it’s worth it! I was very delighted! This was my first step, but it was also a break-through and improvement in my life!

With further assistance from a fellow sister later on, I set up my own e-mail account. I called my friend in the US, in an exciting way, and told her happily that I knew how to use computer! Ever since then, we have been keeping in touch with each other through exchanges of emails, I was also surprised that I actually have interest in such stuff. Through using computer, I can type and share my reflections on practicing qigong word by word. In the past, I finished the sharing by writing it on papers, and then asked fellow sisters or my daughter to type it on the computers. Now I can use my ten fingers to type the Chinese phonetic symbols on keyboards smoothly, and move the tiny lovely mouse to complete my articles. I enjoy the feelings of achievement very much.

For many years in Tai Ji Men, Shifu tirelessly leads us to discover the strength of our hearts. No matter how advanced the technology is, we should always start from our hearts. Thus, I remember Shifu’s reminders all the time, and express all of my good kinds on every word. I find my fingers on the keyboard becoming more and more energetic and lovely. I’d like to show appreciation to Shifu, who teaches me Tai Ji Men Qigong that keeps me healthy, both physically and mentally. Moreover, he also offers different learning opportunities to me, and I have so many good fellow brothers and sisters who are willing to teach me selflessly, together making me full of motivations and perseverance. I also want to be thankful for my friend’s encouragement, pushing me to try bravely, and finally fall in love with e-mails. I won’t be teased by my friends for falling behind the fashion anymore!