Mind the Gap: If you had three wishes, what would you do with them?
Each week, we present the same question to three people from three very different generations. This week...
Eunice Yip, 17, Pooi To Middle School
I would definitely use two out of the three wishes immediately. I’d like to use one of them on my grades (I’m a typical Hong Kong student) and one on irrelevant-but-important stuff.
I would wish for a full score on my public exam results so I could get into university to study my favourite subject(s); and I’d wish to have unlimited money. It sounds greedy but it’s needed in Hong Kong. Everything is pretty expensive here. Without money, I don’t think I could survive for very long and still do all the things I like. With an unlimited supply of money, I could buy all the things I’ve always wanted. Imagine that – all the books, the gadgets, and the cosmetics.
I would keep my last wish and use it when I really needed to. You never know what is coming around the corner. If I were being robbed or kidnapped, then I would be able to wish myself out of danger. I could even use it to save someone else!
What would you do if you were invisible for a day?
Celeste Yu, 50, housewife
I would wish for the answer to Hong Kong’s ageing population problem, and that a safe environment for elderly people could be created. They could relax and rest without worrying about anything. I would also wish to be the sort of volunteer that can help the world’s needy. Finally, I would also wish for my children to grow up to be healthy, happy, compassionate, and empathetic adults.
My kids have yet to reach the stage where they are no longer dependent on me, so I’m not ready to concentrate on making any of these wishes a reality yet.
Whether it’s voluntary service or serving the community through a job, I think my wishes (especially the first two) require me to devote my attention wholeheartedly to the needy and the disadvantaged. It’s an ambitious goal.
I hope, one day, I will be able to make these wishes a reality. I don’t want to let my dreams stay just dreams. All I can do right now is wait and see if this is something that I can achieve on my own, or if it needs others to help me.
Who knows – maybe my children, when they are older, can help me make my wishes come true!
Mind the Gap: If you could learn one new skill, what skill would you learn and why?
William Hendricks, 72, part-time tutor
I’d wish the food that I like to eat would be healthier for me than dishes that are healthy but don’t taste nice. Wouldn’t it be great if ice cream, fries, crisps, hamburgers, chocolate, and Coke, for example, had the same nutritional value as asparagus, sea cucumber, bitter melon, oatmeal, or pomegranate juice? It just seems cruel that bitter or sour things are somehow better for you than yummy snacks.
Secondly, I’d wish to be fluent in Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin. I do a lot of travelling and have visited more than 50 countries, but communication is often a problem when you have to rely on English almost exclusively. If I was fluent in these three languages as well as English, it would open
up a whole new level of connection with maybe 80 per cent of the world’s population.
Thirdly, I would wish I was better at remembering people’s names and relevant things about them. Sadly, even if I care about the person I am talking to and I try to remember information about them, things like their name and little details they tell me will all too often be forgotten, or vanish into thin air.