A friend recently added a blog entry named "innocence", which sgined for the loss of innocent time after moving into the professional world. It touched me somehow and my first reaction was to post a reply under it. But then I realize that there are too many thoughts and a response simply is not enough to include all. So here comes this little article, just to say something about the topic before I forget and to kill some time in the hotel afternoon.

 

Friend's article said people have lost contacts after school. Even though there are occasional chattings on MSN or offline meeting, short and hurry converstation just make the distance farther. People have changed a lot, they become more anxious and easier to get irritated, said the friend. There are meetings every day but the center is always on business. Even though in private gathering, people come with purpose. Between the lines, innocence is missed.

 

Having just come back to China for less than a month, I share the same feeling: every one is busy, friends drift away, peace can hardly be found in city life. In a word, there is no room for innocence. It is sad. In innocent time, life is much simple. Back in school all we should worry about is the date for our next party. There was no complex interest conflict and sophisticated personal relationship. However, even though we all wish the wonderful life lasts for ever, should we take this for granted? I don't think so.

 

Moving from the ivory tower to the real world is a big step. It doesn't just mean the change of your title. There are more responsibilities and concern that one should take on while getting into the real world. Among these responsiblities, the primary one is to have a better life for himself/herself and his/her family. For this goal, we have to take things seriously as  every one is too busy that they can not afford to have their time wasted. For this goal, we need to enlarge our nextwork and know more people. We sacrifice every spare minute in our life just to make it a little closer to our goal. Meanwhile, old friends might drift away as they have their own life and it might not be the same or anywhere closer to yours.

 

Nobody feels like this. But this is the rule. Then should we all be pessimistic about it? I say no. As I always believe that we have control over our own life. The rules can be very tough, the world can be easy to get irritated and friends can go far. But it is always up to you to make te choice for your own life, and it is up to you decide what to change and where to go.

 

Maybe innonce is no longer there. No matter how wonderful it is, it is gone from your life when moving into the real world. And if it is still somewhere in your mind, you probably should just let go. As it is the essential cost of growing up. The absence of innocence, for me is not equal to the loss of trust and good will, but is to become stronger in your heart. Letting go innocence is not letting go the direction of life. Quite the opposite, you pick up more realistic goal by gving up innocence and growing up.Then you might find more power to make your own decision.

 

Finally, I want to play a little with economics by applying the sale-cost equation to my "growing up" theory: Benefit of growing up = Total outcome of growing up - cost of growing up. The conclusion is: since innocence makes part of the cost of growing up, so the less the innocence is, the more benefit you can have.