Although I had left school against the advice
of my teachers,I had ,without telling anyone, tried to continue my studies in literature at evening class 。
It was a tirsome walk
from one end of the city to another and to
sit among grown-ups was uninteresting 。 I was the youngest in the class , so the friendship I knew at school was absent 。
I put up with
it for a short period 。 It was too long a
walk on cold winter's nights and it was hard
to put my heart into Shakespeare with wet
shoes and trousers 。
So I continued reading books and started writing poems at home 。
By chance , I won some prizes and awards for literature , A young woman from a TV company came to the college one day 。
She told me
that I had won a national Poetry award 。 I stared at her in astonishment and disbelief。 She wanted to make a short film about me , about
which I said , “ No , I couldn’t do that。
” Not that I had any real excuse 。 I was just frightened。 In the end she persuaded me that I
should do it the following day 。
So I did 。
They made a short film of me reading one of my poems and I became more interested in literature than ever 。 I wondered what I should do after this , and decided some
weeks later that I could not imagine myself
spending the test of my days working on machines 。
So one evening , I hesitatingly told my
parents that I wanted to return to school 。
They were greatly surprised and , I think , a little afraid but they did not try to persuade me not to 。
They wanted to know if I was sure , if I knew what it meant and whether I realized that if I gave up my job training 。 It
would be very difficult to get a good job 。
But nothing could stop me , and they asked about the matter no further。
。