Don't marry a teacher

One day, when I scrolled short videos on social media, I stumbled upon a video. It portrays a Chinese grandpa that is teaching his granddaughter. Grandpa is already old. He has white hair. His age might be around 70-80 years old while his granddaughter might be 12-14 years old. Grandpa looked calm and wise. He said to his granddaughter that if she wants to have a happy marriage, don't marry a teacher. He didn't explain why then continued with other advice. I froze and confused. My reaction was What?!? Why??? Does that mean I won't be a good partner in romantic relationship? Geez, I felt offended. Fyi, I work as an educator, and I have spent half my life teaching.

I couldn't believe what grandpa said. I was thinking for a while trying to find the answer. It still didn't make sense for me, so I read comments section and found the reason.

Fear of darkness

When I was six years old, I remember power blackouts often happened in my neighborhood. It doesn't bother me at all if it happened at day light. But at night, where there's no light, it's a horror for me. When that happened, I became anxious, scared, cried, screamed and called my mom. She would find me and try to calm me down. I would run to her then stick with her wherever she went. I held onto her, so we didn't get separated.

As I grow up, I start to think about what I'm afraid of when I'm in the darkness.

Tuxedo cat

Yesterday I went to the cemetery with my family. It was my mother's death anniversary as well as the need to extend the permit to use the cemetery. I entered the public cemetery office then sat down, waiting for the call. The office was quiet and I was the only one waiting. About two meters from where I was sitting, I saw a tuxedo cat on the floor licking its body. It looks like a street cat.

The cat didn't see me and walked away. After a few minutes, it turned out the cat hadn't really left. It walked past me, sat down by my feet and looked up at me. I said to it in my heart, why you here? I don't have any food. We made eye contact. I could clearly see its eyes deeply. I felt like it wanted me to bring it home. Crossed in my mind it was pretty. I thought it's a female cat. It didn't take long for it to jump onto the sofa bench and take the seat right next to me. I was confused because it wasn't supposed to sit there 😅 So I grabbed it back to the floor then stroked its head. Shortly afterward, an officer called me to retrieve documents from the officer's desk, which was about five meters from where I was sitting. I left the cat for a few minutes. When I returned, it had disappeared.

Brief encounter with tuxedo cat made me happy. This simple thing brought me joy 😊

I forgot to took a photo of it so I use Gemini AI to generate picture of a tuxedo cat.