Why doctors and chefs are similar, or, thoughts from my students

I have my writing students do 10-minutes "speedwrites" (journalling, essentially) on a regular basis.  I learn some interesting things from them.

One of my girls, in response to a prompt about pressure (since Chinese students face unbelievable amounts of pressure!), wrote this:

Pressure is annoying I think.  I don’t like to follow others’ words to do anything.  But our society is putting more and more pressure on us students.  I tried to struggle, but the pressure is so strong, everyone has to give in.  So I follow the teachers and parents’ words, entering the DLUT. It’s painful to keep a dream in heart in this society, and it’s even more painful to pick up the dream which has been thrown away.  To be myself.  The thought of “to be myself” was destroyed just a moment after it comes out.  Everyone in university is the same production with different clothes.  To be yourself, to realize your dream, is very amusing to those teachers and parents.  I used to be longing for be an archeologist for a long time.  But everyone told me I should give up, I should go to university.  So I’m sitting here, majoring in civil engineering which I don’t really like.  Or in other words, I don’t know what is I really like now.  My life has been ruled by teachers, by parents, by the society... It’s meaningless, I think.

My heart goes out to her...and the countless other students who haven't been as privileged as I have, who haven't been able to choose their own path.

On a lighter note, in response to the prompt "When I was young, I wanted to be a...", another student wrote:

When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor.  At that time, I thought making operations are really interesting. Using knives and scissors would be a great thing.  Because when I was young, my parents didn’t allow me to touch things like that.  They were afraid of hurting me.  I thought doctors were redicular jobs.  They can cure disease.  They could make a person stand up who lied on the bed every day.  I always wondered if doctors had magic.  So I planned to be a doctor to find out the fact.  Also I had ever wanted to be a chef. Because I would be happy if I could eat different kinds of food.  And I thought making meals was the same as making operations.  They both use knives and some interesting tools.

Ah, the manias that can result from a sheltered childhood. I'm glad I had my own pocketknife in elementary school - got it out of my system!