Contemplate Being a Child on This International Children’s Day

Being a child means something very different from one corner of the Earth to another. Some have to help their parents with chores the moment they start to walk and talk. They toddle as they feed their chickens, pick vegetables with their baby fingers, or sweep yards with broomsticks taller than themselves. Their tasks only grow with their age.

To this day, going to school or playing with toys is only a distant dream for many – one that will never come true – while for others, having dolls, bicycles, and an education is just an ordinary part of growing up. For me and my three sisters, childhood fell somewhere in between, for in spite of our hard lives, we all had an opportunity to go to school.

It was the 1960s in Shanghai, China. We shared our one-and-only doll and played with it until it was threadbare. My mother often had to sew its disjointed body parts together because we had bestowed too much affection upon it. By the time we entered elementary school, we learned to do our own laundry with a tub and washboard, and we sneaked into parks and onto neighbor’s lawns to collect grass and other edibles for our backyard chickens.

Our lives were often a struggle as we coped with half-empty stomachs and worn-out clothes. We shivered in the Winter cold and when the Summer heat was too intense to bear, we slept on our cool concrete floor. We often worried where our next meal was coming from and whether our father, who was unfairly locked up as an “anti-Cultural Revolution” reactionary, was still alive.

Life’s cruel challenges forced us to grow up fast. In some ways, the only time we could truly be children was when we were in school. Sitting at my desk in front of a blackboard forced me to stop thinking about all my worries and focus on what the teachers were teaching.

Going to school and getting As made me feel happy and proud. I knew that the more I learned in class, the faster I could grow up and help my mother to shoulder more family responsibilities. And, as I moved up the grades, I knew that I was getting closer to being a real adult.

An education gives every child a chance in life, no matter who they are and where they are. I feel very lucky to have been given the gift of earning, without which, I could not have become who I am today. On this June 1, International Children’s Day, I want to dedicate my column to children all over the world.

If you want to get involved in changing a life through education, please check out local charities such as the Santa Monica Breakfast Club whose goal is to provide dental care for families in need whose children attend schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu School District. Or, on an international level, check out Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project at shantibhavanchildren.org

Reflection From The East Column

By Qin Stubis

You can always reach me at qstubis@gmail.com, or please visit me at QinSunStubis.com. You can find a copy of my book, Once Our Lives, online at Amazon.com