Jun Li
English 110
Instructor Kathy
Jan 29th
A Minor Story
Throughout my entire life there have been many things and people who have shaped me, but nothing as much as my best friend Lin, my music teacher. He taught me a life’s worth of lessons in the very short seven years I knew him. I have never met someone as compassionate or caring to others.
When I first met Lin, he had long black hair and two alluring eyes. He wore a black suit. He was a handsome man and always generous. I met Lin because my parents decided that I should play the piano. They wanted me to take an interest in music. They thought that a man who could play music instruments would be impressive. I still remember the first time my mother took me to music class. When I entered the room, he smiled at me. We started chatting with each other. He seemed like a gentleman to me.
As time went by, I gradually learned about Lin’s life. He used to work at a university as a piano teacher, and he had a beautiful wife with two children. But things don’t always go the way they are planned. His children died in an accident. After that he totally changed. He couldn’t forgive himself and still felt guilty because he thought that his children’s deaths were his fault. On that fateful day he let his children go to the store to buy a snake. On their way there, they were hit and killed by a car.
He started to smoke and drink. He divorced with his wife and resigned from the university. For that time on, he was an alcoholic. His life was at an all-time low.
In John Edgar Wideman’s Our Time, Wideman must describe a similar situation as the one that his happening in my narrative. In this passage, Robby best friend just died. It is very challenging to really encapsulate the true depth of the feelings of those who lose a loved one. I imagine that Wideman may have used the same technique that I did to describe this situation. I tried to think back and remember when Lin died. Then I simply tried to...