Before entering middle school, I had already dreamed of learning English because of the inspiration I got from TV. I imitated the way people on TV spoke English, although I was just talking nonsense. After learning English in middle school and senior high school, I had stored a few thousand English words in my brain. Before I entered college, I had already learned about some of the best English sources for us students, including the BBC, CRI (China Radio International) and China Daily. I tried to listen to the BBC and CRI but I failed because I didn't have a highly sensitive radio, and I had never read a piece of news from China Daily. But the stories that followed were beyond my initial dreams.

College life

Before starting college life, I had heard news pieces saying that the non-governmental university, Xi'an Fanyi University, that I was hoping to study at was a place where I could hear and see English each and every day if I enrolled, which meant everywhere you went on the campus there were traces of English. It was indeed so in the beginning and lasted for the four years I was there. One of the most important places where I studied on campus the book booth, where everyone could buy English newspapers and magazines, including China Daily, Global Times, English Digest and so on. No doubt, my favorite was China Daily (I am not lying to flatter the paper), for I thought it was the most authoritative. I firmly believed I could learn lots of words, phrases, translation skills, news stories and even amazing knowledge by reading it. Yes, I learned many new words, phrases and expressions from it!

In my school (we call it the Western Campus, or Foreign Language College - it should be School not College), many English learners read the print edition of the newspaper every day and picked up and learned many words and expressions by heart. At night when we went to the English corner, we even showed off the difficult words we learned with one another while chatting in English. It was an extraordinary feeling when you used some "big words", such as "turbulence", "Iraq war", "Vladimir Putin", "recession", "ballistic missile" and so on, to voice your opinion, even you would easily forget what you were talking about. Also, I met my beloved one there, who also read China Daily quite frequently and even wrote down notes on it, and we shared some of the things we learned after reading it. Once I heard someone say he found mistakes in China Daily and I thought it was true, but I realized I might have been wrong after I had learned some ways of writing English news a few years later. Admittedly, there are mistakes in it but such mistakes can appear in any news media. For example, once I was reading one piece on the BBC online and surprisingly, I found a spelling mistake.

However, to be honest, when I was reading China Daily, I saw many news words I would never remember at all, especially when I read articles written by China Daily's columnists, who wrote profoundly but tediously for us students at that time. But when I accidentally learned some difficult new words, I was still eager to show them off in front of my peers although I knew they were quite useless for us students. Sometimes when I wanted to prove I had a large English vocabulary and good grammar, I encouraged myself to read every long and difficult article in it. Finally I realized it was not wise to read such articles. Reading articles that are not too difficult for you and are interesting is surely more meaningful for an English learner who either wants to garner more new words or hopes to enrich his understanding about our world. Surely many articles in China Daily can be your choices, such as travel, Chinese culture, entertainment or sports.

After graduation

The four-years at college flashed past, and I finally entered the real world, which many people think is harsh, bloody and merciless. Some of the pictures of the real world are really like that, but not all. After graduation, I worked in Xi'an for two years as an English editor working for an English commercial website that sold language learning software online. Most of my peers began throwing away books and English, but I decided to keep up the habit of learning English. Although I couldn't't study as hard as I once did at school, I picked up China Daily to read when I could, and sometimes online. In fact, I also read other English news and watched many other original English programs; I never dropped the habit of reading the news in this paper. After working for two years in Xi'an, I wrongly thought my English had improved a lot and would be able to work as a journalist at China Daily (I believe many English learners in China have such a dream), and I came to Beijing from Xi'an mainly for this reason.

No doubt, I went through one of the most terrible shocks in my life. I nervously submitted my resume to the paper and I received no response. Then, I learned the harsh side of our world and my real condition, and I eventually entered (Q: what does 'entered' mean here? Should this be "…I eventually started working for a search engine company …"?) one search engine company which needed an English editor. The amusing fact is I had generated a strong sense of hatred toward China Daily because I was refused, and this hatred lasted for a long time before I persuaded myself that I was not qualified to become an English language journalist. During that time I refused to read it and considered everything in it not worth reading.

Change is the law of our world, and my world changed too. I went to another company to work as an English editor, but my dream of becoming a journalist at the paper never wavered. In fact, I was quite passionate about learning English but I learned being an English journalist or even a qualified editor takes so much hard work and I wasn't qualified. (Note: This is what I think is being said here) Yeah, naive boy that time! My dream of becoming a glorious journalist at China Daily failed, but my life as an English editor for an official Beijing tourism website began. I loved my job and did it well if not brilliantly. My American and British colleagues helped me a lot by proofreading my translated and written articles. Indeed, I was quite pleased at that time. Gradually the dream of becoming a journalist at China Daily weakened, but writing outstanding works appeared in my mind. Although I had already written lots of articles and stories in English, they weren't published or even read online.

Blog writing

By chance, once I was reading China Daily's online version and I suddenly noticed an ad that read Chinese youths who loved English could participate in a blog writing contest to win prizes. I still wasn't sure whether I could do it, but finally I was in it. It was the early summer of 2014. At that time I had no clear views toward blog writing but I just wrote what I thought was meaningful. At least what I wrote entertained myself at first. My first blog post was about the Bible. I shared some of my views about religion and about 30 people read my article during the first day. I was pleased since online readers read my humble work, and even a foreign friend commented and shared his views. In actuality, that article was not very good from today's point of view. As for the purpose of joining this contest, I have to tell the truth. I aimed not at the prizes, but I thought this might have a good chance to prove myself as someone who could write regularly for the paper.

I kept writing regularly, as required for each participant. I did share lots of ideas about life, nature and even Buddhist philosophy, which I appreciate so much as I consider myself a Buddhist follower now, although I don't burn incense or murmur Buddhist sutras. At the beginning of the contest, my writing level was still very low. However, after writing for a few weeks, I realized my style had gradually formed automatically, or naturally. Indeed, I also kept reading China Daily's news and other English book,s including the English version of Harry Potter. I hold a view that reading novels can help you write more specifically and vividly. That's one of the magical rules of writing. With my writing skills improved, I became even more satisfied, even when I was bombarded by terrible changes of life. I never anticipated I could be one of the winners among all the bloggers, but luckily I won third prize.

This prize gave me more drive to write more interesting and meaningful articles, but the story didn't end happily like this. I had some life changes and sometimes I didn't even want to write anything, even though I had something great to write about. A few months ago, I fell into my trough and I was tired of writing anything. Fortunately, I recovered and now I'vebegin writing again, with passion.

Reading on

Now I don't read the print version of China Daily, but I read its online version every day. As an English editor, I need to acquire large amounts of information daily. China Daily reports lots of good stories about China and the world, so I read it and learn from it. I will continuously read its stories and write on this blog platform. That's probably my destiny.