In the corner surrounded by mountains, there is a girl named Cortana, who grew up in a quiet and impoverished mountain village. As a child, Cortana had a deep love for books despite her poor family. She believed that there was a fate-changing magic hidden in those yellowed pages, so she interpreted her diligence and intelligence with excellent grades in elementary school.
In junior high school, Cortana understood the power of knowledge, and she saw her education as the only way out of her predicament, and that dedication kept her grades at the top. Although their parents are struggling, they understand the importance of education and are determined to pave the way for Cortana's dream.
In high school, the pressure of fierce competition is like a mountain, and the students are all elites in various towns and villages, and no matter how hard Xiao Na tries, she can only barely squeeze into the door of an ordinary junior college.
College life is fleeting, and graduation coincides with the expansion of college enrollment, and Cortana, who is full of expectations to graduate from college and spread her wings, has encountered a harsh winter in the job market. With mediocre education and ordinary appearance, Cortana seems so insignificant in the vast talent market. The girl who hoped to change her fate with reading still lost to reality! In the end, she could only choose an ordinary job, lived an ordinary life, and even carried a heavy mortgage burden in order to have a home of her own in a small city. Life is full of fireworks in the world, calculating firewood, rice, oil and salt every day, only in dreams can there be poetry and distance!
Seeing that her former friends who didn't go to school seemed to be living more freely, Cortana couldn't help but fall into confusion and self-doubt. When she urged her child to study, the child said, "Aren't you also a part-time job after you go to college?" The job is not good, and the salary is not high" like a sharp knife, stabbing her heart.
However, Cortana's story is not a story of isolation, it reflects the difficulties and struggles of many people in the pursuit of knowledge. Although Cortana's reading process did not immediately lead to a leap in material life, she overlooked a crucial fact: the value of reading is not only reflected in professional achievement. The books she had read and the knowledge she had absorbed had invisibly shaped her temperament, improved her conversation, and broadened her mind. They lurk in the bits and pieces of her daily life, influencing the way she approaches the world and her role in family and society.
Cortana's confusion is actually a reflection on the utilitarianism of education in modern society. The meaning of reading is not only to find a glamorous job, but also to inner growth and cultivation, and to enrich and sublimate the spiritual world.
Although Cortana's life has not changed significantly on the surface, those deep-rooted wisdom and cultivation are quietly demonstrated in her words and deeds, in her tenacity and courage in the face of challenges, and in the process of teaching her children. Perhaps, reading a book cannot be immediately exchanged for real wealth, but it does leave an indelible mark on the depths of a person's soul, and that is where the value cannot be measured by money.
As the famous writer Sanmao said: "If you read more, your face will naturally change." Although this change is not subtle, it is real in the texture of each person's life, and it has become an eternal spiritual force.