Before I start this article, I want to say something from my heart. I never thought that if I, a person with average reading, wrote an article with heart and courage, some people would give me a certain degree of appreciation (money is involved) after reading it. I was really scared inside and felt that I didn’t deserve everyone’s love. Thanks to these people who support me, I will continue to take time to write some things that most people dare not say because they are afraid of other factors. All content will be true. Thank you!

I think memory is a good thing. From time to time, in the dead of night, I will think of things that happened many years ago. The greatest help that my past life has given me is that it allowed me to lower the level of happiness to a level that I can accept. A round-trip ticket for me to return to my country may be the sum of my salary for the past three or four months. The first thing to make sure is that I cannot go back to the past, and I don’t want to go back to the past.

In 2008, my first formal job was actually as a teacher in an English training institution. To put it bluntly, my level was limited. At that time, I was working as a children’s English training teacher. Regarding work, I went to several companies for interviews on my own before one company was willing to officially accept me. Before that, another company offered to hire me, and I entered a probationary period. As a result, I was going to attend the Shanghai World Expo at that time, and the company was very dissatisfied that I asked for leave not long after I started working. Later, something happened that I thought was extremely weird, so I left the school. So naturally, I got my first official job. The workplace is in Taiyuan, Shanxi, but the substitute teaching location is in a small town surrounding another city. Before a new teacher officially takes over a class, he or she needs to have two weeks of trial lessons with the teacher who has been working there for a long time. The substitute teaching location assigned to me at that time was a small place called Malan Town. In order to facilitate everyone's understanding of this place, here is an introduction. Malan Town is a township-level administrative unit under the jurisdiction of Gujiao City, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, the People's Republic of China. Yes, this is the only decent introduction on the Internet, which fully shows how little-known this place is.

The basic salary is 600 yuan, and the substitute teaching fee is 50 yuan per class. There are two classes a week, so after one month it will be 1,000 yuan. This is actually official income. Each trip fee is 70 yuan, including accommodation, train and car costs. The 1,180 yuan I mentioned at the beginning was actually saved. I only spend 100 yuan per month on travel expenses of 280 yuan. That’s the price of taking 8 trains and 8 buses. For short distances, the green car takes a little more time, but in terms of funds, it really only costs a few dollars. At that time, I would comfort myself by maximizing my own interests. For example, my original income was only 1,000 yuan, but I subconsciously told myself that in the end it was actually 1,180 yuan.

Let me briefly talk about how I survived with this 1,180 yuan. The rent is 800 yuan, leaving only 380 yuan a month. A bowl of noodles costs 4-5 yuan, which is often one or two meals a day. I remember when I went to Malan Town, there was a noodle shop there called Malan Ramen. At that time, I inexplicably thought of Malan Town as that Malan, and it felt so delicious when I ate the noodles. Substitute teaching is on weekends, I go there on Friday night and come back on Sunday night. You may wonder why I can save travel expenses to the extent that I don’t need accommodation. In fact, I originally had 40 yuan to stay in a hotel for two days. I remembered that there were local hotels for 20 yuan, so the travel expenses were also calculated accordingly. But I found a table in the classroom and fell asleep every night. I have never forgotten the pain I felt at that time. Later, after changing jobs, my salary increased to 2,280 yuan, and the rent dropped to 600 yuan. It was still a two-bedroom apartment. Although it was very remote, it felt like a home.

Going back to that time, before taking the train on Sunday, I had some time to go to the small market in Malan Town. I remember that the biscuits sold there were particularly delicious. You can buy a small bag for two yuan and eat some biscuits while riding in the car or train. It tastes really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a smartphone at that time, and I didn’t have any images left. But the memory is very vivid, it was a very beautiful town. The entire town is supported by a nearby factory. I remember a home visit where I went to a student’s home to wait for the student’s parents to come back.

I saw that the decoration of their home was very good, and I felt that there was such a wealthy family in this small town. It made me feel that this family lived in a paradise-like place. It was a wonderful feeling. The parents of their children can tell from their speech and behavior that their quality is very high. What made me more gratified at that time was that the parents also respected the teachers who came out of training schools like ours. In fact, our social atmosphere was quite good at that time, and the respect between people was much better than it is now. Later, maybe everyone became richer and richer, or it was not as difficult to make money as it was back then, so the character of cherishing some things became weaker and weaker.

It was almost 8pm when I took the train to Taiyuan on Sunday and returned home from the train station. I had a meal with friends when I had time, but there was nothing I could do if I didn’t. I remember that I was very good at saving money at that time. If I could take a bus for less than 1 yuan from the train station, I would be very willing to walk back. I've done this many times, and yes, in 2008 I was willing to spend 40 minutes walking (with a bag on my back) just to save a dollar.

In fact, what I want to say in writing this article is that I have come through step by step from a very impoverished situation. So now it has maintained a lot of the simplicity of the past, so from time to time I feel that it is quite expensive every time I eat out. Although there is a big gap in income now compared to back then, to be honest, people who have had the same experience will understand each other.

Many people may have been doing the same job for more than ten years in a row. Several colleagues I knew back then are still doing the same job they did back then. The salary has increased from 3,000 that year to about 4,800 now. But in this era of skyrocketing prices, I feel that I am very lucky. I don’t know what your current income is or what kind of life you live. In fact, I really want to know some of your information. If you can share it, please don’t be stingy with your keyboard.

# Mickeywalkers# is a person who is willing to make friends and is also a warm person. I write articles and everyone can read them for free. If you seem to have learned something through my articles, this is the happiest thing for me.