The writers for the lyrics of FCSN’s 25th Anniversary Song “Friends With Dreams” have said that they have taken inspiration from this article. This article was originally published in the 2015 January edition of Dream Builders.

Written by Sufen Wu, Translated by Maria Kung

Originally he was living happily in a “star” and then accidentally slipped into our world. Not as a “normal” baby, he was born premature and with his mother hemorrhaging, he thinks of them as almost swapping their places.

Ever since landing on the world, he always set his gaze upon the lights in the air from his journey. He often tried to find the familiar lights in this strange environment; especially since the shimmering lights will perk him up. Apart from his memory of the different kinds of lights from the star, music is also his awakening. Every time he listened to a musical note, it would divert his attention from the shining lights to the notes from his homeland. He will smile happily every time his mom sings, he smiled not because of his mom, but because of the music, and when he caught his mom’s smiling face in the corner of his eye, the music would melt his heart.

He has been floating in this world, like seeing through water, everything moving and shining. He cannot escape from the music and shimmering lights. His eyes see numerous heads, legs, and clothing. The eyes, noses and mouths, like tiny fishes swimming in the water, do not matter much to him anymore. All he recognized was his mom’s eyes; he would always search for them when in need.

This world to him is unfamiliar and unsettling. To him, it does not matter much as he is still in search of the memories from the stars. He knocked over the tricycle, vigorously spinning the wheel, or he might spin the plastic bowl with his finger, then he will squint his eyes to enjoy the rhythm of the spin. He loves to play with the light switch, up the switch makes light, down is dark, this on and off switch will never change and it is predictable. When he grows older, he explored further the attraction of this world, all his favorite colors were found in the traffic lights. These lights keep changing and they are everywhere. That is why riding in the car is his favorite pastime. He happily indulges himself in the world he creates for himself, without noticing a disturbance in his mom’s serene look in her eyes.

The time when he does notice his mom’s face is feeding time. Mom was in front of him with a little spoon, like a little bridge connecting the eyes of both, and he had nowhere to escape. Every time he opens his mouth for the food, he heard his mom say “Ah, M…” encouraging him to eat. He did not take any notice of those words in the beginning; those words did become meaningful to him as time went on. Eventually one day he stared at the eyes on the other side of the little bridge and said “M… Ah… Ma.” Mom’s eyes grew larger, then smaller, then teary. “Mama” was his first sentence, he was four that year.

Eventually, he noticed that the wings on his back have gradually disappeared. He cannot wander into space any more. What follows was the appearance of many faces, all smiling faces, but he did not enjoy seeing them. He would even burst out crying when he saw some of the faces. These faces, once in the door would say to him “come here”, “sit down”, “good job, or “what is it?” He began to feel that he was an angel that can no longer fly. Gradually he began to pay attention to this unfamiliar world, learning that object was a microwave, this was Michael, this is a boy, that is a girl. Learning to him was painful but one could can see the sparkle in his eyes when he was commended on what he has learned.

He would never forget his first piano performance. The loud applause for his performance, together with the numerous eyes and the smiling faces, instilled a heartwarming current in him, making him laugh to his heart’s content. It was satisfying to be praised; this was another feeling of being on Cloud From then onwards, learning was less painful to him, he would enjoy the praise of his teacher, the hugs from his mom, the tickling from his sister, cycling with his dad in the park, and riding with his sister to Berkeley were his source of happiness.

One day he secretly put his wings back on in an attempt to go back to his “star world”. When he was half way up in the sky, he noticed he could not fly any higher. Looking down, apart from seeing his parents and sister, he also saw the teachers and his classmates, he also saw Ms. Su, the piano teacher, Ms. Tang, the Chinese teacher, Margaret, the gymnastic teacher, Debbie, the one who played the cello, Cindy in his drawing class, all their hands were tied to a thread, and they were smiling at him. The other end of the thread was tied to his sleeve. He looked up to the Star, his homeland was moving away, he looked down and saw these warm smiling faces, he thought of the applause he received after his performance. He thought of the “Good job” sign language his friends made to him, thought of the soft embrace of his mom’s cuddling, and thought of putting his cold feet in his mom’s warm thighs…. Folding up his wings, silently saying goodbye to the star, he let himself fell as a light feather…into his mom’s embrace.”