My daughter Amber Marie Lee often complains to me how hard tennis practice is, but I tell her life itself is hard, full of ups and downs, and often times we are faced with very difficult decisions to make. When I was a teenager, my parents made a very difficult choice sending me to boarding school in the USA in light of the tension between the Chinese and the British over the Joint Declaration talks. In a few years, the Tiannaman Massacre fully justified that decision. Yet, the growth of the Chinese economic engine in the last two decades have led many of us to return to Hong Kong thinking our beloved place will be OK after all. Fast forward to March 2014, I decided to leave my beloved Hong Kong for a second time so that my kids can escape from a suffocating education system, air pollution, unsafe food, runaway real estate prices, etc. The downside is that I would leave behind many friendships I have built over the years, wonderful parents in their early seventies, and a successful tennis school I have built that has helped many children. At that time, I could not know if I have made the right decision, but the events in the last two days convinced me I am just as right as my parents were 28 years ago. Today as I sat and cheered on Ambers every shot in her first major Sectional championship in Northern California, I was thinking that if we were to stay in Hong Kong, in five years time my daughter would be one of the many thousands of students sitting in protest in Central or Causeway Bay over the next delay tactic by the Beijing central government to grant democracy to people in Hong Kong. In that scenario, I know my daugther will be in pain after being attacked by tear gas, and my wife and I will be suffering from emotional pain. As my mind wandered back to the present, I watched Amber missed easy shots after shots in the final set and let the title slip from her hands. For one minute, I was pulling my hair and wondering how come she does not have half of my mental strength in tennis. But immediately after that, I was praying to God and thank Him for all the wonderful things He has given me as well as the wisdom he has granted to let me know things I can change and those I cannot. As the sun set on a gorgeous beautiful Northern California day, I gave Amber a big daddys hug and we slowly trotted back to our minivan for our 2 hour journey home with our second place trophy. That championship trophy will just have to wait for another time, For the meantime, Amber should count on her blessings for the hardest thing in her life thus far is to chase after flying yellow fluffy targets named Wilson or Penn.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 05:54:47 +0000
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