"Fate has knocked me down, but it can never defeat me. So what about you, young man, are you going to stop here?" The text is from a short video posted by Mo Mingyong, a doctoral student at Tsinghua University. In the video, Mo Mingyong, wearing a takeaway suit and holding a student ID, stands at the gate of Qinghua Garden, his face brimming with youth.
After the video was released, it received more than 1.85 million of likes in a short period of time. Some netizens praised him for using his actions to interpret "self-improvement and good virtue". However, some people accused him of earning traffic in sad-fishing.
Mo Mingyong had to respond to this, and a period of ups and downs in his life was revealed. It turned out that the delivery of food took place before he was admitted to the doctorate. Due to the millions of yuan in debt after the failure of his business, Mo Mingyong registered as a delivery rider at the end of 2021 to collect tuition fees and ease financial difficulties.
"It wasn’t the people from Tsinghua who went to deliver food, but the people who delivered food went to Tsinghua." As Mo Mingyong repeatedly emphasized, the focus of this story should be why he delivered food, not the label of academic qualifications. Most people didn’t have time to understand the truth, and based on the combination of "academic qualifications + takeaway", they sensitively questioned or even accused him of wasting academic qualifications and making a sad-fishing show. This is not a distinction between three, six and nine in their hearts.
In fact, Mo Mingyong not only has a PhD from Tsinghua University, but also graduated from the London School of Economics. During difficult times, he not only delivered food, but also sold English classes online.
It should be seen that food delivery is a way for this young man who failed to start a business to get through the low point of life. When encountering difficulties, he was not discouraged or evaded. With his ability and perseverance, he tried his best to fulfill the contract and repay the debt, but still did not give up improving his education. What shines in this story is Mo Mingyong’s inspirational attitude towards life.
This attitude is not uncommon among young people.
Zhengzhou, Henan, 26-year-old Gao Shuaiqi encountered his family’s illness during the postgraduate entrance examination. In order to support his family’s burden and his own dreams, he reviewed while delivering takeout, and finally received the postgraduate admission letter; Lishui, Zhejiang, 18-year-old girl Xu Zhuoyu took the part-time delivery after the college entrance examination. She realized the hard work of making money, and bluntly said that she had become "stingy" when she became black…
For the protagonists in these "education + takeaway" stories, in addition to earning financial income, takeaway delivery also has more personal color: some people use it as a spiritual support, some use it as a "life-saving straw", and some use it as a labor experience… Their goals and starting points may be different, but it should be noted that this does not mean that they have no other options, let alone that they are wasting their academic qualifications in this position.
Delivering food is nothing more than a job. To be able to do this job well, to be recognized by others, and to experience the happiness and solidity brought by labor, is it not a kind of harvest? Even if you switch to other industries in the future, is the past experience not a kind of precipitation of life and spiritual nourishment? In this sense, education is not a limiting shackle or a dazzling label, but a key to help them open their horizons and experience life.
Those who blame highly educated front-line workers for wasting their academic qualifications and making a sad-fishing show can rest easy.
关于作者