During the holiday weekend, he called me to ask for help with a website. He spoke a lot, which isn’t typical for an American. At first, I thought he was just casually exploring options and didn’t expect it to turn into a real business. However, he surprised me by calling again the next day and paying the deposit, indicating his serious intent. I started working for him.
Throughout our lengthy conversations, I found him to be an intriguing and unique individual. He shared a photo for the website, taken at least 20 years ago, and the youthful energy captured in the picture touched me. On the website, he wrote, “We want to fight with our last effort: for a youth which our generation has failed.”
Despite never meeting him in person, I learned that he faces health challenges, financial constraints, and lacks a job and family. Yet, he’s an accomplished novelist, possesses a beautiful singing voice, and exudes kindness and generosity. He loves life passionately and lives without inhibitions. As someone like me, who often feels confined by societal norms and restrictions, it’s easy to be drawn to his qualities that I lack. He truly embodies the essence of being “unrestrained” or “wild and free.”
As George Bernard Shaw famously said, “Youth is wasted on the young,” but I say, “why not embrace it fully?” In this brief and transient life, youth should sparkle like stars in the dark night sky. It’s worth dedicating a lifetime to cherish and savor every fleeting moment of beauty. When the time comes for us to waste it, then let’s do it. Instead of a normal stable life, I want to live wild and free.
Certainly, I transformed his photo into an oil painting.
