Jiang Zhixin was my first pen pal from a magazine in the early 1980s. Although I haven't met him yet, I know from the photos and letters he sent me at that time that he is older than me. He is a handsome boy in Huangshi, Hubei. After graduating from high school, he took over his father's job and worked as a lathe worker in a machinery factory in Huangshi.
Height 1.7 meters. He likes sports and writing as much as I do. The photos he sent me were all sportswear. His pen handwriting is very calligrapher's style, and the atmosphere is pleasing to the eye. Every time I read his letter, I feel like enjoying a calligraphy work, and I am particularly impressed by him.
I met Jiang Zhixin because of Wish You Success magazine. At that time, reform and opening up had just begun. Under the spring breeze of reform and opening up, young people not only have a strong thirst for knowledge, but also have a strong demand for making friends and communicating. Some newspapers, especially some magazines that young people like, often publish some advertisements for friends at the bottom of each page, or set aside special pages.
Most dating advertisements are free, and the content of the advertisements is very simple, that is, the name, hobbies and requirements of friends, mailing address and postal code, generally no more than 50 words.
It was after I saw Jiang Zhixin's friend-making advertisement in "I wish you success" magazine that I saw that he also likes running, basketball and other sports, engaged in mechanical processing, and especially likes writing. At that time, I just started to learn news writing, and I felt that we had the same interests, so I took the initiative to write to him with curiosity.
I introduced my basic situation in the letter, saying that I am a mechanical engineering major and I like sports. I insist on long-distance running every day and often play basketball and table tennis. I study news writing, and there have been some small articles in the news media. I am very willing to make friends with him, and I hope to study and make progress with him.
But at that time, the communication was very backward and the mail delivery speed was very slow. I sent him my first letter, but I didn't receive his reply after half a month. I was uneasy and thought that he didn't receive my letter or wouldn't reply.
About 20 days later, when I was about to write a second letter to him, I finally received his reply. It turns out that he, like me, lives in the countryside and just returned to his hometown for a holiday in those days, so he didn't receive my letter in time and wanted to apologize inside.
Since then, we have been writing to each other, and each of us has to write at least two letters every month. In the letter, we talked about everything, not only our ideals and life, but also our work experience and sports experience, but the content of writing was the most talked about.
In his letters to me, he often recommends me good books or articles he has read, shares his reading experience with me, and sometimes even sends me a copy of his reading notes or experiences in his letters.
At that time, it was very difficult to publish a manuscript in newspapers and periodicals, especially for literary lovers who were beginners in writing. When his poems and essays are published in newspapers and periodicals, he will send me a sample newspaper or sample magazine to enjoy, so that I can share with him the joy after the manuscript is published.
I am also glad to see that his manuscript has been adopted. Every time I receive the news that his manuscript has been adopted, I will write back to congratulate and encourage him in time, and I will send him some stamps from time to time to contribute. Sometimes I will show it to my colleagues specially, saying that this essay or poem written by a friend has been adopted, which makes my colleagues envious.
His words can be adopted by newspapers and periodicals, which constantly inspires me to contribute to newspapers, radio stations and television stations, from county radio stations to municipal newspapers, radio stations and television stations, to provincial newspapers, radio stations and television stations, and then to national newspapers and periodicals.
Many of my manuscripts were also sent to him, asking him to make suggestions for revision so as to improve them in the future. Every time, he took pains to revise or put forward suggestions for me to help me improve the quality of news articles. According to his suggestion, I revised several articles and supplemented new contribution materials, which were later adopted by higher-level news media.
About two years after our first correspondence, when we talked about academic qualifications, we all agreed that our academic qualifications were low. Whether we can adapt to the needs of social development in the future, we should enrich our knowledge and improve our academic qualifications through self-study or other means. So we applied for the self-study exam on the spot, and both of them applied for Chinese language and literature.
Because we are all amateur self-study, in order to spend more time studying, the frequency of communication between us later decreased, but the content of communication expanded from writing to the study of Chinese language and literature, and we also consulted each other when we encountered difficulties in learning.
Unfortunately, in the first two exams, he may have failed in four subjects because of his poor foundation, and lost confidence in both exams. Although I encouraged him again and again and expressed my willingness to help him, he finally gave up the self-taught exam.
I took two self-taught exams, passed two courses, was recommended by my unit to take the adult college entrance examination, and was admitted to a full-time adult college. When I told him that I was admitted to the adult college entrance examination, he wrote to congratulate me and encourage me, but after I went to school, I wrote him several letters without replying, and for some reason, because of the pressure of study, I didn't contact him again.
In a blink of an eye, I have lost contact with Jiang Zhixin for more than 30 years, and I don't know how he is now. I often think of him. I wanted to write to him again a few years ago, but I couldn't find his mailing address because I moved many times. Later, I tried to find the machinery factory where he used to work through the information desk of the telecommunications department, but after more than 30 years, the original factory has long since been restructured and does not exist, so I can't contact him.
This class attended the training of writing camp, and the teacher asked us to write a theme article about our literary friends, which reminded me of him. Jiang Zhixin, who has not met for more than 30 years but has been spreading for four or five years, remembered our youthful and ambitious times at that time.
I think, if he still loves literature and can read my articles in the newspaper, we must be destined to be simple friends and continue the pen pal relationship more than 30 years ago. I firmly believe that with this good platform and the help of enthusiastic and simple friends, we may be able to get in touch again. I look forward to the good news and the return of my pen pal Jiang Zhixin!