Character Sketch

The Best Enemy

Had you ever have a friend who you hang out with since childhood? A friend who loves you but hates you at the same time? I met Jin when I was in kindergarten. Until the day I came to Canada, we were best friends and enemies. Just like Dunny Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton, we love each other, but we compete with each other as well.

I could not remember the exact day and location of where I met her. The only thing I know was that I was friend with her from the earliest I had when I was young. When we were still in kindergarten, we competed with all things; who will be the first one to finish the milk, who come back from the toilet the fastest, and whose father or mother is better. There were pictures taken from a time which I had lost a competition and crying to my parents that Jin bullied me. I still remember the last day of kindergarten; we hugged and cried that we did not want to leave each other. We cried to our parents to let us stay in kindergarten forever and promised we would never compete again. "...the fact that I did not love them did not prevent me from liking them very much." (Davies, p.107) At that time, we did not know that there was only one elementary school in our village. So we met again in elementary school and we were in the same class throughout the six years. We competed with our marks on every subject. I was better in Chinese and Math. She was better in English and Gym. Art was the weak point for both of us. We always laugh at each other’s drawing after the art class.

I had a bad temper back then. My mother went to Canada when I was in Grade.3 and my father was busy all the time. The fact that no one taking cares me might have giving me the selfishness and cockiness. I got mad on very little things. I remember one time when I was playing hide and seek with Jin, I got mad because I could not find her. I locked the door of the room and went out to buy some snacks. When I came back, I didn't hear a sound from the room, I was scared. I quickly opened the door and saw Jin lay down on the floor. I cried, I thought Jin was dead, but actually Jin was just sleeping because she was bored in the room. After that “accident”, I started to change. I started to listen to other people’s opinions, especially Jin’s. I began to realize that no one was meant for you to tease. People who didn't make a sound for your humiliation were the ones that wanted to be good to you, and you should not be bad to this kind of people. "I had seen a good deal of egotism in my life, and I know that it starved love for anyone else and sometimes burned it out completely."(Davies, p.207)

Last time we cried together was in the airport. I was moving to Canada and she was moving to downtown for her new school. We promised we would never forget each other and we would be best friends forever. “Don’t get lazy when you get there because there was no Jin to compete with you.” She said with a crying tone. It concluded my eleven years living in China and I would never forget this line for the rest of my life.