Just A Random Day

It is just a very random day in Urumqi.

7 months is not a very long time in someone’s life, but the 7 months being here has changed everything about me.

The most important thing is clear to me now that the version of me who has been living so far came from here. This very room.

Though it is not the same apartment I’ve lived with mother since I was 8, but how it shaped me is the same logic.

The old apartment, I remember, was not a big one. It was old but mother did a good job on the decoration.

I still remember the shape of that place, the dinning table right in front of the entrance, the old style Chinese kitchen on the left, a corridor ahead, a living room on the front side and my bedroom is on the left side of the corridor - a tiny bed room. It is a bedroom segregated from a bigger bedroom, mother’s room is on the other side of the installed wall.

I lived there from 4 to 18 years old and it was everything I used to know about what home was.

The silence, the random tinkling of the kitchen appliances and the foot steps.

It is surprising how similar it is Now versus Then. However, I am sitting here as a completely different person.

There is a sparkle of joy knowing I will be leaving this place soon, but it’s saddening, knowing this is a home I can never stay.

It is just a random day in Urumqi, a bit cloudy but it is still a warm summer day.

August 2026

Urumqi